How to heat a rhino: UK zoo takes on heat pumps

Chester Zoo is home to more than 37,000 animals, including the critically endangered eastern black rhinos ... and their brand new heat pumps. The 128-acre zoo, which is globally recognized for its conservation efforts, has partnered with Mitsubishi Electric to provide more sustainable heating for the animals. Chester Zoo's head of sustainability, Jennifer Kelly explains: “We've been fitting air source heat pumps into our rhino houses. So these are buildings that have a high level of ventilation and space within them for the rhinos to live in when they're inside. So we have these very big buildings that need to be heated for rhinos between 18 and 24°C. But with doors big enough to fit a rhino through, open the majority of the time to provide them with the access. So quite a challenging application for an air source heat pump." But despite the challenges, Kelly says the rhinos haven’t noticed a thing. “We haven't had any feedback that they've noticed that their heating has changed at all. If anything, we can claim a real success in terms of maintaining that high heat demand that they have in that we had a calf earlier this year. So they seem very happy and settled with the air source pump system.” The partnership with Mitsubishi forms part of Chester Zoo's commitment to its goals to reduce fossil fuel use and promote sustainability. The zoo also hopes to show that if air source heat pumps demonstrate can work in rhino habitats, they can work in residential and wider settings too. “So our zoo will be 100 years old in 2031, so we do have some quite historic building stock on site that we need to retrofit. So it's about bringing up that energy efficiency standard through insulation and having a look at the way we design our buildings going forwards, is the principal challenge for us.” - Report from Reuters Visit our website at http://news.abs-cbn.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/abscbnNEWS Twitter: https://twitter.com/abscbnnews Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/abscbnnews