IHEEM has fitted to the roof of its Portsmouth headquarters 20 solar panels – as part of a continuing programme of improvements to the building, a key element being to equip the premises with energyefficient equipment that will reduce carbon emissions.
CEO, Julian Amey, said: “IHEEM’s Council is committed to ensuring that the Institute acts as a beacon of good practice in managing its property assets, and in pursuing more sustainable practices generally. We have already reduced the number of face-to-face Committee meetings using conference calls and video conferencing. A baseline report on the Institute’s carbon emissions and footprint has been commissioned, to allow comparisons and monitor progress, the first stage of the project having been January’s installation of the solar PV panels.”
Further stages will include installing new emergency and general lighting, use of an air source heat pump, and reduction of office waste. The Institute is also working with Barts Health and other partners to promote NHS Sustainability Day on 27 March (see pages 35-37), and will provide updates on its energy efficiency and carbon reductions programme in future editions of HEJ.
The solar panels were installed on the south roof of IHEEM’s headquarters in a 5kWp peak system which connects into all three electrical phases that supply the building via a three-phase inverter. The installer, West Sussex-based South Coast Electrical & Renewables (SCER), emphasised that this configuration would enable greater electricity bill savings, because the building would both use more generated electricity, and have to pull in less from the grid.
SCER estimates the panels should provide a 4,004 kWh annual energy yield, an annual Feed in Tariff of £541, an export tariff of £93, and an estimated £300 reduction in the building’s yearly energy bill – a total estimated annual saving of £934. In all, the panels are expected to save 38 tonnes of CO2 over 20 years, and to generate 27 per cent of the building’s electricity consumption.
