A householder has seen his heating bills
halved after his home was “retrofitted” with energy-saving
technology in a project involving Bedford College.
Government Minister Alistair Burt visited
the award-winning bungalow owned by Aragon Housing Association
to see for himself the theory put into action.
The MP for north east Bedfordshire met Shaun
and Patricia Freeman, Aragon's tenants who live in the bungalow in
Wrestlingworth, Beds, to view their home which had been fitted with
a range of renewable technologies as part of a major experiment in
domestic energy.
Mr Burt said: “I have been very impressed by
the project. It seems to have been an excellent collaboration
between all the partners. To achieve these results needs the best
balance between everyone and it will be interesting to see what the
Government can learn from all the data which is being
collected.”
Bob Hopkins, Aragon's Assistant Director of
Property, said: “We are delighted Alistair Burt has taken such an
interest in learning about the project. He now has a good
understanding of the difficulties that could arise unless the
Government thinks through the long term consequences of not
allowing social landlords to benefit from green energy tariffs or
green energy funding.
“As a housing association we are putting
energy-saving and
cost-saving high on the agenda for our
customers and this project has taught us much about what could be
done. “
The bungalow, winner of a Local Authority
Building Control award and shortlisted for the UK Sustainable
Housing Awards, was fitted not only with solar power and solar
heating, but also uses space shuttle insulation and a state of the
art heat ventilation system.
It was refurbished by Aragon as part of a
Government initiative with partners from SDC Construction, Bedford
College, Cambridge and Loughborough Universities and Ecodesign
Consultants.
The property in question is designated as
“hard to heat”. Tenant Shaun Freeman has seen his electricity
bill fall from £750 last year to £350 this year as a result of the
improved technology in his home. He said: “We used to be in fuel
poverty but now we are have reduced our bills by more than half. It
has worked even better than we could have imagined. This has
to be the way forward for homes.”
Bedford College Construction Training
Development Manager Barrie Yarde said: “Meeting with the minister
allowed me the opportunity to describe the work of the college and
of our involvement in the project. My colleague David Jazani led a
group that were studying for a Sustainable Construction
Foundation Degree to assist in the original funding bid and to
consult on the physics and structural design. They have
continued to assist in the monitoring programme designed to measure
the efficiency and value for money of the technologies used in the
retrofit.
At Bedford College we offer all the
professional construction and building services courses which are
required to install and maintain the green technology which were
used in this, and other, low carbon property projects.
“In the educational world, Bedford College is
a leading ‘green’ light in sustainability. The college is the
Eastern Area Skills Academy for Environmental Technologies and has
further developing its facilities to include a demonstration and
training centre to enable it to showcase an energy efficient
refurbished building on its own campus.