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Cottsway undertakes low carbon rural pilot

01.11.2010

Cottsway Housing Association is piloting a low carbon breathable wall system in its rural affordable housing development of 16 homes in Stanton Harcourt, Nr Witney, Oxfordshire. These homes will include a range of renewable technologies and will reach the Code for Sustainable Homes Level 4.

Cottsway is working in partnership with the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) and the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA), using the system developed by Lime Technologies.

The most radical renewable construction material and method being used here is Tradical® Hemcrete. Hemp is the fastest growing crop on the planet after bamboo and absorbs carbon dioxide as it grows. It is a carbon positive product that absorbs more carbon dioxide than it produces. The breathable timber frame and Hemcrete external walls of the new homes will sit behind either lime rendered or reconstituted Cotswold stone facades. Hemcrete is part of the composite breathable wall and has excellent properties in terms of providing a healthy environment within the home.

This breathable low carbon wall method itself could well prove a benchmark in moving UK housing towards a sustainable model and stimulate the growth of eco-friendly construction methods.

The construction of the dwellings incorporates the use of FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) certified sustainable structural timber frames, triple glazed windows and timber door sets which will improve the thermal performance of the dwellings.

Additionally, we have incorporated renewable technologies: a grey water recycling system, which involves recycling bath and shower water which will be used for toilet flushing; Ground source heat pumps, using heat from the ground to provide the heating for the dwellings; Photo voltaic panels will provide carbon friendly solar power to offset the cost of running the ground source heat pumps and ventilation systems, as well as reducing household energy requirements, with any surplus power generated being fed back into the grid; A heat recovery ventilation system compliments the breathable wall structure by extracting stale, damp air and supplying clean fresh air while also recovering in excess of 75% of heat from the outgoing airflow.

Cottsway and DFx, a Witney based innovative technology company, have jointly developed a smart monitoring system which will provide a real time measurement of energy use within each home.

Residents will also be given instructions on how to get the best use out of the renewable technologies installed within their home. Just consider that an average two-bedroom home costs over £1000 a year in water usage and the cost of heat and power; we are hoping we will reduce running costs to around £200 per year!

A low carbon sustainable development need not be out of keeping as the properties have been designed to be in keeping with the Oxfordshire Cotswolds vernacular.

Cottsway Housing’s head of development, Adrian Miller said: “We are so pleased that the Department of Energy and Climate Change, together with the Homes and Communities Agency, have supported our plans for rural low carbon sustainable homes within the village of Stanton Harcourt. The 16 homes will go a long way to meeting local housing needs by providing low cost housing for local villagers priced out of the housing market and are otherwise living at home with parents for longer, or having to move way from employment, family and friends.As well as being highly sustainable the new homes will be attractive and well designed, easy to live with and be affordable.  

We hope that Cottsway can continue to deliver more homes benefiting from low carbon conduction and renewable technologies, whilst reducing the need for public subsidy.”

Our partner contractor, EG Carter, should complete the 16 new homes in the spring of 2011. All the dwellings are for affordable rent and will be allocated to local households through West Oxfordshire District Council’s Rural Exception Site lettings policy.

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