The Leeds City Council owned building had stood empty for 18 months, and the council wanted to restore it to use as a community centre. It appointed G&H to carry out the necessary upgrades and make the building more energy efficient and create a comfortable, permanent base for Project Hope Leeds to provide its community operations and popular playgroup.
G&H鈥檚 team removed the building鈥檚 gas heating system replacing it with an air-conditioning system capable of providing both heating in winter and with the benefit of cooling in summer. The team also insulated the huge roof void above the main hall to cut heat loss and made the building more weather-tight.
Moving from gas to all-electric heating was necessary to achieve the UK government鈥檚 EPC B target for a commercial building, but G&H鈥檚 design team identified that this risked increasing the charity鈥檚 energy bills. To address this, the team recommended solar panels be installed on the roof with an on-site battery to store the energy, generating circa 30,000 kWh of renewable electricity each year and cutting the centre鈥檚 annual electricity running costs by over a third. Any surplus energy generated will be sold back to the national grid, generating further income for Project Hope鈥檚 community programmes.
Together, the measures are predicted to reduce the building鈥檚 original carbon emissions by almost 80 per cent, avoiding more than 200t聽of CO2 being emitted over the next decade.
Developed around separate internal zones, the G&H design of the new all-electric systems allows different areas to be operated independently and the space to be divided and used by different community groups, including after school clubs, evening classes, private parties, and local theatre companies.