Contact Ernst Slabbekoorn (sales@frostfans.eu) Employer Earth Energy Solutions State/Province Hawkeʼs Bay (New Zealand) Title Senior Mechanical Engineer (Full-time) Employment Dates Jul. 2015 — Dec. 2015 Duration 100% (5 months) Tasks and Duties I was seconded to work for Earth Energy Solutions by Jackson Engineering Advisers Ltd - a family owned business that tasked me to expand their capability to expand operations from the North Island into the South Island of New Zealand. Unfortunately, the reconstruction of Christchurch after a major earthquake was hindered by unsettled earthquake insurance claims. So Jacksons recommended that I move to a start-up with ambitions to import UK/European energy efficient technology to the Australia / New Zealand market. And so I refocused to support Earth Energy Solutions in Hawes Bay.
I was tasked at Earth Energy Solutions to represent the Spanish manufacturer EcoForest (leading maker of wood pellet boilers) in New Zealand. So I investigated application of ground source heat pumps for seasonal energy storage to serve as high COP chillers. I worked with British, Spanish, and Dutch ground source heat pump manufacturers and suppliers to map the opportunities and challenges of applying the technology in the New Zealand dairy industry. I also was tasked with monitoring and reporting development of the Australian Building Code with a view of opening operations base at my home in Queensland with support of Earth Energy Solutions investors. My analysis revealed that round source avoids icing problem of air-source operation, while air- source HVAC serve non-alpine sub-tropical areas. Representative Projects With the benefit of site visits to a number of daily facilities in Hawkes Bay New Zealand, and in review of a overseas applications, I developed a concept design for milk chilling on isolated daily farms of the Central North Island of New Zealand. My design was focused on my case study of one particular farmer family at the end of the electric power grid, and so had vey limited opportunity to chill milk with conventional means. So I developed a design that included a thermal energy accumulator to ensure power lines did not need to be upgraded. Following practice of overseas exemplars I recovered heat from the milk chilling to warm the drinking water supply delivered to the herd so that livestock would not waste metabolism ingesting cold water.
Another project I developed was to implement ground source heatpump in the retrofit of a community theatre in a small rural town. This required me to determine necessary fresh air ventilation rates, and thence calculate heating and cooling loads before designing systems and selecting equipment. In this caser I found that locally manufactured air-handling units were more appropriate than eco-forest’s radiator heat exchangers.
Yet other applications required me to assess heating and cooling loads, and in most cases to recommend improved insultation in order to make a cost effective opportunity for the ground-source systems offered by EcoForest.