Energy
Energy performance / Fuel Poverty
The average Council / HA home has a resident living in the property in fuel poverty. The Fuel poverty gap is an average of over £297 in these homes. Therefore a system that delivers a reduction in heating bills of over £300 a year would take the average tenant out of fuel poverty. The average house in the UK has an estimated total energy cost of £2,508 or £209 a month. The Stourbridge Powerhaus will have a total energy cost of lower than £25 a month to heat and light. Saving the resident at least £184 a month.
Insulation
It is proposed to use a Closed Panel Timber Frame system to build the homes. The system is efficient to manufacture with reduced waste and uses significantly less carbon in both manufacture and in use. It also offers lower energy bills for residents. The off-site manufacture process reduces costs and potential for defects and allows for higher levels of insulation and greater air tightness. When combined with a whole house ventilation system with heat recovery, this produces a warm and comfortable environment.
In addition, the system is fast to erect on-site and to complete. External panels can be erected in one day. The homes are incredibly well insulated with 200mm of insulation in the wall panels. We achieve a 'U' value of around 0.18 as opposed to 0.35 under current building regulations. This insulation will result in heating bills far lower than those of traditionally built homes. The homes are manufactured in the Black Country.
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PV Systems
The PV System allows PV to be installed as an integral part of the roofing system. An 'in roof' solar PV installation is erected in a manner that it replaces the existing/new roof covering for the area covered by the solar PV panels. A typical system would see a 'tray'/frame type assembly secured to the roof structure. This system will then accommodate the solar panels to give a flush finish, which some consider to be more asthetically pleasing.
PV has demonstrated the ability to generate power and is a tried and tested means of generating electricity.
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Salt Water battery
Storing energy in batteries enables you to consume all the solar energy you produce and control your energy costs. The salt-water batteries are environmentally-friendly solar batteries which are optimized for daily deep cycling and provide robust, reliable performance with no maintenance requirements. The batteries can also provide backup power during storms and outages to ensure that you have critical power when the grid is down.
Competing battery technologies have their drawbacks: lithium ion batteries can be dangerous, and lead acid batteries can be unreliable and maintenance-heavy. Both technologies rely on heavy metals which leave a legacy issue for recycling.
Salt water batteries are
• Safe - The safest batteries in the world; non-flammable, non-explosive, non-hazardous, and touch-safe.
• Sustainable - No heavy metals or toxic chemicals and the only batteries in the world to be Cradle to Cradle Certified™.
• Cost-Effective - Low upfront installed systems cost due to simple architecture, and minimal to no operating costs.
• Simple Maintenance-free, no battery management required, and compatible with all leading power control electronics.
The battery system has operated in the background at the property without the tenant needing to intervene. It operates in the background providing additional energy when the tenant needs it.