Work to install eco-friendly heating in Bath Abbey using hot water from the city’s Roman baths is beginning. Contractors are surveying the great Roman drain, which carries steaming water from Bath’s hot springs to the River Avon, as part of a project to use the springs to warm the nearby abbey that starts on Tuesday. Every day, 1.1m litres (250,000 gallons) of hot water flow through the Roman baths from the thermal spring located at the heart of the site. A large quantity of this hot water eventually ends up in the Avon via the great Roman drain. When harnessed and converted, the abbey says it could potentially produce 1.5MW of continuous energy to support a 200kW ground-source heat pump system. Isoenergy, a renewable energy company, will be exploring the great Roman drain to plan how to install heat exchangers in the structure as part of the abbey’s £19.3m Footprint refurbishment project.
Guardian 8th Jan 2019 read more »