Although we believe we’ve come up with a very energy-efficient retrofit design, and combined with the energy offset provided by the investment in the community wind turbine will deliver a zero carbon solution, there is still one critical element over which we have limited control – the tenants.

In highly energy-efficient houses that combine high thermal mass and significant levels of insulation to remove the need for a space heating system, it is vital that the occupier appreciates the design concepts and how to live in the house; if you leave a window open in winter the house is going to get cold!

Therefore we will be working with the tenants moving into the retrofitted houses, to help them understand how the houses are designed, and more importantly how they need to occupy the house to ensure this design is effective.

This subject was covered during a seminar at the recent National Energy Management Exhibition (NEMEX), and included a name check for Hockerton Housing Project.