The project seeks to disprove that ‘going green’ is both expensive and disruptive by developing an affordable retrofit strategy that could be replicated on a national scale. It involves incorporating a range of innovative technologies into two fully occupied study properties with the aim of slashing fuel consumption by 70 per cent and reducing carbon emissions by 80 per cent.
Paul Roche, Director of SIG Sustainable Solutions commented: “We are delighted to work with LHA-ASRA on such an important demonstration project. We predict that the solar solution we have supplied will offset up to 40 per cent of the electrical demand in the homes, as well as providing hot water during the summer months.
“Crucially, the affordability of this kind of technology is greater than most people expect with the recent introduction of incentive schemes such as the Feed in Tariff. What needs to happen now to unlock the potential further is for Government to introduce the Green Investment Bank, which would give individuals access to capital, allowing them to invest in generating their own green power.
“With only one per cent of the UK building stock renewed each year, the importance of reducing the carbon emissions from our existing stock, which accounts for 27 per cent, can not be overestimated. It is projects such as these which could provide a blueprint for eco-refurbishments which could be rolled out up and down the country, in particular providing a means of breathing new life into ageing social housing stock.”
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LHA-ASRA was granted funding for the project as part of the nationwide programme ‘Retrofit for the Future’ implemented by the Technology Strategy Board.
William Cornall, Director of Development and Regeneration at LHA-ASRA said: “There are 27 million existing homes in the UK, most of which rely heavily on climate-damaging fossil fuels. These are responsible for around 30 per cent of our total carbon emissions.
“As well as building greener new homes, finding ways to make older housing more energy efficient will play a vital part in meeting the government’s ambitious targets of reducing 80 per cent of emissions by 2050.”
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