Cabinet supports County Hall low carbon heat project

Denbighshire County Council’s Cabinet has backed the initial steps for work to improve energy efficiency at Ruthin County Hall, subject to their funding bid to Welsh Government being successful.

Cabinet members supported the process to secure grant funding from the Welsh Government Low Carbon Heat Grant to initiate the County Hall low carbon heat project.

This work is part of the Denbighshire County Council’s Energy Team’s continuing drive to reduce energy use and costs at buildings run by the local authority to address the climate and nature emergency declared in 2019 and continue the reduction of its own carbon footprint.

The team has looked after projects across Council owned buildings including schools, to help improve building energy efficiency, reduce carbon emissions and also usage costs over the longer term.

County Hall was built over 20 years ago and contributes higher than necessary carbon emissions per annum due to key building fabric assets now being end of life.

The proposed project is to replace the end-of-life gas boilers at the site with air source heat pumps, to replace the Air Handling Units (AHU’s), upgrade the radiators, heating pumps and building management system.

Proposed work will also see the replacement of windows with modern energy efficient windows (with approximately half the heat loss), draught strips and areas of ceiling insulation.

The completed project will decrease energy consumption, enhance the working environment, reduce future potential expenditure on replacing the end-of-life assets and decrease carbon emissions by an estimated 48.7tonnes per year.

Cllr Julie Matthews, Deputy Leader and Lead Member for Corporate Strategy, Policy, Equalities and Strategic Assets, said: “This is a really exciting piece of work that supports Denbighshire County Council’s continuing drive to lower energy usage and costs and reduce carbon footprints across our building estate. 90% of the project cost will be covered by external grant funding should we be successful which is great inward investment for the County supporting the supply chain. The proposals in this project will also provide a better working environment for the staff and help future proof County Hall going forward.”