Ballyliffin Lodge and Spa, Ireland's northernmost four-star hotel, is setting a benchmark for sustainability by adopting eco-friendly technologies to maintain its 40-room hotel and amenities. Nestled on Donegal’s picturesque Inishowen Peninsula, the hotel exemplifies a commitment to preserving natural beauty while cutting operational expenses.
Recent measures include a substantial 288kW solar array and a natural spring well. Notably, the inclusion of a 500kW biomass boiler burning woodchips significantly advances the hotel's sustainability efforts by providing efficient heating and hot water.
The biomass boiler project, bolstered by a €450,000 investment and grants from the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland, plays a critical role in both reducing carbon emissions and operational costs.
As Ireland's carbon tax is poised to rise annually to €100 per ton by 2030, this initiative is projected to cut carbon dioxide emissions by up to 250 tons each year.
CHP Mechanical Services Ltd., experts in renewable energy solutions, took charge of the installation. They recommended a Herz Firematic 499kw Biomass Boiler, placed in a remote location a kilometer away to minimize the environmental footprint.
Ensuring effective heat transfer from this distant plant room to the hotel necessitated specially designed pre-insulated pipework that balances thermal performance and installation speed, given the lack of accessible roads up the mountain.
John Smyth, Managing Director of CHP Mechanical Services Ltd., emphasized the importance of dependable components, like REHAU’s RAUTHERMEX pipe system, known for its excellent thermal performance and ease of installation.
This system employs a polyurethane foam for superior insulation and a compression sleeve for reliable connections, enabling quick installation without downtime, crucial for the hotel's operations.
The project has drawn interest from other hotels in Ireland, reflecting the successful implementation of Ballyliffin Lodge’s green initiatives. Mark Thompson of REHAU Building Solutions underscores the economic and ecological benefits of transitioning to sustainable heating systems.
Ballyliffin Lodge’s efforts earned them a finalist position in the 2024 Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland’s Energy Awards. “The rising carbon tax is definitely focusing minds for businesses such as hotels,” he notes, encouraging similar establishments to consider eco-friendly boilers and offsite plantrooms.
Ireland’s most northerly four-star hotel, the Ballyliffin Lodge and Spa (Ballyliffin Lodge) is nestled on Donegal’s Inishowen Peninsula, offering panoramic views over Malin Head. Its spectacular setting highlights the hotel's dedication to preserving the area's natural beauty, as further evidenced by its use of green technologies to heat, water and power its 40 rooms, spa, gym and restaurant.
Steps taken to achieve this aim include installing a large 288kW solar array to the rear of the hotel and commissioning a natural spring well to reduce water usage and mains consumption. Yet one of Ballyliffin Lodge’s most ambitious projects involved upgrading its heating system to include a 500kW, biomass boiler, burning woodchips to supply its heating and hot water needs.
Reducing Carbon, Reducing Costs
Supported by a €450,000 investment and grants from the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland’s Support Scheme for Renewable Heat, this project is crucial to the hotel's goals of adopting greener practices and reducing operating costs. With Ireland’s carbon tax set to rise annually from €56 per ton of CO2 at present, to €100 per ton by 2030, installing a boiler that would save up to 250 tonnes of carbon dioxide annually made clear commercial sense for the hotel.
“We’re in an area of stunning natural beauty and protecting and maintaining that is very important,” says Ron Kerrigan, Hotel General Manager for Ballyliffin Lodge and Spa. “It’s very cost-effective to carry out these sorts of initiatives, and the installation of this boiler would improve the hotel’s efficiency throughout."
“People not in the know would think ‘oh, you’re cutting down trees, you’re cutting down forests, how does that work?’ But it’s a renewable source of heat and energy, and the trees go through an eight-year life cycle, so as quick as we’re cutting them, we’re also planting them, preserving and maintaining the local area’s greenery.”
Making Molehills Out of Mountains
To carry out this project, Ballyliffin Lodge engaged the services of CHP Mechanical Services Ltd, a County Down-based renewable energy and commercial heating installer specializing in Biomass boiler installations, including off-site prefabricated plant rooms. The need to preserve the peninsula’s pristine environment meant this expertise was a priority, as the existing building proposed to house the boiler was situated a kilometer away from the hotel – in this case, on the side of a nearby mountain.
Faced with this challenge, the team at CHP Mechanical Services Ltd specified a Herz Firematic 499kw Biomass Boiler with a 50m³ adjoining space within the building from which woodchips are transferred via a spring agitator and screw conveyor.
Final requirement for the pipework
In order to efficiently transfer heat from the plant room to Ballyliffin Lodge’s buildings without disrupting the local landscape, CHP Mechanical Services Ltd needed suitable underground pre-insulated pipework that could offer excellent thermal performance.
The distance from the hotel presented other logistical concerns. With no roads going up the side of the mountain to the biomass boiler plant room, and very few in the local area at all, the specified pipework needed to be lightweight and flexible. As the hotel’s operations could not be interrupted, a final requirement for the pipework was speed of installation to ensure there wasn’t any downtime.
Enduring Supply Chain Relationships
“The nature of Ballyliffin Lodge’s business and location presented clear challenges for this particular project,” says John Smyth, Managing Director of CHP Mechanical Services Ltd. “After all, if you can’t transfer its heat effectively through its pipes, it doesn’t matter how effective and sustainable your boiler is."
“We’ve been installing this kind of system for over 13 years, so we know the importance of only working with proven, reliable manufacturers for all components. This includes pipework, which is extremely important on projects of this kind. We've had a long and solid relationship with REHAU, using its PE-Xa pipe, RAUTHERMEX, to connect offsite plantrooms to buildings. The team is very familiar with this pipe system and have always been impressed with its reliability, thermal performance and how easy it is to install."
REHAU’s RAUTHERMEX bonded pipe system consists of a polyurethane foam insulation core and a corrugated outer jacket that keeps operational heat losses particularly low. Its fine-pored PU foam, developed using specialist process technology, offers high thermal insulation, making it ideal for linking Ballyliffin Lodge’s buildings to the boiler plantroom a kilometer away
Making a Connection
Alongside its thermal performance benefits, RAUTHERMEX’s unique connection technology, EVERLOC, offered a level of ease of installation and reliability for CHP Mechanical Services Ltd. It uses a compression sleeve to create a permanently leak-tight connection between the pipe and the fitting, with no O-rings or other sealants, producing an independently certified cavity-free joint.
As the pipe itself is the sealant, the installation is immediately ready for pressure and a simple visual inspection is sufficient to know if the connection is complete.
For projects such as Ballyliffin Lodge where swift installation over long distances of pipework is key, this ability to quickly and comprehensively fit and inspect a flexible pipe system is invaluable. Having worked with REHAU systems for around 13 years CHP Mechanical Services Ltd are very familiar with the complete REHAU system.
Flexibility of the pipe systems
“Being able to quickly procure, transport and fit pipework is imperative for this sort of project,” says John. “The hotel was keen to avoid downtime, so the fact REHAU was able to provide the swift support and high-quality products we’ve come to expect was highly appreciated."
“To solve issues around the lack of roads, we actually constructed a bespoke de-coiling machine to lay down the one kilometer of RAUTHERMEX required. It proved highly successful, largely due to the flexibility of the pipe systems, and it is certainly something we will consider using again.”
Empowering Businesses to Go Green
With these complex logistics in mind, Mark Thompson, Area Sales Manager for REHAU Building Solutions Northern Ireland & Republic of Ireland, was also on hand to ensure the project’s smooth running. With the boiler now installed and running, the success of Ballyliffin Lodge’s uniquely complex works has resulted in further enquiries from other hotels in Ireland.
Moreover, testament to the success of both this installation and that of the other green upgrades implemented is the fact that Ballyliffin Lodge was shortlisted as a finalist for the 2024 edition of the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland’s Energy Awards.
Transitioning to greener heating systems
“The rising carbon tax is definitely focusing minds for businesses such as hotels,” he explains. “As the works at Ballyliffin Lodge show, transitioning to greener heating systems is a sensible commercial decision."
“The CHP Mechanical Services Ltd team have clearly demonstrated what an excellent installation looks like in this field. Using our pioneering RAUTHERMEX components, their expertise clearly demonstrates what’s possible even in remote areas such as the Inishowen Peninsula. We advise similarly situated businesses to explore environmentally sympathetic boilers and offsite plantrooms, especially in national markets accelerating their decarbonization efforts.”
