Troubleshooting Case Study

Pinewood Studios

Pinewood Studios is one of the world's leading destinations for the makers of film, television and commercials.

Following a detailed site survey together with analysis of billing data, we produced a comprehensive report on energy use at the site.  It revealed major energy saving potential in terms of running-costs and carbon savings.

The challenge was to then produce a list of priorities and offer accurate and realistic capital cost budgets to allow paybacks to be assessed.   A priority schedule of works could then be finalised.

The primary recommendations included strategies and then detailed design, for decentralisation of the buildings sited at the extremes of the existing inefficient district heating scheme.  This involved the installation of new gas fired boilers into an existing basement plant room and the strip out of existing “pre-historic” boilers (shown in the picture).

The challenging elements here included connection to the old large bore heating systems and the issues caused by the years of dirt build up within the existing system. Also working with the limited plant room space and the installation of new flues in existing chimneys.

The first-phase works also included the strip out of 10 old fashioned  heavy weight calorifiers and their replacement with electric immersions. The central system can now be shutdown during the summer and together with the introduction of motorised zone valves onto the distribution has given a much higher level of control.

The introduction of a new small base load boiler on the 9MW central plant improved efficiency of operation during low load conditions.

The works required careful phasing as all the buildings remained operational throughout and connection onto old systems had to be managed with no record information. An additional challenge involved the removal of the heavyweight existing equipment. 

As the first phase of works is completed, the next level of implementation which includes more basic items such as TRV’s, insulation works and introduction of variable speed drives will come online.