Case Study: BCHG Moat Farm Estate in Princes End - SHELTER Project

Short Description

The Moat Farm Estate in Princes End, (Post code DY4 0XH, North Road, East Road, West Road and South Road) is in the township of Tipton in the West Midlands region of England. It is about 15km/10 miles to the west of the city of Birmingham. The project will extend to various other addresses across the region.

Almost all of BCHG’s dwellings with cavity-walls have already been insulated by filling the cavity. Where houses have not been insulated there will either be a technical problem that prevents treatment or a property might have been missed in a past insulation programme. It is much more expensive and technically more difficult to treat solid walls, which is why we have not treated them before.

This programme is focussed on treating dwellings with solid walls that would not otherwise have been treatable; because of the relatively high cost of this measure. In the UK, a typical solid wall looses heat at a rate (U-value) of 2.1W/m2K.

Key Elements

Thermal Insulation

110mm of thermal insulation and render will reduce the rate of heat-loss to just 0.35W/m2K; comparable to the walls of new dwellings built in the UK as recently as 2005.

The minimum thickness of loft insulation is now 300mm because we have repeatedly topped-up loft insulation. We now apply either 100mm or 200mm insulation across whatever thickness is already in place, to always surpass the minimum requirement of 270mm. The reduced rate of heat loss should
be approximately 0.16W/m2K.

It is anticipated that air leakage will still be significant. That rate of air change will remove a significant amount of moisture vapour that might otherwise cause problems of damp and mould growth. The application of solid wall insulation, externally, allied to the installation for double-glazed windows which incorporate high standards of draught-proofing will halve the rate of heat-loss through uncontrolled ventilation.

Heating and Hot Water

The back-boilers and gas fires are replaced by a wall-hung high efficiency condensing and modulating combination boiler so the domestic hot water cylinders can be removed, releasing blocked storage space.

A programmer provides the option to have the heating come on and switch off at three adjustable times during each day. There is a wall thermostat that governs the boiler, preventing firing if the temperature is acceptable – this is usually located in the circulation space, e.g. hall. In other spaces each radiator is fitted with a thermostatic radiator valve.

Other Renewables

There are no plans to include solar water heating or solar photovoltaic panels as part of this project.

These technologies are not practical because most of the dwellings face east-west. We have a separate project investigating how to fund solar installations in the small number of dwellings where the roofs face approximately south.

Where we install solar water heating systems and combination boilers, the solar system usually includes a small hot water storage vessel in the loft that transfers stored heat to mains cold water that is then supplied, at a higher temperature, to the boiler; reducing the fuel burned by the boiler to heat the water for the taps.

Main Results

We believe that there is potential for the cost to reduce over time. Some of the processes that we have employed for the first time demanded one-off investment that should not be needed a second
time. If others replicate what we have done some of the new ways of working will become accepted as standard or common practice and some of the time and therefore cost of engaging people and organisations and teaching them how the process works will not be needed.

The key areas we believe that improvements will be found are:

• Assembling area-based programmes with multiple owners – this will be a key feature for accessing the UK Government’s proposed energy company obligation grants (ECO) associated with their proposed Green Deal financing mechanism.
• Data collection is already improving. The introduction of Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs) as a mandatory requirement for new dwellings and any sale or re-letting of a rented dwelling has caused some data to be collected for some dwellings. About 25% of BCHG’s dwellings now have an EPC. This data will increase in quantity and quality, especially if the UK Government’s proposed Green Deal is successful.
• Specification development will become easier and less costly as the quantity and quality of data improves. The UK Government’s proposed Green Deal financing mechanism will increase the numbers of new technologies being installed and that will reduce cost. Lower cost will accelerate the rate of installation; bringing further cost reductions and wider application. This will apply to low carbon and alternative energy technologies and the rates of carbon saving achievable for a given budget should accelerate.
• The work to develop back-to back framework contracts should be re-usable in future and therefore not be as expensive.
• There is an opportunity to have pre-approved designs for the change of external appearance, in the form of formal guidance from local authorities. Planning approval should therefore no longer be needed for the vast majority of the 7-million solid walled dwellings in the UK that could be insulated externally.

Lessons learned

The SHELTER project and this pilot created a focus for BCHG that had not previously existed.

This pilot enabled a range of new approaches to be explored and implemented that delivered a near doubling of the available capital budget (to ￡1M) and very substantial (3000+lifetime toe) carbon savings that would not otherwise have been achieved until much nearer to 2050.

The cost of deep whole-house carbon saving measures in the UK is still beyond the financial reach of social landlords and demands substantial subsidy for early deployment.

Funding rules attached to grants, especially in the UK and for carbon saving measures, are complex and demand dedicated and specialist attention to develop specifications that are practical yet meet the funders’ requirements.

In the meantime, it may be more efficient for social landlords to apply for planning permission on behalf of attached dwellings belonging to others.

Single-measure programmes are the most cost-effective way for smaller social landlords to maintain their dwellings at a given standard when the dwellings are widely geographically dispersed and components have very different service lives.

The biggest problem we encountered on this project was aligning the work and contracts from several single-measure programmes.

In future and where possible, smaller social landlords with dispersed dwellings should attempt to identify programmes of work to dwellings outside their stock and which they can join to obtain economies of scale.

Where they cannot join such programmes, employing the co-ordination model that brings work programmes and contracts together to collaborate will be the most cost effective approach.

The absence of local authority guidance and a simplified notification and approval process for change of appearance of dwellings with little or no architectural value has added considerable time, cost and complication to this SHELTER pilot. It is a recommendation of this report that the UK planning regimen adopts the “deemed-to-satisfy” approach that has been adopted for the self-certification of energy saving building components such as safe boiler installation and replacement windows. It is accepted that in locations where the architectural value of existing facades is high, the normal and comparatively expensive planning process will remain in place but the vast majority of UK mass housing has little or no architectural value and could be enhanced by a planned change to appearance that the local authority should determine on behalf of the community as art of their area plans. The UK planning system urgently needs to address the issue of guidance on how best to treat solid walled dwellings where the insulation has to go on the outside of the building; changing the appearance. This can be a one-off exercise that has the potential to save the UK economy up to ￡1.4Bn of unnecessary expenditure. Even where applications can be grouped together, the potential saving is still between ￡30M and ￡50M.

Additional Information

Contact:

Kim Cherry
BCHG - Black Country Housing Group
E-mail: cherryk@bcha.co.uk
Phone: +44 (0)121 561 1969