Retrofit for the Future Diary

PHA’s HeatPod project in Sennen is making great headway and completion is scheduled for July. PHA won funding for the innovative proposal as part of a new national ‘Retrofit for the Future’ initiative. The national scheme aims to refurbish UK housing stock to help meet the UK government target reductions in greenhouse gas emissions and energy use. The HeatPod is one of the very few retrofit schemes in the West of England.

Denys Stephens, Sustainability Manager for PHA commented: “There are two key components to our project. The first provides a package of super-insulating measures to the house to reduce energy losses to a minimum. The second is the HeatPod, a highly innovative concept for existing homes which is built around a prefabricated multi-purpose glazed conservatory” he added. “This provides extra living space for the home with room for ‘green’ features such as cycle storage and under-cover drying. It will also contain much of the equipment required for reducing the carbon emissions of the home. This includes a new development of ground source heat pump technology”.

Denys has been maintaining a blog about the work taking place on the property. To read how this exciting project is progressing please click the following link:

http://penwithhousingpenzance.retrofitdiaries.org/

After completion, demonstrator houses across the country will be carefully evaluated by the Energy Saving Trust for at least 2 years. This data will form a database which will be made available to researchers, social landlords and energy companies to ensure that the most cost effective technologies are employed in future retrofits and the potential for lower cost implementation in volume across the remaining UK social housing stock.