Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Question 458: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the heating system that has been chosen for installation in the fast-track schools currently under construction; the cost per school of installing the selected heating system; the projected cost of heating these schools using the selected form of heating; the estimated carbon emissions associated with the selected form of heating; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [25541/08]

Batt O'Keeffe (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

For the past nine years the Planning and Building Unit within my Department have been using a process called the DART approach to develop sustainability and energy efficiency in educational buildings. This acronym focuses on four key areas, namely; Design, Awareness, Research, and Technology. The policy is informed by the Building Unit Professional and Technical staff, driven by its technical guidance documents and updated by continued energy research and development.

Rather than develop a unique focus on energy design the Planning & Building Unit has taken a more holistic approach and has developed technical guidance on energy efficiency in school designs as an integral part of a suite of technical guidance documents, likewise the costs of all elements are included in the basic building costs for each project. These technical guidance documents are available on www.education.ie.

The output specification for the heating system in the above schools is the same as the specification used in all new school design.

It has been demonstrated that all Primary Schools designed and built in line with the above policy and the technical guidance documents can have an energy performance that is up to 2.3 times more efficient than International Best Practice with an associated reduction of 29,744.94 kg CO2 over the best practice figures for a typical 16 classroom school. This excellent energy efficiency will in turn reduce energy consumption by over 50% with energy costs reduced likewise.

The main heat source for the schools, where natural gas is available, is fully condensing, fully modulating boilers. These boilers are provided with direct boiler temperature modulation in order to maximise the boilers' efficiency. By providing direct boiler weather compensation, the water temperature within the boilers can be held within the boiler's condensing range for most of the heating season, without the need to oversize radiators. The use of direct boiler modulation also allows the removal of mixing valves from secondary circuits and generates a net cost saving. Where natural gas is not available oil fired boilers will be utilised.

In keeping with the low energy philosophy all heating pumps operate through electronic speed controllers.

Each teaching space and staff areas are controlled via two port motorised valves with digital thermostats with a range of 21 degrees Celsius +/- 3 degrees. These allow teachers to trim local temperature control within a temperature band.