Accelerating heat decarbonisation in UK schools

Could prefabricated heating solutions offer an answer to decarbonising heat in existing school buildings? Neville Radford, National Education Sector Manager at Baxi, discusses the benefits of taking it offsite. 

The Department for Education is requiring all schools to have a dedicated net zero lead and a climate change plan in place this year. According to the latest government figures the education estate accounts for 36% of total UK public sector building emissions, of which schools alone are responsible for almost a quarter. Decarbonising these buildings is central to the government’s net zero strategy, but progress remains slow, with concerns that only 20% of England’s school estates will be net zero compliant by 2050.  

Schools need support to make their heating systems less carbon intensive, and one tried-and-tested solution for harder-to-treat school buildings might be to combine a hybrid approach with prefabrication techniques.  

Overcoming retrofit challenges 

The ultimate goal is to move to an all-electric heating system, with heat pumps one of the favoured technologies. Certainly, heat pumps can provide a highly efficient, sustainable method of supplying low-carbon heating or hot water requirements. But while newbuild schools will be designed for net zero, decarbonising heating systems in existing school stock can be more complex. Technical difficulty, additional power requirements, and the age of the building are just some of the core challenges identified by school estates managers. 

So how can we help schools get off the starting blocks? The first step should always be to identify any achievable opportunities to reduce heat losses and energy demand, lowering the capacity of heating plant required and the capital expenditure. But what about when fabric upgrades are not an option, perhaps due to listed status or cost implications? Or when sites don’t have the space or electrical capacity? One practical option might be to consider introducing a hybrid heating system that combines air source heat pumps (ASHPs) with existing heating infrastructure using a prefabricated packaged plant room.  

Even a modestly sized heat pump can decarbonise up to 80% of the heat in the building, with a hybrid approach nearly always a fast, affordable and efficient solution. As hybrid systems also reduce requirements for electrical capacity and available space, they can make school decarbonisation projects more technically and commercially viable. While the solution would leave some reliance on gas boilers, these can be swapped out at a later stage to achieve full decarbonisation. Combining this approach with prefabrication could enable accelerated heat pump retrofits across the UK’s existing school estate.  

Pre-engineered solution 

The prefabricated packaged plant room might contain a combination of plant and accessory modules including water-to-water (booster) heat pumps, boilers, pressurisation units, expansion vessels, buffer vessels, circulating pumps and pipework in a standardised layout. These would be connected to external ASHPs or evaporators connected to split system heat pumps within the plant room.  

Hybrid heating solutions and prefabricated plant rooms enable a cost-effective, faster and less disruptive retrofit process, lowering operational costs over time. Pre-engineering the solution makes it possible to scale up decarbonisation across the school estate, with increased standardisation leading to lower costs. Production and delivery lead time are also reduced, maximising efficiency.  

Prefabricated plant rooms are plug-and-play systems, pre-wired and factory tested for rapid, simple connection and preassembled in sections or as a single lift for easy placement in the school grounds. With installation times dramatically reduced and minimal on-site disruption, school estates managers are no longer restricted to carrying out larger heating system refurbishments within summer holidays.  

Prefabrication also benefits contractors, allowing them to use their time more productively. With a single point of contact for the entire system, the potential for delays is minimised, helping projects remain on schedule. It also enables just-in-time delivery, which simplifies site management by eliminating the need to store equipment on site. 

As the packaged plant room is manufactured to specification in a factory setting, using specialist machinery and under tight control procedures, quality assurance is notably high. Finally, off-site fabrication can deliver significant reductions in waste and carbon emissions, contributing to school sustainability goals by using energy-efficient solutions and modern methods of construction.  

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