Wanlockhead is a former lead mining village near the head of the Mennock Pass and on the Southern Upland Way walking trail. Sitting at an altitude of 467 metres, Wanlockhead is the highest village in Scotland. (www.visitscotland.com)
In partnership with the Museum of Lead Mining, Wanlockhead, SeaWarm, as part of the University of Edinburgh, has installed a demonstration water source heating system to showcase low-carbon, low-cost heating using the Wanlock water (burn) as its heat source.
The facility acts as a research demonstration of the new technology, the basis for the spin-off company SeaWarm, and is funded by Scottish Enterprise. The burn water is fed by a combination of natural runoff, and water which filters through the rocks along legacy mine workings.
The Museum of Lead Mining is situated adjacent to Wanlock Water, which flows out from the mine workings approximately 200-300 meters up the hill.
SeaWarm has installed an intake pipe part way up the burn that allows water to be supplied to the SeaWarm heat exchanger unit without the need for any pumping. This also supplies the gold panning tanks at the site.
A Kensa 13 kW Evo heat pump is coupled with a SeaWarm unit to supply up to 13 kW of heat through seven radiators to the café, kitchen and shop area of the museum.
The system is equipped with state-of-the-art monitoring equipment to enable deeper understanding of the SeaWarm heat exchanger performance.
The heat pump is configured with weather compensation to automatically adjust the flow temperature and maximise efficiency.
The installation was fully commissioned at the end of May 2024 and is constantly monitored using OpenEnergyMonitoring heat pump meters.
During the first year of operations trialling the system, SeaWarm achieved a Seasonal Coefficient of Performance (SCOP) of 3.5, yielding over 70% savings per unit of heat compared to the existing direct electric heating system.
SeaWarm technology contributes significantly to reducing the CO2 footprint of heating by harvesting low temperatures through heat pump technology and providing useful room heating.
The SeaWarm installation that replaces the direct electric heating in the Tea Room results in a carbon emissions reduction of over 70%.
Expanding the SeaWarm system to cover the entire museum’s heating and hot water needs, with an annual heating demand of nearly 80,000 kWh/year, the Museum of Lead Mining would save 2 tonnes of CO2 each year – equal to one year of driving for the typical driver.
Join us in our journey towards a more sustainable and efficient future. Embrace the change with SeaWarm’s water source heat pump technology. Let’s work together to create a greener, more efficient world.
