A Greener Future For Social Housing Tenants

One of the UK’s leading designers of green technologies is calling for local authorities to help tenants lower their energy bills.

4Eco, the specialist manufacturer of microgen controllers, believes that more must be done to embrace sustainable solutions and lower energy use in social housing properties.

In fact, with over 3 million properties and 5 million residents across the UK alone, cutting carbon emissions, lowering energy use and reducing reliance on natural resources is quickly becoming a key priority.

“With rent prices soaring, rising utility bills and new government plans to streamline benefit payments, social housing tenants are being put under increasing pressure to meet living costs,” commented Jodi Huggett, Business Development Director at 4Eco.

“Although many local authorities have invested in making homes more energy efficient, by embracing eco solutions such as PV and biomass, these techniques don’t allow tenants to utilise a high percentage of self-generated energy.

“In fact, with up to 70% of green energy exported to the grid – with all profits claimed by the property owner - housing associations almost seem to be ‘renting roofs’ rather than helping tenants to reduce bills,” added Jodi.

4Eco introduced the immerSUN in 2012, and since has supplied over 4,000 units nationally, with homeowners keen to reduce energy bills and lower mains reliance.

Now trialling in social housing properties across the country, the PV switching devices have provided a perfect solution to help residents minimise energy bills.

Developed for both commercial and domestic installations, the immerSUN is an innovative surplus PV energy controller, designed with ease of installation and use, cost savings and energy efficiency in mind.

Once installed, the energy controller will reduce an average household’s energy bill by up to £250 per year, by diverting electricity generated by PV panels directly to an immersion heater, storage heater, or electric underfloor heating. Without the immerSUN, up to 70% of the electricity would be exported to the grid, rather than be used for heating.

The immerSUN is the most straightforward system to install and cost effective system on the market, helping users to minimise utility bills and cut PV payback time.