Saint-Gobain’s research on the Salford Energy House has been shortlisted in the Sustainable Housing Awards 2014.
The in-depth whole-house retrofit project is in the category for Smaller Housing Retrofit Project of the Year.
Saint-Gobain worked with the University of Salford and leading academics from Leeds Metropolitan University to prove that whole-house, fabric first retrofitting of homes can deliver a 63% reduction in heat loss and 50% reduction in air leakage, leading to benefits in the overall comfort and well-being of occupants, in addition to a reduction in energy costs.
Saint-Gobain is the first in the world to monitor and test retrofit solutions at this level of detail, with recognised experts and academia at an exceptional facility. Research undertaken through industry/academia partnerships is vital to tackle the key issues of climate change, fuel poverty and the provision of warm and affordable housing.
The approach of the project was to measure the whole-house performance post-installation using off-the-shelf Saint-Gobain systems and standard installation techniques, making the results repeatable across the UK’s hard-to-treat housing stock.
The impressive results strongly indicate that payback on projects using a Green Deal Assessment could be significantly shorter than currently predicted if Saint-Gobain whole-house solutions were installed in typical retrofit properties.
The sponsors of the awards include: Breyer Group, H + H, Higgins, Keepmoat, SPS envirowall, Sustainable Homes and Wates Living Space.
