Wimborne Minster Town Council, Dorset County Council, East Dorset District Council and Leigh Park Community Association helped Leigh Park Community Centre to install a Ground Source Heatpump to power their underfloor heating.

Nature of Project
To use Ground Source Heat Pump to heat Community Building to lower carbon emissions and reduce heating costs to community and public bodies.

Approach
The heat pump is a success and is working well. We applied for a grant from LCBP for 50% of the costs of the heat pump. The grant took a long time to apply for and came through 6 weeks after we had paid the contractor so funds had to be used from our reserves. A great deal of information had to be extracted for the grant and as the grant was fixed, the extra, unforeseen costs that were incurred during the installation process had to be born in full by the Council.

Community Involvement
The Community Building is shared between SureStart (60%) and Leigh Park Community Association(40%). Both Groups were consulted on the installation of the heat pump and supported its installation to reduce running costs to both groups and lower their carbon footprint.

For more information visit www.leighparkcommunitycentre.org.uk.

This story was provided by Sustainable Dorset, the website for DA21: www.sustainabledorset.org.uk/community-energy.