Ideal Heating Case Study: Hawthorne Primary School

Hawthorn Primary School is a co-educational primary academy located in Cantley, Doncaster, providing education for children from early years through Year 6. The site comprises multiple buildings of differing ages and construction types, which together accommodate classrooms, shared learning spaces and support facilities.

Addressing long-standing heating issues

As with many existing school estates, maintaining consistent internal temperatures across all areas of the site had become increasingly difficult due to variations in building fabric and an ageing heating infrastructure consisting of two outdated open flued boilers with forced draft burners, alongside undersized pipework, making for poor efficiency and excessive gas use.

For several years, the school had struggled to achieve reliable comfort levels, particularly during colder periods. As a result, the system needed a complete redesign to ensure it could reliably and efficiently serve the entire school.

A tailored hybrid heating solution

The new installation features a hybrid heating system designed to balance low carbon operation with dependable performance. It comprises two Ideal Commercial Heating 50kW ECOMOD 290HT air source heat pumps featuring R290 natural refrigerant feeding buffer vessels, plus three wall-mounted Evomax 2 150kW commercial condensing boilers, operating in cascade providing 450kW of output.

The Evomax 2 boilers have been installed within the existing plant room, onto a standard height frame and header kit, with preformed insulation kits and plate heat exchanger making cascading appliances quick and simple. The heat pumps are located externally, adjacent to the plant room.

The hybrid approach ensures that the heat pumps can meet demand for much of the year, with the boilers providing support during colder conditions.

Intelligent control for year-round efficiency

A building management system (BMS) plays a central role in maximising efficiency by automatically selecting the most appropriate heat source depending on external conditions.

Designed for an existing school building

As Hawthorn Primary School is not a new-build, the system needed to integrate with much of the existing distribution infrastructure. “The benefit of using the ECOMOD 290HT heat pumps within the system” 

A practical route to lower-carbon heating

The completed project at Hawthorn Primary School demonstrates how hybrid heating systems can provide an effective, realistic route to improved efficiency and reduced carbon emissions in existing education buildings. By combining high temperature heat pumps with proven condensing boiler technology, the school now benefits from a resilient, future-ready heating solution that delivers comfort, efficiency and peace of mind.

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