First test results in from Bellway’s Future Home
The first results from the ground-breaking research collaboration between The University of Salford and Bellway have been released as the project celebrates its first anniversary.
The data has been collated from the testing of The Future Home – an experimental new zero-carbon-ready property built by Bellway inside a unique climate chamber at The University of Salford as part of the pioneering Energy House 2.0 project.
The encouraging first results indicate that the Future Homes Standard – set to be the new Building Regulations for new homes in the UK – can be delivered at scale by 2025, providing that the supply chain of key components can keep pace and skills training is readily available.
The results of the initial fabric testing of our Future Home are very encouraging and allow us to be confident of delivering homes at scale under the new Future Homes Standard.
Jamie Bursnell, Group Technical and Innovations Manager at Bellway, said: “The results of the initial fabric testing of our Future Home are very encouraging and allow us to be confident of delivering homes at scale under the new Future Homes Standard.
“We have learned lessons throughout the project which we will incorporate in future designs to ensure we deliver some of the most efficient homes provided by a volume housebuilder in the UK. With further testing to come, we will be able to provide the wider industry with data that helps inform the transition to net zero, which can only be gathered in a research facility like we have at Energy House 2.0.”
The Future Homes Standard is the new Building Regulations for new UK homes built from 2025 onwards, with all new homes designed to produce 80 per cent fewer carbon emissions than homes built under the 2013 regulations. Compared to the average UK housing stock, these new homes are expected to be significantly more efficient, bringing financial benefits to households through lower running costs, and environmental benefits due to lower carbon emissions.
Bellway’s Future Home has been put through rigorous fabric testing in the Energy House 2.0 chamber, which can recreate environmental conditions of 95 per cent of the earth’s inhabited land, with temperatures from -20c to 40c, including rain, wind, snow, and solar.
The first results from the project concentrate on the fabric of the home, including the overall performance, as well as the walls, roofs and floors.
The lessons learned are helping to develop a roadmap for housebuilders to build zero-carbon new homes in the UK.
Over the next few months, further research will focus on how homes can maintain heating, hot water and healthy living conditions using low-carbon technologies.
Further testing to come out later this year will look at how effective different types of electrified heating systems are within the homes.
For more information on The Future Home visit here.
You can read the full University of Salford report here and an overview of Bellway's interpretation of the findings of the report here
