There was a special gathering at Storrington Library this morning (Friday, July 12) to celebrate the completion of new eco-friendly upgrades.
The work was part of an £8.2m programme to reduce the carbon footprint of 14 West Sussex County Council buildings.
The council said the programme was supported by over £1.4m funding from the government’s Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme, which is run by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero and is administered by Salix Finance. Representatives from both organisations attended the event.
The work was part of an £8.2m programme to reduce the carbon footprint of 14 West Sussex County Council buildings.
The council said the programme was supported by over £1.4m funding from the government’s Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme, which is run by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero and is administered by Salix Finance. Representatives from both organisations attended the event.
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NewsTranscript
00:00I'm Paul Marshall, I'm the leader for West Sussex County Council and I'm very proud today
00:09to be here in Storrington Library launching one of the 14 buildings that we've been working
00:17on in terms of decarbonisation. Really key because it's about our journey that we've
00:24made for 2030 to be a net zero organisation. Climate change is important, it's important
00:30locally, it's important nationally and we've all got our part to play and as a county council
00:37we have a big footprint within this and it's important that we not only lead by example
00:43but help support our communities through this journey as well. I'm Darragh Casey,
00:48I'm Energy Services Manager here at West Sussex County Council. So we're looking at the new
00:52air source heat pumps that are providing renewable heat to Storrington Library. Air
00:57source heat pumps are one of the more efficient ways of generating the heat we need to keep our
01:03buildings warm and comfortable. So heat pumps work on the basic principle that there is dispersed
01:08heat in the air all around us. Air source heat pumps are essentially there to take that heat
01:14from the air and then they compress it and then they draw out the heat by compressing the air
01:21and then once they've drawn that out they are able to then put that into the radiators and into
01:26the distribution system that are heating our buildings. So essentially we're taking the free
01:30heat that's all around us, we're just concentrating that and then we're making use of it. So the heat
01:36pumps are terrific by themselves but they really work well when you've got a very efficient way of
01:41distributing that heat and getting it into the spaces we need. So we've coupled up this technology
01:47with some fan coil radiators. So these are a bit like normal radiators but supercharged.
01:52They're a very effective way of delivering the heat to the communal areas of a library or any
01:57other spaces like that. But I think the important thing to note is that the systems that are creating
02:03that heat, generating the heat for us to make a comfortable environment, they can only do that
02:08when you've got a good kind of tight envelope within which you can actually use and retain
02:14that heat. So along with the heating system upgrades that we've done here we've actually put
02:18in quite a lot of work around the insulation and new windows and doors and there's a fabulous
02:23skylight in the middle of the library which has been completely upgraded as well.