Energy Now Expo          Telford, Shropshire          7-8 February 2018

Energy Now Expo is a two-day conference and exhibition in Telford, Shropshire, designed to bring together farmers and landowners from all over the UK to help them explore and understand the opportunities available in renewable energy – wind, biomass, biofuels, biogas, ground source heating, hydro and solar.

The conference focuses on all aspects of renewable energy and energy efficiency, while the exhibition provides a showcase of more than 160 suppliers demonstrating the latest technologies.

Protecting and enhancing the environment sits at the heart of sustainability. With the growing awareness that the built environment accounts for nearly half of the UK’s CO₂ emissions; innovative, green solutions for designing, constructing and using buildings are in urgent demand.

ICAX answers that demand by providing Interseasonal Heat Transfer which heats buildings in winter without burning fossil fuels by exploiting Ground Source Energy. Surplus solar energy is captured by Asphalt Solar Collectors and stored in ThermalBanks in the summer for release into buildings in winter using a ground source heat pump.

ICAX can help you achieve sustainability in the built environment by storing ground source energy in Thermalbanks.

Energy Now Expo Conference

Edward Thompson is speaking on integrating solar thermal collection and seasonal heat storage to improve ground source heat pump efficiency and achieving sustainable energy solutions using ground source energy.

The speakers at Energy Now Expo 2018 include:

• Guy Smith, NFU
• Edward Thompson, Director, ICAX Ltd
• Mark Bridgeman, CLA

There are a series of seminars at the conference covering Wind, Biomass, Hydro, Energy management, Financing Green Energy investments and Solar as well as Ground Source Energy. Individual subjects covered include:

• Microgeneration
• Combining renewables with energy management
• Ground source heating and cooling (GSHC)
• The true cost of on-site renewable energy
• Interseasonal Heat Transfer & Intrabuilding Heat Transfer
• Renewable Energy Strategies for UK Farmers
• Assessing the UK’s renewable energy options
• Solar thermal energy – a focus on innovation
• Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI)
• Retrofitting renewables
• How ground source heat pumps work

Energy Now Expo is the UK’s fastest growing Sustainable Energy show for farmers and country landowners. It is being held in association with the CLA. Learn more at Energy Now Expo 2018.

Sustainable Energy Solutions using Ground Source Energy

Ground source energy is a sustainable source of energy which can be used for heating buildings. Architects, consultants and building owners have realised that ground source energy can be exploited the whole year round to provide significant reductions in carbon dioxide emissions and heating and cooling costs.

Heat can be extracted from the ground via fluid circulating through an array of pipes in the ground to provide heating to buildings in winter. The ground acts as a "heat source". The ground can also be used as a "heat sink" for heat extracted from a building in summer in order to provide cooling. For the ground to be used as a ThermalBank in this way it is necessary to ensure that there is a balance of heat extracted and heat deposited in the ground over the course of the year.

Thermal Modelling of the complete system is necessary to ensure that this balance is achieved in a sustainable way over the years. If heat is extracted for space heating purposes without any heat being deposited (from cooling the building in summer) there is a risk that the ground temperature will fall each year and the heat pump will cease to be efficient – it may even "lock up". The solution is to collect solar energy in the summer and transfer heat to the ground in advance of the heating season: this is the essence of Interseasonal Heat Transfer and enables the heat pumps in an ICAX Skid to extract heat more cheaply and more efficiently than in an unassisted heat pump installation.

Heat collection for Ground Source Energy

Surplus solar energy can be collected in summer to boost ground source energy in winter by using Asphalt Solar Collectors, Solardec Watertight Collectors or standard solar thermal collectors. The asphalt solar collectors and Solardec can also be used as heat rejectors to disperse heat in systems of Natural Cooling. The most effective combination is found in Interseasonal Heat Transfer which utilises ground source heating and cooling in one integrated system.

Heat distribution from Ground Source Energy

Having extracted heat from the ground using a heat pump, there are various different mechanisms for distributing heat within a building. Because a heat pump is most efficient when delivering warmth – at around 40°C – instead of heat – at around 70°C, it is best to use a distribution system that matches these lower output temperatures. Underfloor heating is ideal, but other options like TermoDeck and VRF fan coil units can also be very effective, as can direct supply to air handling systems.

See Ground Source Heating      See Ground Source Cooling     Ground Source Energy