This pilot concerns a 12 flat residential unit block in Norwich (UK). The property is occupied as a domestic violence refuge for women and children. There is a very high demand for the accommodation. The support is managed by a local charity, Leeway, but tenancies are held with Cotman Housing Association (part of the Places for People Group) and we carry out all repairs. There has been a history of heating and hot water issues at the scheme.
As a solution to these problems and to reduce CO2 emissions from heating, we propose the use of super-compact Heat Battery technology that has been intelligently designed and will be installed to provide a clean, efficient and cost-effective thermal energy storage solution. Heat batteries deliver cascades of hot water and highly responsive space heating with superb efficiency and proven savings of up to 75% on utility bills. The technology has been tested in Scotland and works really well.
The target in this project are 12 homes: 70 m2 2-bedroom apartments. The homes are to be made gas-free in an economical way. They will therefore also be well insulated, to maximise the effectiveness and cost-efficiency of the heat battery technology installed.
Two battery devices will be placed per apartment. Storage is automatically controlled. The tenants only have to adjust the temperature settings. In summer tenants can turn the system off to save energy. Hot water is always available even if the heating is switched off. When the thermostat is switched up, radiators get warm within 60 seconds, providing a better-than-gas-boiler user comfort experience.
This is a fully renewable solution that disconnects from the use of fossil fuels. The tenants involved in the project will directly benefit from the investment as their energy bills will drop significantly. In the project, we will work on a mechanism that can share the benefits between housing associations and tenants. Only in a win-win situation both stakeholders will be incentivised to replicate.
With this pilot we will reduce CO2 emissions by 50% per household to a total of 30 ton CO2/year
Successful completion of this pilot will enable further replication of the technology, which offers limitless scalability to both multi-storey an single-family houses. Housing provider like Places for People manage around 2.400.000 dwellings in UK alone. But the technology will be applicable to other tenures (home ownership, private rental sector, public housing) and in other countries.
