20 NEW CIVIL ENGINEER 19.05.11 | www.nce.co.

uk

PILING: LEADENHALL STREET HEAT TRANSFER

Transfer structure
The towering Cheese Grater office development in London will include a
geothermal component in its energy regime, reports Adrian Greeman.

Going in: Installing the pile cages equipped with

heat transfer pipes is closely monitored

Cheese Grater: How it will look

S
mall additions to the
foundation works for
the new Leadenhall
office tower building in
London could become common-
place in future City structures,
and perhaps elsewhere too. They
are heat pump loops in the mas-
sive recently completed piles.
Geothermal energy pumped
from the ground is not new but
the use of foundation structures
to make heat transfers to and
from the ground is still relatively
unusual.
But some of the major develop-
ments that are now restarting
in the City include at least an
element of this form of sustain-
able energy. One such project is
122 Leadenhall, already chris-
tened the Cheese Grater due to its
tapered shape.
The office and retail building
for British Land and its joint
venture partner Oxford Proper-
ties will be one of London’s larg-
est, standing 225m – 48 stories
– high when complete in 2014. It
has fairly hefty foundations, the
main component being 30 bored
piles, 30m deep and with diam-
eters of 2.1m and 2.4m. These
have been installed by subcon-
tractor Skanska Cementation.
Working alongside Skanska
is the relatively new firm Gecco2,
which specialises in geother-
mal and heat pump work. It
is installing a ground energy
system that makes use of three
piles. The firm does the detailed
energy design and fitting work.
It designs and installs com-
plete heat transfer systems from
the basic pipework in the ground
to the heat exchangers and plant
that connect with a building’s
main heating and air condition-
ing systems.
Piles are very suitable for
ground heat transfer says Gecco2
managing director Matt Love,
particularly in London where
they usually go quite deep.
Three piles will be used for
the geothermal system with one
more also fitted with heat trans-
fer tubing as a reserve.
Each of those piles contains
around 200m of HDPE tubing.
This is looped, running up and
down eight times. Inside the tubes
there will be a mix of water and
25% non–toxic propylene glycol –
antifreeze, effectively – which
“We have to
coordinate very
carefully with the pile
contractor”
Matt Love, Gecco2
will absorb or discharge ground
heat depending on the season.
For installation, the loops are
fixed to the inside of the pile
reinforcement cage before it is
lowered into the excavated bore.
“We have to co-ordinate very
carefully with the pile contractor
for this because we don’t want to
cause any hold-ups,” says Love.
“I know how expensive it can be
to keep large plant waiting.”
It is critical to ensure that the
tubes are not damaged during
installation, which is one reason
to fix them to the inside of each
cage. This is especially important
at the top. The tubes are also pro-
tected with Armourflex “and over
that we slide bright yellow plastic
gas piping”, says Love.
This latter precaution is for
the next phase when surround-
ing ground will be excavated and
the tops of the piles, which are
only concreted to about 7m be-
low slab level, are broken back.
During pile concreting and
later excavation the tubes are
kept at about 5 bar with pres-
surised water. This is to test
for leaks and to keep the tubes
from pinching or deflating. The
HDPE pipe has a pressure capac-
ity of nearly 16 bar.
The Gecco2 team will moni-
tor the excavation to keep the
pipes safe. Assuming all goes
well the tops of the piles will be
connected to a manifold before
the slab is concreted. The team
returns again later to the heat
exchange and ground monitor-
ing equipment.
Heat flows have to be control-
led quite carefully; there is only
so much heat in the ground and
it can only be transferred at a
certain speed. If too much is ex-
tracted, the ground could freeze.
The system is only expected
to make a small contribution to
the building’s energy require-
ments, but it gives the building
additional “green” credentials.