This development supports the customer Central Bedfordshire Council's aim to provide better care locally and brings together a comprehensive range of health, wellbeing and care services under one roof, alongside 98 homes for people over 55.
From project handover, Energy Synergy® was fully integrated with Grove View Hub's building management system, enabling precise monitoring of energy performance across all major systems. This provided facilities management teams with instant access to performance data, automated alerts for anomalies, and monthly reports benchmarked against design predictions.
Sustainable by Design
Grove View Hub sets new standards for healthcare buildings through innovative design features that prioritise energy efficiency and occupant wellbeing:
- Enhanced thermal building envelope achieving outstanding U-values of ≤0.14 W/m²K for walls, floors, and roofs, and 1.3 W/m²K for glazed elements—far exceeding current building regulations
- Exceptional airtightness of 1.89m³/hr/m²@50pa, surpassing the ambitious design target of 3m³/hr/m²@50pa
- Renewable energy systems and low embodied carbon materials throughout
- Comprehensive sub-metering at various locations linked to a central building management system for continuous monitoring of energy use, including lighting electricity and hot water
This highly sustainable healthcare environment supports staff and patient wellbeing by ensuring excellent indoor air quality, optimal temperature control and abundant natural light.
Outstanding Energy Performance
While Grove View was designed to be exceptional, Energy Synergy® provided the critical verification that ambitious sustainability targets were being exceeded. Following the building's completion in 2023 and gradual occupation through to full capacity in 2024, comprehensive performance monitoring revealed remarkable results.
The average energy performance gap for a non-domestic new building in the UK is 34%. Using advanced analytics beyond standard monitoring tools, our building performance experts confirmed that Grove View's energy usage performance was 19.2% better than predicted over 2024.
The figure below shows some of the analysis completed by the Energy Synergy® service to identify reduced occupancy savings.
Comparing actual performance to the TM54 energy model prediction (above), the improvement in energy use has resulted in recorded annual savings of:
- Energy savings of 1,122MWh
- Carbon emission reduction of 46tCO₂e
- Energy bill savings of £55,000.
The focus on delivering an enhanced building fabric resulted in airtightness performance that greatly exceeds target levels (scoring 1.89m3/hr/m2@50pa vs 3m3/hr/m2@50pa), which has been instrumental in keeping heating loads low.
Sub-metering of the VRF heating and cooling system (below) shows consumption well below annual targets, a remarkable achievement given that projects often experience significant performance gaps in HVAC systems.
For the Air Source Heat Pump (ASHP) serving hot water, performance exceeded expectations with only two months exceeding targets during 2024 (below). Had the TM54 been configured with seasonal targets, both consumption points would likely have remained within target throughout the entire year.
Continuous Improvement Through Energy Synergy®
Energy Synergy® analysis has identified additional optimisation opportunities projected to deliver further savings:
- Additional energy savings of 57 MWh annually
- Further carbon reduction of 12 tonnes
- Additional cost savings of £17,000.
The collaborative process ensures continuous improvement, with regular review meetings identifying targeted improvements that drive down energy consumption, carbon emissions, and operational costs.
