When Dunstan High School found out that their two large coal boilers would not receive new emissions to atmosphere consents when they came up for review in 2010, Living Energy stepped in with a proposal for a wood-fired solution.  A huge amount of feasibility work went into this two-boiler project (one heats the school, the other their boarding hostel), to determine the optimum solution for this large secondary school in one of the coldest parts of New Zealand - Alexandra in Central Otago.

Working through a mix of in-house and specialist sub-contractors, we've been with the management team at Dunstan High School every step of the way - from demonstrating the viability of the technology and its benefits over fossil fuels, right through to the installations themselves in March and April 2009.  The 5 year heat supply contract that we've entered into with the school, which covers fuel supply, service callouts and ongoign maintenance, means that we'll be working with them for a long time yet too!

The high school site is now home to the biggest Binder boiler in New Zealand - a 12 tonne underfed boiler capable of 650kW output on dry woodfuel.  As with all coal-to-wood projects, there were significant challenges posed by incorporating the new wood-fired boiler into a boiler room and fuel store designed decades ago for a different fuel and a different generation of technology.  Several innovative and cost-effective modifications were made to the buildings to accomodate the boiler, 15,000 litre accumulator tank and the fuel recovery system.

      
Dunstan's old coal boiler...                               ...the arrival of the 15,000l accumulator

The presence of this system, and its sister boiler in the school hostel, will make Dunstan High School a woodfuel exemplar for years to come.

Read a little more about the project courtesy of the Otago Daily Times.