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New heating system relieves fuel poverty |
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17 Jun 2015, 7:02 PM
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Housing Associations were given the stark facts about excess winter deaths at a recent event, where they heard that every winter around 30,000 people die in the UK because they are too poor to heat their homes.
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Housing association resident Mr Rowe.
Hosts Trent & Dove Housing and Kensa Heat Pumps provided step by step advice backed up with case studies to help housing associations combat fuel poverty in rural and off gas grid housing stock through the installation of ground source heat pumps.
Taking Trent & Dove Housing’s recent retrofit programme which replaced electric heating with ground source heat pumps in 133 rural properties as evidence, the event presented the compelling case for ground source in social housing, which one attendee remarked during the presentations as “a no-brainer”.
The event was attended by over 60 social housing professionals and jointly hosted with the National Housing Federation and associated project partners.
Steve Grocock, Director of Property Services for Trent and Dove Housing said “We have calculated there are around 200,000 bungalows in the country that match the profile of those which we have just upgraded to ground source heat pumps; these are homes that are off the gas network, electrically heated, and in fuel poverty – or very close to it.
“We have seen an immediate saving on tenants energy bills – many of whom are elderly and vulnerable - as a result of our upgrades programme, which we see as being key to reducing fuel poverty and excess winter deaths in our stock; the fact that 30,000 deaths nationwide every winter are deemed ‘preventable’ (according to the Office of National Statistics) is just unacceptable. Small measures such as replacing night storage heaters with more efficient and affordable ground source heat pump systems can make a big difference – in fact, in some cases, it is the difference. We should all be doing this – what are you waiting for?”
The event charted the key stages of the recently completed heating upgrades programme, which culminated in the replacement of night storage heaters with ground source heat pumps, connected to ‘micro’ district heating systems, in 133 bungalows throughout Staffordshire and Derbyshire
Taking place over just four months, the ambitious project witnessed innovative collaborative working between Kensa, heating installation contractors J. Tomlinson, renewable consultancy Encraft, and geothermal drilling specialists Geo Drill, as well as a dedicated project support team from Trent & Dove. Together, they delivered a scheme that not only significantly reduces tenant energy bills, but also provides the housing association with a subsidy from the Energy Company Obligation (ECO) and a long term income stream through the Renewable Heat Incentive.
Grocock continued “Until now, many housing providers have struggled to finance the upfront capital costs associated with ground source heat pumps, even though the maintenance costs and, of course, tenant’s energy bills are significantly reduced. However, Kensa was able to unlock a combination of funding from the RHI and ECO that made the financial case for the project stack up. With their support and our contractors J Tomlinson and Encraft, we have achieved an outcome that many housing associations dream of; halved tenant energy bills, halved CO2 emissions in our stock, improved tenant health and wellbeing and generated £2.3m of income through the ECO and RHI to off-set our £1.8m investment – and all achieved in just 4 months.”
The results of the scheme are ground-breaking: with a potential tenant annual running cost reduction of £62,000, tenants are saving on average between £350 and £750 on their fuel bills per year and have given the new system overwhelmingly positive reviews.
“This is the best heating I’ve ever seen – and the hot water is even better still. I’d recommend it to anybody, and it’s not just me talking…everybody I’ve spoken to has been terrifically pleased with it”, said resident of four years, Mr Rowe. He suffers from motor neurone disease, and as a consequence struggles with controls and mobility.
Fellow resident Mr & Mrs Carter agreed: “The storage heaters were fine up to a point, but come 6pm in the winter months we had to use an electric fire, which meant we had some quite big electric bills. There is no comparison to this system and the night storage heaters – this is 1000 times better. It is absolutely wonderful. The house actually feels cleaner. The temperature is terrific. You can control it. It’s brilliant, absolutely brilliant. I’m sure it’s knocked years off my age!”
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The scheme uses a micro district system, which involved clusters of boreholes being drilled to serve as communal heat sources for individual ground source heat pumps located inside each bungalow. This application ensures the schemes eligibility for Non Domestic Renewable Heat Incentive income over 20 years, and as it is a retrofit project, also attracted an upfront subsidy payable through the Energy Company Obligation (ECO).
Over 600 storage heaters were removed in total, with 10km of boreholes drilled and 32km of pipe installed. Working to the ambitious four month timescale, 20 installations took place per week at the peak of the operation with a heat pump being installed every 4 hours.
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