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Electric boilers - effect on power demand of a block of flats

donf
Hello there.


I would like to  know if anyone on the forum has done a study of or knows about an existing study of the impact on power demand of introducing electric boilers to block of flats. 


I have been tasked with estimating the impact of a gradual migration to electric boilers for central and water heating in a modern block of flats. Nearly all of the flats currently use gas fired combi boilers.


I then have to present this information to UK Power Networks so that they can asses whether or not an increase in capacity to the building supply might be needed in future.  Finally I need to put any recommendations to the owners' management board.


Clearly electric boilers will have some impact on power demand.


I can start with an estimate of current power demand (worst case) for a typical flat.  To that end, I'll be doing a survey of about 25% of the flats to come up with a figure.


I can then apply the IET Electrical Installation Design Guide diversity calculations for a typical flat and then the building as a whole using figure 3.4 (IET Electrical Design Guide Nov 2008 page 33).


I can then do a second power consumption exercise adding the demand of a typical electric boiler per flat and then the whole building.


However, it's not clear to me if this approach will be suitable for a massive migration to electric boilers.  I need to be sure of my ground if I approach UK Power Networks with a demand figure.


If we look at the usual peak use of heating demand (morning and evening) a building full of electric boilers, to me, could add a significant load to existing street fuses and possibly even cable capacity.


I would be grateful for any suggestions and experience people could bring.


Kind regards


donf










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  • 0
    Steel pipes have come and gone, while black iron seems to just last and last. Unless it is  buried in clay or embedded in concrete. I have had a black iron pipe completely vanish in a concrete floor slab from 1970 or so, but oddly only near a fitting. Once the source of the fizzing bubbles when the floor was mopped were identified, and it was all made safe and we dug it up to see, it transpired that at that point, and pretty much only there, the plastic membrane DPC had been ripped, ironically given the angles, probably by the gas man's Stillsons. Slightly damper concrete, and something in the concrete had pretty much dissolved the iron pipe.

    The street mains are being replaced with polythene because there too, it rusts away to nothing after half a century or so.


    Internal corrosion of steel pipes is related to impurities like water vapour or hydrogen sulphides in the gas, not the methane itself. However A lot of the imported gas we are burning now is not as clean in this respect as the North Sea gas we used to have in abundance. Indeed some of it has to be blended on arrival with the better grade stuff to make it meet the standards for injection into the UK national grid.
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  • 0
    Steel pipes have come and gone, while black iron seems to just last and last. Unless it is  buried in clay or embedded in concrete. I have had a black iron pipe completely vanish in a concrete floor slab from 1970 or so, but oddly only near a fitting. Once the source of the fizzing bubbles when the floor was mopped were identified, and it was all made safe and we dug it up to see, it transpired that at that point, and pretty much only there, the plastic membrane DPC had been ripped, ironically given the angles, probably by the gas man's Stillsons. Slightly damper concrete, and something in the concrete had pretty much dissolved the iron pipe.

    The street mains are being replaced with polythene because there too, it rusts away to nothing after half a century or so.


    Internal corrosion of steel pipes is related to impurities like water vapour or hydrogen sulphides in the gas, not the methane itself. However A lot of the imported gas we are burning now is not as clean in this respect as the North Sea gas we used to have in abundance. Indeed some of it has to be blended on arrival with the better grade stuff to make it meet the standards for injection into the UK national grid.
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