Nottingham Community Housing Association (NCHA) wanted to replace the old storage heaters in 24 of their properties. NCHA were involved in an earlier TIF project alongside Greenvision Energy Ltd whereby standard storage heaters and domestic hot water cylinders were replaced with newer versions. The storage heaters were replaced by Dimplex Quantum high heat retention storage heaters and water cyclinders with Dimplex EC Eau Ecsd cylinders.

The project was led by Cheshire East Council.

Learnings from NEA’s Technical innovation fund field trials

The first part of this project is to ensure 11 rural park homes with vulnerable residents are inadequately insulated. The second part of the project is to install battery storage systems in 22 properties with PV.

The project installed and compared the performance of three makes of batteries from, Moixa, Sonnen and Growatt in 41 properties across three London boroughs.

This project installed two different combinations of electric heating systems to 20 x 2-bedroom flats in a tower block in Walsall, West Midlands, also comparing them against a control group who did not receive new heating:

The project involves the installation and monitoring of 5kW Mitsubishi Ecodan Hybrid Air Source Heat Pumps interfaced with existing oil boilers (Hybrid ASHP) into 10 properties. The Hybrid ASHP is designed to work with the existing oil-fired boiler currently used as the main source of space and water heating. The hybrid ASHP works in combination with the existing boiler, operating when the outside air temperature is above a pre-set level. Below this level the existing oil-fired boiler will heat the property to ensure that the ASHP operates at the optimum efficiency.

This project part-funded the installation of a Gas Absorption Heat Pump (GAHP) into a sheltered housing scheme that was undergoing major refurbishment. Project partners Colchester Borough Homes had already installed one GAHP into a sheltered housing scheme with positive feedback. However, they wanted more information about the efficiency and cost effectiveness of the GAHP.

This project retrofitted existing night storage heaters with VCharge Dynamos in a tower block situated in the west end of Newcastle Upon Tyne. Despite the tower block being previously insulated and the windows being replaced, residents continued to note that they were unable to keep warm at a reasonable cost. The VCharge Dynamo aims to increase comfort and reduce energy use by charging the storage heaters by an amount proportionate to the households predicted preferences, taking into account the internal temperature, previous consumption patterns and external temperatures to determine how much charge is required. A total of 26 properties received VCharge Dynamos and of these 14 were monitored.