A landmark order by
Together Housing to replace night storage heater’s with ground source heat
pumps in over 700 dwellings across Lancashire and Yorkshire, is the largest
single order of its kind in the UK.
UK manufacturer, Kensa Heat Pumps, and contractual
division, Kensa Contracting,
will fulfil the order worth over £7.5m over the next three years.
A diverse array of
properties will take part in the heating upgrade scheme, from bedsits to
maisonettes, low rise flats, houses and bungalows. It is estimated the
investment will reduce lifetime carbon emissions by up to 40 tonnes in the
bedsits to 200 tonnes in the three-bed flats; the project will result in
massive emissions savings, comparable to a 5MW solar PV farm featuring 20,000
solar panels covering an area of 30 acres.
Tenant fuel bills
will be reduced by typically 30-50%, annually saving around £150 per bedsit up
to £500 per house.
Patrick Berry,
Managing Director of Together Housing’s Energy Services, comments: “This
investment is a major commitment to ensuring our homes are affordable and
energy efficient. Using renewable heat we can provide our customers with clean,
comfortable, low cost energy and lower our carbon impact. It forms a part of
Together Housing’s strategy to maximise the potential of renewable heat and
power and we are delighted that the projects are now underway.”
The new ground
source heat pump infrastructure will consist of a series of communal boreholes
connected to individual heat pumps within each property, Kensa call this system
‘ambient shared
ground loop arrays’. The shared ground loop array infrastructure is
deemed a district heating system, qualifying the project to be part-funded via
the Energy Company Obligation and receive a twenty year income via the Non
Domestic Renewable Heat Incentive.
Dr Matthew
Trewhella, Managing Director of Kensa Contracting, comments: “Together
Housing’s landmark investment in ground source heat pumps via the Procure Plus
framework is a pioneering step by a social housing provider to address the
emissions of existing housing stock and fuel poverty levels; their commitment
to innovation, community, and the environment is a benchmark for fellow housing
associations and new build developers to follow.
“Their
commitment to renewable heat indicates a market transformation of the UK’s
approach to heating infrastructure. Substantiated by Government’s Spring
Statement announcement of a future homes standard mandating the end of
fossil-fuel heating systems in all new houses from 2025, following the recent
Committee for Climate Change report calling for the end of gas grid connections
to new build housing in six years, this is the beginning of the end of
inefficient heating infrastructure in the UK, on and off the gas grid.
"Political and
building regulation pressures have built the case for ground source heat pump
infrastructure in UK housing, and now the climate threat has built the
urgency.”
Claire Perry,
Minister for Energy and Clean Growth, commented on the record-breaking energy
efficiency programme of works: “I’m delighted to
see how many more businesses and organisations, such as Kensa and Together, are
seizing this multi-billion pound opportunity to energize their communities to
tackle the very serious threat of climate change.”
A recent report by
the Greater London Authority concluded that compared to various air source,
direct electric, gas and CHP configurations in new build houses, shared ground
loop arrays are the most efficient, lowest carbon, and lowest cost solution.
