Octavia awarded £150k in final stage of energy saving competition

Tuesday 1st June 2010

The Technology Strategy Board (TSB)'s Retrofit for the future competition aims to drastically cut carbon emissions in existing social housing, helping the UK to meet it’s target of an 80% reduction in carbon emissions by 2050. The competition is designed to create energy efficient, cost effective and comfortable example homes by retro-fitting existing houses with innovative technology that has the potential to be developed for wide-spread use.

Octavia alongside competition partners Eight Associates, Paul Davis + Partners, Green Tomato Energy and Ryder Strategies have been awarded £150,000 in the final stage of this Government funded competition to begin refurbishing their exemplar home, following success in phase one where £20,000 was awarded to begin testing their energy saving ideas.

Octavia's Energy Manager Lewis Lowe said: “This is an exciting time for Octavia; it could be a turning point in the retrofit of hard to heat homes. The installation of monitoring equipment will allow the success of the project to be measured and most importantly we are allowing open access of that data to others. Octavia are keen to ensure our future property refurbishments are carried out to a standard that works towards the UK’s emissions reduction target. We are fully aware of fuel poverty and its effects - this project is an example of excellent work to reduce this.”

Director Hamish Phillips of Green Tomato Energy said: “We are hoping to produce the world’s first PassivHaus retrofit of a Victorian terraced house. The challenges are great, but the learnings we take from this project will enable us to make great strides in reducing the CO2 emissions of Octavia’s – and other RSL’s - existing building stock.”

Environmental consultant Jean-Pierre Wack from Eight Associates said: ‘We aim to cut the home’s CO2 emissions and energy consumption by 83 and 94% respectively, cutting the fuel bills produced by the house by an estimated £910 a year. We are aiming to deliver against the Retrofit challenge and the government’s fuel goals by creating a practical and effective whole-house prototype which provides a comfortable, healthy and spacious living environment.’

Posted by Rashmi for Octavia Housing and Care