How to...

Horses for courses

Every property is different and has very specific requirements. It is important to bring green energy consultants in from the start of the project to give advice about design, product specification, installation and maintenance.

Do not be duped by pitches from salesmen flogging the ‘one product fits all’ myth. Each property must be assessed for what combination of green technologies works best, including heat pumps, solar thermal, biomass, hydro and insulation.

A challenge we had at a new build by Monaghan Developments for Affinity Sutton Housing Assocation in East Grinstead, for example, was to provide individual energy readings for each of the 20 social housing apartments. This was overcome by installing heat meters to measure the temperature and flow to each apartment for billing purposes of each individual system.

New-build or retrofit?

It may sound obvious but it is important to remember there is a huge difference between the products that should be used for new build and those for retrofit projects. New builds tend to be better insulated so their hot water demands are more level with their space heating demands. But in retrofit properties, say a 1930s semi-detached house, more space heating is usually required because the houses are less well insulated.

The poorly insulated 1930s council house will need a bigger heat pump system, depending on elements such as what kind of windows and walls the property has. The new build will be a lot better insulated and, therefore, a smaller system will satisfy. To optimise the energy efficiency, it is essential to consider all the elements before judging what size and type of heating and hot water system is required. Simple - but if you get it wrong the project is an expensive energy inefficient mistake.

Check your advisors

Social landlords must thoroughly research their green energy advisors. It is vital to bring in experts who have an established track record in working on substantial green energy projects.

Ask for evidence of industry qualifications and examples of previous work, and be sure to request testimonials from other landlords. It is desperately frustrating to see social landlords ripped off by tradesmen who think they can do the job with minimal training or cowboys who are just after a fast buck.

Education

There is no point installing a suite of top class, carefully selected green energy products if the occupier is clueless as to how they work.

Householders who have paid for a system will have a greater interest in the technology and are more likely to achieve a greater level of efficiency than if it was free. Social landlords must work round this with their tenants.

This means education and instruction, showing occupiers how to optimise the equipment which will ultimately save them money on their heating bills. If you install solar thermal, for example, you should advise occupiers that it is better to shower in daylight hours than during the evening when the solar thermal won’t work and the back-up boiler has to kick-in to heat the water.

Cost
The cost depends on the size of the social landlord’s properties - we are working on projects ranging from £67,000 for seven homes in Charlton, east London, up to a £1.2 million, 300-home new build initiative in south London. This sounds like a massive cash outlay but there are now cash incentives to help pay the costs of going green.

Under the government’s feed-in tariff, which launched on 1 April, property owners who install low carbon electricity technology, such as solar photovoltaic panels and wind turbines up to 5 megawatts, will be paid for the electricity they generate - even if they use it themselves. Your green energy advisor should be well-versed in both the low carbon buildings programme (phase two) through which grants of up to 50 per cent can be obtained. There is also carbon efficiency reduction target funding for social housing organisations wishing to install ground source heat pumps into existing dwellings.

Justin Broadbent is managing director of Isoenergy, a renewable energy product installer based in Surrey. For more details, visit www.isoenergy.co.uk

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