An innovative new
heating system which will significantly reduce residents’ heating costs has
been installed at a development of 49 one- and two-bedroom bungalows in Burton
Gardens, Weobley.
Leading social
housing provider Stonewater has been working with Kensa Heat Pumps to install
new ground source heat pumps at the development which will replace residents’
expensive electric night storage heaters and immersion hot water systems. The
new heating system works by drawing up solar energy stored as heat in the
ground.
Piloted by
Stonewater, the retrofit scheme aims to provide residents with warmer and
cheaper home heating, saving them hundreds of pounds each year on their energy
bills.
Scott Baxendale,
Stonewater’s Executive Director of Assets, says: “As a responsible housing
provider, we have been looking for new and sustainable ways to help provide our
residents located off the gas grid with access to cheaper and more efficient
home heating. We are delighted with how well this pilot scheme has gone and are
now looking forward to introducing it in other viable Stonewater housing
communities across the country.”
The district heating
system at Weobley features a Kensa Shoebox ground source heat pump inside each
property, independently billed and controlled by the resident. Each heat pump
is connected to a series of communal ground arrays. This unconventional yet increasingly
popular approach to district heating qualifies Stonewater for 20 years of
income through the Government’s Non Domestic Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI), as
well as overcomes reported issues of traditional district schemes, including
split ownership and overheating.
David Broom, Kensa
Sales Manager, says: “We have already heard that residents are seeing marked
improvements in heating bills. 150m below our feet, these borehole
installations are providing an infrastructure which will deliver 75% of the
heat required for these properties, for free, for the next 100 years. The homes
are warmer and more comfortable as the cost of heating is significantly
reduced, plus they are also protected from future cost increases as the
majority of the energy required comes naturally from the ground beneath us.”
