Eco Homes Pilot Project

The Eco homes pilot project is to trial new technologies for 'hard to treat homes'

Issue:

Being a rural District Council we have many properties which are off the gas mains and currently electrically heated. This form of heating is expensive in comparison to gas heated properties and difficult to control. Through partnership with our tenant groups we have identified the need to trial different technologies to find an alternative to electric storage heaters. The aims of the project are to:

Provide hot water and heating using cost effective low carbon technologies.
Provide installations that are userfriendly and economical to run against the current alternative of electrical installations.
Determine the true running costs and carbon savings of the systems installed.
Trial improvements to the property and assess those which have the maximum benefit to the tenant and environment against the economic constraints.

Action Taken:

The following technologies and measures have been installed:

Wood pellet boiler and solar panels to provide a more economical and low carbon form of heating and hot water.
Improved insulation throughout the property.
Recycling boxes.
Fitting of water flow regulators on taps to conserve the use of water.
Provision of a low flush toilet.
Fitting of low energy external lighting with PIR sensors.

Achievements:

We are continuously monitoring the heating and hot water system downloading data from individual sensors to measure the effectiveness of the technologies being
used. In addition we regularly check with the tenants how the system is performing.
Following 12 months of monitoring we will be able to identify those measures which are performing well and include these into a package to be rolled out throughout the remaining electrically heated properties.
We also intend to share the information with our RSL colleagues in the Wealden Housing Management Group.

Case Studies:

4 Princes Field Berwick (pdf, 267kb)
9 Northfield Cottages Isfield (pdf, 256kb)