Developers have made their own commitment to zero-carbon homes, building their own concept homes that go beyond the government’s Future Homes Standard.
At Mitsubishi Electric we are working with major national and smaller regional developers, who are building homes for the private sector and social housing. Their appetite for heat pumps, and for Mitsubishi Electric’s Ecodan units, is immense.
In early 2020, Barratt Developments announced its commitment to building zero-carbon homes from 2030. The first phase in reaching this audacious target was through building a concept home for the future – The Zed House. They appreciate how climate change is the greatest challenge facing society and will affect how we will all live and work. Therefore, the Zed House project is in place to help create zero carbon and nature-friendly homes to minimise people’s carbon emissions.
The Zed House goes significantly beyond the Government’s Future Homes Standard, delivering a 125% reduction in carbon emissions. To help meet Barratt Development’s goal, they had to find a suitable, efficient, and cost-effective alternative heating solution that would minimise carbon emissions compared to traditional heating systems such as oil or LPG boilers.
The fossil fuel crisis is the biggest factor affecting home energy bills. Modern technologies such as Mitsubishi Electric’s Ecodan air source heat pumps are a perfect solution for the challenge Barratt Developments faced. Heat pumps are a modern alternative to traditional heating systems, helping to keep heating bills low and deliver reliable heating all year round. A 5kW Ecodan was installed to provide heat to the home via infrared radiators and heated skirting boards.
The Ecodan unit supplies the Zed House with the requirement of a comfortable indoor environment. With homes needing to be more efficient and emit less carbon, Ecodan air source heat pumps will help to reduce carbon emissions, lower running costs, and offer reliable and sustainable heating and hot water all year round.
Being easy to install, the Ecodan unit met the requirements for the Zed House through the system being able to reduce CO2 emissions whilst also reducing running costs, helping to meet renewable energy targets. The unit works by harvesting energy from the outside air and converting it into heating and hot water that can comfortably meet the house’s requirements.
“Ecodan is fantastic energy and engineering, but it’s the cylinder as well, and that’s part of how Mitsubishi Electric has been helping to work with us. Because we deliver 18,000 plus homes, at some point, we’ll have to put in possibly 14,000 to 16,000 air source heat pumps, so we have robustly got to know what we’re doing, and Mitsubishi Electric is part of the partnership that we’re looking to do that,” said Oliver Novakovic, Technical and Innovation Director at Barratt Developments Plc.
The Zed House, along with being an incredibly environmentally friendly home, will now comfortably receive low carbon emitting heat and hot water production for the future.
At Mitsubishi Electric we are proud to be part of a development to help create more low-carbon homes.
To find out more about The Zed House, listen to our Ep16 SaS podcast at ecodan.me.uk/zed