THE GREEN FUTURE OF SOCIAL HOUSING

In this article, Adam Cherry from Boiler Guide looks at social housing efficiencies and how the future of heating needs to adapt to environmentally-friendly solutions with gas boiler alternatives.

In December 2017, I found out that I was going to become a father. As the news sunk in, I was stunned into silence as I began to process the excitement and anxiety that took over my body.

I had a sense that everything I felt was perfectly natural, but there was another feeling I hadn’t expected: overwhelming guilt that my child would be living in a world paying the price for the actions of previous generations – including my own.

I immediately started making changes. I went vegan, I completely ruled out the idea of learning to drive – unless I could find an instructor with an electric car (still looking), I started cycling to work, and liquid hand soap became bars of soap as we cut out single-use plastics.

All of these changes and yet there’s still one thing I haven’t been able to shake the guilt of: heating my home.

In my role as a Copywriter at Boiler Guide, I research and write about central heating systems and their efficiencies on a daily basis. Doing so has made me more aware of the effect that our homes are having on the planet.

The residential sector is responsible for almost a quarter of all UK carbon emissions. That’s around the same as all the emissions from vehicles out on the roads.

One of the main reasons why our homes are responsible for emitting such a large amount of carbon? Burning fossil fuels for central heating.

As part of the UK’s target to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, it was clear that something would have to be done about how we heat our homes. And then, earlier this year, the news came from the Government that installing gas boilers into new-build homes will be banned from 2025.

If Governments and councils are so serious about reducing the carbon emissions of the residential sector, they will need to lead the way with environmentally-friendly � social housing developments.

Finding alternatives to the gas boiler for social housing

Social housing accounts for around 17% of all UK homes and, according to a report by Sustainable Homes, existing developments aren’t in a fit enough condition for the UK to achieve 2050 targets. As a result, future social housing development has a significant role to play in reducing CO2 emissions.

When it comes to finding an alternative to the gas boiler, there isn’t always an obvious solution.

The gas boiler has been commonplace in properties right across the UK for as far back as most of us can remember. Yet, housing developers will now need to come up with alternative heating solutions as well as improved energy efficiency measures to help the UK reach climate targets.

This will mean a drastic change in the way housing developers approach new developments and, for many, could mean having to pick up an entirely new skillset. After all, developing housing for a carbon-neutral world is a whole new challenge.

Rather than burning fossil fuels like natural gas, the homes of the future will likely need to turn to renewable energy. There are many sustainable sources of energy that can be harnessed and converted into heating for the home from sunlight to geothermal energy.

Thanks to the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI), which rewards those with a renewable heating system with Government payments, there’s been an uptake in the eligible technologies: Solar thermal panels Air source heat pumps Ground source heat pumps.

While these might all be ideal solutions for traditional households, when it comes to high-rise buildings, they’re not always practical. An alternative solution for housing developers could be district heating.

Rather than each home having its own boiler or heating system, a district heating system is made up of a single large boiler that provides heating to a whole community of households. For this reason, district heating might be of particular interest to social housing developers, as the several properties are often in close proximity to one another.

The large boiler at the heart of the district heating system would be able to run on natural gas, waste heat from industrial processes or biomass. They run much more efficiently than individual boilers and could considerably reduce the carbon emissions of a development.

Finding an alternative to the gas boiler is only part of the battle for housing developers, keeping the heat within the property is equally as important.

For inspiration, when it comes to the future of social housing, developers might want to turn their attention to Germany, where the Passivhaus is being developed.

What is a Passivhaus?

A Passivhaus, or Passive House, is an eco-friendly development that greatly reduces heat loss – if they even need heating at all.

Developers in Norwich have already adopted the Passivhaus way of thinking, grabbing headlines and winning awards for their environmentally-friendly council housing. Goldsmith Street is made up of 105 houses that boast thick insulation, triple glazing and a ventilation system that’s able to recirculate waste heat around the property.

With social housing built to higher energy-efficient standards, tenants will be paying less for energy bills, making it easier for them to pay the rent. Residents of Goldsmith Street could be paying as little as £150 to heat their home each year – a saving of up to 70%.

When housing developers have the environment at the forefront of their minds, everyone can benefit – the residents, the planet and our future generations.

Housing developers aren’t the only ones who need to keep the environment in mind; all of us can do our bit to help in the fight against climate change. Even something small like turning your thermostat down by a single degree can make a bigger difference than you might think.

Every day I cycle to work with my plant-based lunch in my bag knowing that when my daughter is old enough to understand climate change, I can look her in the eye and tell her how I tried to help.

But for the moment, as a tenant in a rented property, how I heat my home is something I can’t change. If this was 2025, instead of the gas boiler in the kitchen we may well have had a heat pump in the garden, and that bit of guilt I currently feel when turning up the thermostat wouldn’t exist.

As private and social housing tenants can’t make the big changes necessary, it’s time for housing developers to lead the way.