Victoria Primary School in Ballyhalbert, Co. Down is leading the environmental race by becoming the first building throughout the whole of the UK to be awarded an ‘A’ Grade under the new ‘Energy Performance Certificate’ scheme.
The new £2 million school, recently completed by Graham, has opened after a nine month construction period with a host of environmentally friendly features included, from flushing toilets with rain water to its very own biomass boiler.
At Victoria Primary School, just under half a million litres of water will be saved every year with toilets being flushed with rainwater, while the biomass boiler will use locally grown wood pellets to heat the building. It is also the first new build school in Northern Ireland to use a biomass boiler.
Graham designed and constructed the state of the art school on behalf of the South Eastern Education & Library Board. Speaking about the environmental features, Project Director, Keith Patrick said:
“Graham is involved in a wide range of innovative construction projects in the UK and Ireland and we are constantly looking at ways to improve how we design and construct buildings. With Victoria Primary School we have adopted highly sustainable design features that will not only save the school money but have less of an impact on the environment.
“These include Northern Ireland’s first stand alone biomass boiler in a new school, very high levels of insulation, rainwater harvesting to flush toilets and photovoltaic cells to generate electricity from sunlight. In addition the building has been air pressure tested to identify any leakage path where heat could escape. The quality of the construction was such that we achieved a test figure more than twice as good as that required by Building Control.
“The children of Victoria Primary School deserve the best possible facilities and we are very proud of what the whole project team has achieved here.’
Alison Campbell, Principal of Victoria Primary School said:
“‘Victoria Primary School is happy to embrace new technology and be seen as an innovator. We are especially proud to the first building in Northern Ireland to receive an Energy Performance Certificate.
“The environmentally friendly aspects of the building also create a great learning atmosphere for all and educate the children and parents on how important it is to think about what impact we have on the environment. We were also delighted to be able to move into our new school three months ahead of schedule.”