Teddington School, Middlesex, UK

08_ref_uk_teddington_schoolshadow

Solar hot water from ELCO at new Teddington School

 ELCO has recently supplied 36 square meters of AURON® DF evacuated tube solar collectors and two stainless steel pre-heated solar vessels to the new Teddington School, situated on the banks of the River Thames opposite Trowlock Island, in Middlesex.

The £32 million school was built by Mace Plus. BDP was the architect, as well as civil and structural engineer, building services engineer, lighting and acoustics consultant, interior and FF&E designer and landscape architect. The new school has been selected as one of the first One-School for the Future Pathfinders and will be the benchmark project for future schools in the London Borough of Richmond.

The new school, which specializes in the visual arts, has state-of-the-art facilities for nearly 1,200 pupils, and is one of the most sustainable schools anywhere in the country.  The new school features enhanced outdoor informal play and learning, plus sports facilities available to the local community outside teaching hours. These include two sports pitches adjacent to the school, enabling the necessary range of sporting activity which the school strongly promotes, and a Multi Use Games Area (MUGA) on the recreation ground.

AURON® DF direct flow vacuum tube solar collectors from ELCO have been developed for both domestic hot water and heating support and have an extremely flexible and stable mounting system to make installation and alignment towards the sun simple.  Together with the innovative hydraulic construction of the collector, every possible variation of roof, wall and floor positioning is available to the installer. By rotating the tubes (between +/- 30°) the absorber plate can be aligned so that an optimal angle to solar radiation can be achieved.

The absorber plate is made of aluminium and has a highly selective coating. This surface is metallically bonded to a coaxial copper-tube system allowing the absorbed heat to be carried directly and almost without loss to the heat-carrying fluid of the solar energy system. The connection of the vacuum tubes to the manifold is via a conventional compression fitting with tube neck cover collars made of weather-proof synthetic material. The tube neck insulation is protected against environmental impact or bird pecking and the collar takes the strain on the glass-metal bonding to ensure a long lifespan for the vacuum tubes.