Posted 20.02.17
Sustainable Homes: Article link
Hanover and partners Kensa Heat Pumps won 'Most Innovative Retrofit Scheme' at the recent Housing Innovation Awards.
The award recognised the inventive design solution found for a challenging energy-switching project in Ipswich. Residents living in 22 flats at our Ashfield Court estate previously heated their flats with electric storage heaters, which can be expensive to run. With no gas supply available, the Association opted for Kensa ground source heat pumps instead.
The design of the £320,000 project proved perfect for the site, but also meant that Kensa could draw on two streams of government energy-efficiency funding, towards the costs of installation - one of which will pay out over the next 20 years.
Residents, having their own pumps, can still shop around for the best energy providers.
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Posted 20.02.17
Sustainable Homes: Article and funding guide link
Sarah Daly's article posted to Sustainable Homes notes that - when people talk about sustainability measures and energy efficiency investment, too often the first question will be "is there funding?"
She goes on to comment on how, in many respects, funding is a double-edged sword because rather than seeing incentives as short-term stimuli to support new technologies, the market becomes dependent on them and collapses when the support is reduced or withdrawn.
However, she also ponts to the work that Sustainable Homes has been doing, to see what grants, tariffs and funding are still available.
Attached to her article is a useful list of the potential funding available to both public and private sector organisations for a whole range of energy efficiency, behaviour change and renewable projects.
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Posted 15.02.17
Welsh Government: Article link
The Welsh Government is investing £104 million over the next four years to increase the energy efficiency of up to 25,000 homes across Wales.
The Welsh Government 'Warm Homes' programme provides funding for home energy efficiency improvements to low income households and those living in deprived communities.
The £104 million funding includes £32 million of the additional £40 million funding announced in the Final Budget last month. The remaining £8 million will be invested in other green growth initiatives.
The Welsh Government funding will also lever in around £24 million of European funding, in addition to Energy Company Obligation funding.
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Posted 02.02.17
Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH): Article link
Sarah Daly, Director of Strategic Sustainability and Partnerships at Sustainable Homes, says more must be done to end fuel poverty. Her article appears as part of the CIH's recognition of the 75th anniversary of the Beveridge Report.
According to National Energy Action, fuel poverty now affects over four million households, up from one million in 2004.
What the government refers to as 'excess winter deaths', were estimated at 23,000 in England and Wales in 2015 - around a third attributed to fuel poverty.
Sarah Daly's article considers the factors that are contributing to the alarming rise in the incidence of fuel poverty and what needs to be done to address the trend.