{"id":12916,"date":"2024-11-08T16:54:12","date_gmt":"2024-11-08T14:54:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ehpa.org\/?post_type=heat-pump-storie&#038;p=12916"},"modified":"2024-11-08T16:54:15","modified_gmt":"2024-11-08T14:54:15","slug":"a-watery-new-king-of-the-castle","status":"publish","type":"heat-pump-storie","link":"https:\/\/ehpa.org\/heat-pump-stories\/a-watery-new-king-of-the-castle\/","title":{"rendered":"A watery new king of the castle"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Think of a castle moat, and you\u2019ll probably imagine cold water meant to repel attackers rather than a heat source. Yet in two different castles in Belgium, water is being used to provide sustainable energy, thanks to heat pumps and aquathermal technology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;\u2018Aquathermal energy\u2019 means using energy from rivers, lakes or canals to warm or cool buildings. Normally for still bodies of water, heat exchangers are placed in the water, forming a closed circuit with a heat pump. When there is a current, such as in a river, an open system with the heat exchanger in a separate building is more commonly used.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the two Belgian cases \u2013 of the 14th century Merode stately home in Westerlo, and the water gardens of the Annevoie castle near Namur &#8211; engineering firm EXTRAQT and its partners developed a closed aquathermal system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For the Merode stately home, the engineers implemented a closed loop heat exchanger in the moat, so that heat could be captured from the moat and transferred into the castle. Inside the castle a heat pump is used to boost the extracted heat of the moat&nbsp;at low temperature to a high temperature of 55 degrees. This has replaced the previous gas heating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Owner Simon de Merode says: \u201cWe had been thinking for a long time how we could use natural energy to reduce our energy bills. When prices shot up in 2022, we decided to act. We have to heat the castle, both because we live there and to preserve it. For example at Christmas when there are many visitors, it needs to be warm and cosy inside.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At Annevoie, the lake behind the castle provides the energy, with heat pumps connecting to both underfloor heating and radiators. As at Merode, the engineers were EXTRAQT and the installers were Eco-Technix.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Simon de Merode adds that they will have recouped their investment in seven to eight years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What\u2019s more, it\u2019s good for the planet: \u201cWe\u2019ve emitted 50% less CO2 than last year, thanks to this less \u2018traditional\u2019 heating system.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Want to know more about aquathermal energy? Check out the EU-funded <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ehpa.org\/news-and-resources\/news\/making-waves-in-the-north-sea-meet-the-waterwarmth-project\/\">Waterwarmth project<\/a> in which EHPA is a partner. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-gallery has-nested-images columns-default is-cropped wp-block-gallery-1 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" data-id=\"12921\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ehpa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Annevoie-1-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12921\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ehpa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Annevoie-1-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/ehpa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Annevoie-1-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/ehpa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Annevoie-1-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/ehpa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Annevoie-1-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/ehpa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Annevoie-1-2048x1536.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/ehpa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Annevoie-1-600x450.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" data-id=\"12918\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ehpa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Annevoie-2.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12918\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ehpa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Annevoie-2.jpeg 1024w, https:\/\/ehpa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Annevoie-2-300x225.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/ehpa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Annevoie-2-768x576.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/ehpa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Annevoie-2-600x450.jpeg 600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"768\" height=\"1024\" data-id=\"12920\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ehpa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Kasteel-de-Merode_leidingwerk-768x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12920\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ehpa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Kasteel-de-Merode_leidingwerk-768x1024.jpg 768w, https:\/\/ehpa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Kasteel-de-Merode_leidingwerk-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/ehpa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Kasteel-de-Merode_leidingwerk-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https:\/\/ehpa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Kasteel-de-Merode_leidingwerk-1536x2048.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/ehpa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Kasteel-de-Merode_leidingwerk-600x800.jpg 600w, https:\/\/ehpa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Kasteel-de-Merode_leidingwerk-scaled.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"678\" height=\"648\" data-id=\"12919\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ehpa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Kasteel-de-Merode_Warmtepomp.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12919\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ehpa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Kasteel-de-Merode_Warmtepomp.jpg 678w, https:\/\/ehpa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Kasteel-de-Merode_Warmtepomp-300x287.jpg 300w, https:\/\/ehpa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Kasteel-de-Merode_Warmtepomp-600x573.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 678px) 100vw, 678px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" data-id=\"12922\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ehpa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Kasteel-de-Merode-wisselaars-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12922\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ehpa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Kasteel-de-Merode-wisselaars-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/ehpa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Kasteel-de-Merode-wisselaars-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/ehpa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Kasteel-de-Merode-wisselaars-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/ehpa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Kasteel-de-Merode-wisselaars-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/ehpa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Kasteel-de-Merode-wisselaars-2048x1536.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/ehpa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Kasteel-de-Merode-wisselaars-600x450.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Think of a castle moat, and you\u2019ll probably imagine cold water meant to repel attackers rather than a heat source. Yet in two different castles in Belgium, water is being used to provide sustainable energy, thanks to heat pumps and aquathermal technology. &nbsp;\u2018Aquathermal energy\u2019 means using energy from rivers, lakes or canals to warm or [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":12917,"template":"","class_list":["post-12916","heat-pump-storie","type-heat-pump-storie","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>A watery new king of the castle - European Heat Pump Association<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/ehpa.org\/heat-pump-stories\/a-watery-new-king-of-the-castle\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A watery new king of the castle - European Heat Pump Association\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Think of a castle moat, and you\u2019ll probably imagine cold water meant to repel attackers rather than a heat source. 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