The ever-increasing demand for more low-carbon, energy-efficient homes has stimulated the development of a bewildering range of technologies, from renewable energy heating and ventilating systems to offsite construction methods with extreme levels of thermal insulation.
In collaboration with house-builders Bellway Homes and Barratt Developments and building materials giant Saint-Gobain, two detached three-bedroom houses have been built inside the climate-controlled chamber of Energy House 2.0 at the university’s Frederick Road Campus in Salford.
The homes are fitted with a range of new technologies, each of which is designed to help lower the amount of atmospheric carbon produced when a home is built and reduce the carbon footprint of the people who live in them.
Bellway’s house, which it calls The Future Home, will test the UK’s first roof-mounted air source heat pump along with underfloor, infrared and ambient heating, mechanical ventilation, both double and triple glazing (for comparison), enhanced insulation, and a prototype shower that recovers heat from waste-water.