One Vision Housing started installing an new timer device for domestic heating systems, which it believes could save lives.
The device, from Honeywell, will remind tenants when an annual gas service is required by restricting the heating to manual control only, or disable the heating completely.
If a gas safety inspection does not take place in the property within a 12-month period, an alarm is activated and will continue to sound intermittently until it reaches a set cut off point when the central heating will de-activate altogether. The central heating will not then re-activate until a gas safety check has taken place on the property.
One Vision Housing has invested heavily in its gas servicing drive over the last 12 months. It is hoped the Honeywell device will cut further the instances of cases where tenants refuse to allow engineers access to their property.
To ensure access is granted One Vision Housing has initiated legal action against almost 100 tenants within the past year and sees the Honeywell ST9100S as the ideal solution to solve the problem before legal action is required.
One Vision Housing is installing the system in all its properties with boilers over 15 years old. This is part of its wider Decent Homes programme, which will see thousands of new central heating systems installed across the Borough before 2010.
Winchester's newly opened planetarium was the venue for an inventive conference hosted by the Wayfarer consortium, looking at design solutions for maximising sustainability in affordable housing.
Wayfarer, a consortium of registered social landlords who apply for Government grants jointly, have Swaythling Housing Society as the lead registered social landlord in the group. The development group's partners work in Hampshire, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Dorset, Surrey, Sussex and Wiltshire.
The event was hosted by author, diarist and eco builder Will Anderson, the journalist who kept many enthralled during the construction of his tree house in the middle of Camden last year. The range of expert speakers included Wayne Hemmingway, co-founder of Red or Dead and specialist in eco designs; Dr Derek Wall, writer of a series of books on environmental politics and teacher of political economy at Goldsmith College; plus Housing Corporation South East Innovation and Development Manager, Dr Karin Stockerl, who said:
"It has been good to participate in this unique and informative event. With so many speakers talking about different aspects on everything to do with sustainable housing, it has given us stimulating thought to take away for the future especially at this crucial time for meeting the new Code for Sustainable Homes requirements."
As a result of the 77,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions that are released every year for heat and power provision to the Wayfarer members combined housing stock, they take seriously the need to dramatically decrease output. Members have been engaged in a number of high profile eco projects that have had a significant bearing on the negative impact that development can have on the environment. Many of these provided key examples for the event.
