Kensa Heat Pumps has been working in partnership with Trent & Dove Housing to install ground source heat pumps to almost 200 rural sheltered properties in East Staffordshire.

Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC), recently visited an award-winning housing association project in Burton upon Trent.

At a home which has recently undergone a GSHP installation under the second phase of the project, Lord Bourne expressed his admiration for the scheme, made possible largely due to the innovative way it accesses streams of government funding.

He said: “Social housing tenants in East Staffordshire are saving hundreds of pounds on their energy bills thanks to Trent & Dove’s innovative project, in partnership with Kensa. It's great to see Trent & Dove putting the consumer at the heart of their plans, leading the way for others to follow.”

The system approach used by this scheme is recognised by DECC and Ofgem as a ‘micro heat network’ and qualified the project for Energy Company Obligation (ECO) funding, and 20 years of income via the Non-Domestic Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI).

Steve Grocock, director of Property Service at Trent & Dove Housing, said: “Tenants involved in the first phase of this GSHP scheme are already seeing energy bills reduced by as much as 50%, and, anecdotally, are reporting significant improvements to their health and well-being, as well.

He continued: “We estimate that tenant electricity costs will be reduced by a total of over £50,000 per year, at an average of £390 per resident. The average electrical energy consumption of each property is expected to drop by 75%, producing an annual CO2 saving of 2.8 tonnes of carbon dioxide (tCO2).

 “We are delighted that Lord Bourne has chosen to visit our project and we hope more housing associations use the ‘blueprint’ we have created, to access the funding necessary to install innovative heating systems such as GSHP’s and make a real difference to people’s lives,” concluded Mr Grocock.

The second phase of the ground source heat pumps retrofit works sees the district heating solution being introduced to a further 60 Trent & Dove Housing properties in Burton upon Trent. It is due for completion this month and is currently being documented via a live blog on Kensa’s website at www.kensaheatpumps.com/category/blog

Trent & Dove Housing and Kensa Heat Pumps have released a video documenting the first phase of the project, which saw the installation of ground source heat pumps into 133 bungalows. The video is available to view at www.kensaheatpumps.com/video/case-study-trent-dove-housing

Pictured above: Lord Bourne, Trent & Dove Tenant Mr Bullock, and Dan Roberts (Kensa) with the new hot water cylinder and Kensa ground source heat pump (below the cylinder – not visible in photo)