University decarbonises by degrees
16th August 2026
UK: Birmingham City University has replaced the gas heating in its School of Health Sciences with heat pumps, as part of a wider £3.3m decarbonisation programme across the university’s estate.
Delivered by principal contractor SHEco Renewable Systems in collaboration with wholesaler Kooltech and heat pump manufacturer Mitsubishi Electric, a two-month value-engineering process identified £2m of savings for the university, while fully meeting the building’s requirements.
The funding has enabled the university to replace ageing gas boilers and chillers at its City South Campus with a heat pump-led heating and cooling system. This provides more than 1MW of heating and 1MW of cooling, with 50kW solar array and extensive LED lighting upgrades to further reduce electricity consumption.
The measures support the university’s long-term sustainability strategy and carbon reduction commitments, marking one of the university’s first large-scale, heat pump-led decarbonisation projects and setting a clear benchmark for building transformation in the higher education sector.
The solution uses two Climaveneta NX2-Q air source heat pumps which provide simultaneous heating and cooling to the building. These also feed four EW-HT water-to-water heat pumps which boost the water temperatures to 70°C, avoiding the need to change any of the secondary-side heat emitters, which helped reduce the overall budget.
Specialist product support from Mitsubishi Electric also ensured the flow temperatures matched the cooling and heating loads for the building, while meeting the requirements for the funding supplied by thePublic Sector Decarbonisation Scheme, and existing City South Campus buildings infrastructure.
