Wurrungwuri

Architect: Carter Williamson Architects

Builder: Artechne

Location: Birchgrove, Sydney NSW

System: Geothermal Exchange System with Titanium Plate Heat Exchanger

Capacity: 80kW

Project Brief/Scope:

• High-end residential project
• Titanium plate heat exchanger using Sydney Harbour for heating and cooling
• Forced-air cooling via bulkhead fan coil units
• Hydronic underfloor, pool, spa, and domestic water heating
• 33% additional capacity for entertainment purposes

What good is having Australia’s largest, most experienced and most diverse team of in-house geothermal exchange engineers if you don’t also have agility?

CWL Group prides itself on tailoring each and every design to not only the particularities of the project – thermal demands, site conditions, and client preferences – but also to the everchanging costs and availability of equipment, material, and labour.

A combination of all of the above led CWL Group to determine that the optimal solution for this client’s ground-source heat pump system was not to use the ground at all. Instead, a built-to-order titanium plate heat exchanger was ordered from the United States and integrated into the structure of the client’s jetty.

Further to never taking a cookie cutter approach with design, CWL Group will also never cut corners with installation. In the past, other contractors have used steel and stainless steel material to affix their titanium plates in the harbour which rust and corrode due to both continuous exposure to the saltwater and galvanic corrosion between titanium and steel. Conversely, every metal component of a CWL Group installation in Sydney Harbour is made of high-grade titanium, right down to the affixing hardware which is imported from a Victorian motorsport company.

While thermal modelling suggested that 60kW of plant would have been enough to maintain the home during standard conditions, the client opted to “supersize” their system to 80kW for additional redundancy, and to ensure there was enough capacity to handle entertaining dozens of guests throughout Sydney’s hottest summer holidays, even as those days become hotter and hotter in the decades to come.