Stroud District Council

Stroud District Council has recently begun a trialling initiative with a number of its properties using Worcester’s Greensource air to air heat pumps to provide heating for tenants in flats and bungalows.

The local government is monitoring an initial sample of 12 properties and based on the popularity and success of these renewable units there will potentially be a wide scale rollout depending on grant assistance.

The trial at these 12 homes has been coordinated by Stroud District Council as part of the decent homes act which states that a home must provide a reasonable degree of thermal comfort with an efficient form of heating system in place and an effective level of insulation (cavity wall or loft). To meet the Decent Homes Standard, the Housing Act 2004 states that every home must provide a reasonable degree of warmth to the occupants. If a dwelling does not meet the criteria, then it would be deemed unfit for occupation. The properties selected for the trial were homes which were known to have issues with damp and lacked sufficient heating for tenants, many of which were supplied by old storage heaters, which were fairly ineffective. We followed the trial to three homes in the Gloucestershire town.

Property 1

Anne Smetham lives in a two bedroom flat in Woodland Road with her dog ‘Flint’. Here the air to air system is installed in the hallway and is now the only form of heating used in the property.

Anne explains: “The air source heat pump has made such a difference to both the level of comfort in my home and my heating bills. It’s easy to use and the remote control allows me to alter the settings at the touch of a button without even having to leave the living room. The warm air that is generated creates a very pleasant environment and from just the single unit in the hallway it heats all the rooms to the ideal temperature very quickly. “I have lived here for 20 years and for the first time I am completely happy with my heating. I only need to use the system for a one hour burst to completely heat the whole flat.”

Anne has been asked to monitor her heating bills over a 12 month period and has reported that she is currently saving around £17 per week which is approximately a 50% reduction from the energy costs of the inefficient storage heaters she was using before.

Anne added: “To show how well it works, I have a temperature gauge in the living room which reads the same as the temperature the unit is giving off, according to its display. My neighbours have been so impressed, they want their own.”

Property 2

The Smith family from George’s Road have estimated more than a 50% reduction in their heating bills since the installation of their Greensource air to air heat pump and have been equally pleased with the benefits of the system’s air purifier. Simon and partner, Helen, live in the property with one year old son, Finlay.

Dad, Simon said: “I suffer from asthma but since we installed the system I have not had to use my steroid inhaler at any point when I’ve been at home and we all feel better in ourselves. The windows used to cloud up with lots of condensation but now that’s completely disappeared.”

The heat pump is also useful for reducing or eradicating the presence of air-born mould, creating a much better environment, particularly for young children. The unique plasmacluster ion generator breaks down water molecules into positive and negative ions. The ions form together with water molecules in the air and form ion clusters. The Active air purifier works with positive and negative ions to break down air pollutions in the house such as bacteria and viruses, allergenic toxins, unpleasant odours, mould and exhaust emissions.

Simon added: “We used to have to wipe the windows down two or three times a day to remove the condensation, but since the day the heat pump was installed, we haven’t had to do this once.”

Property 3

Stephan McLarnon has lived in his bungalow in Uley, just outside Stroud, for five years and is happy to have a warm home and has been monitoring the system’s cost by the hour.

Stephan said: “I keep my unit on most of the time during the day as I don’t often leave the house and I have worked out the electricity required to power the heat pump costs around 60 pence a day, which is about 4 pence an hour. I have also noticed a significant improvement in air quality.”

Decision Making

Local installer, Andy Buchan, who carried out all the installation trials explained: “The Councillors came to visit my showroom to investigate what options would be best for these poorly heated homes, all of which had issues with mould. I recommended they consider the new air to air heat pump system from Worcester. I showed them how the technology worked and they we’re very impressed with it in principal . They wanted to see if it would work as well in reality, hence beginning the field trials with the potential to roll out to 800 flats and bungalows if successful, which I’m very confident it will be.

“Extra benefits of the system include an automatic cleaning device and a turbo feature for rapidly heating up a property when coming in on a cold night. Of course the unit also has various timer controls, so it can be set to come on and turn off whenever the tenant requires. “We can also fit the exterior unit with an anti-vandalism cage to ensure it is properly protected.”

Ruth Kirkup, Asset manager at Stroud District Council, said: “We had two budgets to raise the standard of these homes, one for improving heating provision and one to reduce damp, so we decided to investigate ways we could pull these two pots of money together to fund a complete solution. Tenants have experienced very bad cases of damp due to the recycled air being pumped around the property by storage heaters and the windows never being opened to let fresh air in because it was too cold.

“We are still in a fairly early stage of the trial but the air to air heat pumps seem to have been well received by tenants, we will continue to monitor these systems over a 12 month period and complete further installations as and when the most suitable properties are identified.”

When properly installed, Worcester’s Greensource air to air heat pump can produce up to 5 times more heat energy for use in the home than the electrical energy it consumes. Greensource air to air outdoor units have a COP (Coefficient of Performance) of up to 5, which means each heat pump is capable of providing up to 5 kW of energy for every kW used.