Tai Clwyd Housing Association
A joint project between Gwynedd Council and Tai Clwyd Housing Association has seen four affordable homes with Greenskies solar panels completed in Maes y Pandy, Llanuwchllyn (pronounced Schan-ilch-lin) near Bala.
Last year, Gwynedd Council sold land at to Tai Clwyd Housing Association for a price less than market value. This was done in order to meet the local need for affordable homes in the region.
Alwyn Llwyd, Tai Clwyd Housing Association’s Chief Executive explained:
“This initiative has been a good example of what can be achieved through application, effective coherence and close collaboration between local people, Gwynedd Council, the Gwynedd Rural Housing Enabler, Sylfeini, the Community Council, Snowdonia National Park, Tai Clwyd Housing Association and the developers themselves.”
As the landowners, Gwynedd Council have signed an Affordable Housing Section 106 Agreement with Snowdonia National Park, as the Planning Authority. This will ensure that local people will be given priority when the houses will be rented or sold in the future.
Dafydd Iwan, Gwynedd Council’s Senior Portfolio Leader – Development said:
“Gwynedd Council has decided that providing people with comfortable homes which they can afford in their own communities is one of our highest priorities, and it gives us great satisfaction to see this project becoming a reality.
Special emphasis has been given on the sustainability side, ensuring a very high level of insulation in the units as well as solar panels, funded by Tai Clwyd Housing Association. This will result in considerable savings to the occupiers with regards to the cost of hot water heating – in fact many elements of the building work exceed statutory standards.
These are the fist homes to be offered by Tai Clwyd Housing Association Tai under the Welsh Assembly Government’s neutral tenure scheme. Two families have chosen to rent and two have been sold under the shared ownership programme. Constructing the new road infrastructure to the houses has also released the remainder of the site, to be further developed for affordable housing for local people in the future.
Why Solar? Why Worcester?
Each of the four Llanuwchllyn properties has had two FKC-1S Greenskies solar panels installed on each property. Bryn Davies, Rheolwr Datblygu or Development Manager at Tai Clwyd Housing Association, explains the reasons why they chose solar and Worcester.
“We are currently working on an SAP reduction exercise for our affordable homes so we can monitor energy usage. These properties have electric storage heaters rather than central heating and these use a relatively low amount on energy already, so one of the best ways to make the homes even more efficient was to use solar thermal panels to heat the hot water. That was the main driver but of course we also considered the reduced heating costs for our tenants and improving our green credentials, which are fantastic additional benefits.”
“We chose to work with Worcester because we agree with their company values and we know that if Worcester invests in a new product it will be top quality and very reliable. We also chose Worcester because of the Greenskies panel’s robust design, ease of fitting and the fact that they are simple to operate. The network of Worcester approved service engineers and the support service they offer also gave us added reassurance.
“We have also installed simple devices to encourage the use of rain water (butts) and we are aspiring to achieve a ‘good’ eco rating which quite an achievement, considering the rural location of the area.”
Next Generation Greenskies
A year ago, Worcester unveiled a new solar water heating package, which significantly enhanced the existing Greenskies solar system.
The new high performance panels were specially developed with simple connections and with light weight materials to aid installation. The new additions to the range come in both portrait and landscape versions to maximise flexibility and installation choices.
Specifically tailored to meet the needs of the UK market and developed in line with helping meet the Government’s target of reducing CO2 emissions by 60% by 2050, the Greenskies FKC and FKT series have been designed as the ideal partner to the SEDBUK A rated Greenstar condensing regular and system boilers.
These additions include new wall mounting brackets for collectors, in roof fixings kits for flush fitting and landscape panels to maximise installation choices.
For more information on Worcester’s Greenskies solar panels:
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