Renewable energy at Nuffield Place

Lawn stretching up to the house with a flower border in the middle and to the right with blue skies and a few clouds above — The house and garden at Nuffield Place, Oxfordshire | © National Trust Images/Hugh Mothersole

As part of the National Trust’s Renewable Energy Investment (REI), Nuffield Place in Oxfordshire has upgraded its electrical works so it can use greener energy. Not only is this good for the environment, it will also allow us to create new visitor facilities in the future.

Making Nuffield Place greener

In 2019, we upgraded the electrical works at Nuffield Place to become greener. The upgrade was necessary to ensure the smooth running of the new renewable energy biomass boiler there and create opportunities for new visitor facilities in future.

We removed two oil-fired boilers from Nuffield Place to make way for the new biomass one. The original oil-fired boiler was installed in the 1930s/40s and heated the house for roughly 50 years.

Two large shiny yellow boiler cylinders joined by steampunkesque brass pipes — A biomass boiler has been installed at Nuffield Place | © National Trust Images/Robin Pattinson

How does a biomass boiler work?

Wood pellets or wood chips are fed into a storage hopper.
The automated system feeds fuel from the hopper into the combustion chamber.
The energy produced is absorbed into a heat exchanger.
The heat exchanger feeds a buffer tank where the heat is stored for use in your heating and hot water systems.
Waste ash is removed periodically.

Renewable Energy Investment (REI)

The project at Nuffield Place is part of the National Trust’s Renewable Energy Investment (REI). It includes the aim to source 50 per cent of our overall energy from renewables by 2021, reducing our reliance on, and the effect of fossil fuels. Nuffield Place’s contribution is 0.13% with 92,138KwH of generated heat.