HHP is improving the energy efficiency of a pair of semi-detached houses on the Hawtonville estate, in Newark on Trent, Nottinghamshire.

The retrofit is a partnership project between Hockerton Housing Project (HHP), consultants and lead contractors, and Newark and Sherwood Homes (NSH) the Arms Length Management Organisation (ALMO) for Newark and Sherwood District Council, and the social landlord for the properties.

The retrofit project is being funded under the Technology Strategy Board’s Retrofit for the Future Competition, aimed at finding innovative ways to dramatically improve the energy efficiency of existing housing.

Here are the two houses we’ll be retrofitting, aiming to deliver an 80% + reduction in CO2 emissions, along with visualisations of what they will look like when complete.

More details of how we’re going to do it, and regular progress updates will be posted here, so sign up to follow our progress.

Our partner Sustainable HOCKerton (SHOCK) has been busy progressing the installation of a community wind turbine in the village.

The turbine was delivered from INEOS to the site in Hockerton on 21st October. On the 28thOctober they installed the tower, nacelle and rota having had the grid and meters installed earlier that week. Simon Tilley from HHP was there in a supporting role as well as several volunteers from local investors. Now they are in the process of commissioning the machine which will be complete in 3 to 4 weeks.

The financing of the turbine is nearly complete. We have been delighted at the number of people wishing to support the project and have very nearly reached the provisional working target. 

Finally we wish SHL well in completing the commissioning in the next few weeks and starting production of large amounts of renewable energy!

An introduction from our latest members

We’re very lucky!  When we saw one of the Hockerton houses was for sale last summer, we never thought that we’d be moving in to one in the New Year but time seemed right for a change. Not only were the global energy, food and financial markets signalling that our concerns about the future were starting to emerge in reality, other projects were coming to an end.

We are now working from Hockerton, in one of the most sustainable home offices in the land! Both of us work in related fields so it’s an inspiring location, Liz now works for Consumer Focus, the consumer watchdog, in the Sustainability team, and Rob is continuing to work for London’s Green Homes Concierge Service.

What are we looking forward to?

Having been involved with Camden’s very successful EcoHome last summer, we’re both keen to get involved with the tours and speak to visitors about Hockerton and how elements of life here can be transferred elsewhere. We hope that Hockerton can play a part in inspiring, teaching, training and engaging others in the journey.

The Age of Stupid

We’ve also taken an unconventional approach to investment in the past couple of years.  As well as investing a couple of Energy4All’s community windfarms, we also gave some money to a small documentary film-maker a few years ago.  The small documentary about oil and climate change has mushroomed on the back of a huge amount of goodwill and the final cut, starring Pete Postlethwaite, will be premiered on March 15th in a solar-powered cinema in Leicester Square as part of the largest premiere ever!

After 12 years of being part of the Hockerton Housing Project, Nick White & Trudi Macagnino and their three girls; Rebecca, Francesca and Freya are preparing to leave.

A personal note from Nick White

In 1996 my family had the opportunity of joining the Hockerton Housing Project… Within months we had sold up, moved into a caravan, and started to build our own zero-heated, ultra low energy homes with four other families. Since moving in 1998, our earth-sheltered home has used less than £10 on space heating, whilst never going below 18degrees C. Overall we only use 10% of the energy we used in our previous cottage, and most of that we meet with wind and solar power….a huge testimony to the insight of designers!

I would like to acknowledge the wealth of knowledge and experience gained over the twelve years from being part of the HHP; living in the ultra low energy homes,  installing renewable energy systems, being part of an eco-community and developing an eco business supporting others to achieve greater levels of sustainability.

The unusual nature of HHP means that your fellow Directors are first your neighbours and friends and second your business colleagues. So a huge gratitude goes to Simon, Helena, Pete, Nick, Sandy, Bill, Louise and Tina for their; support, tolerance, strength, drive and kindness as our young family has matured within the Hockerton fold.

I feel very grateful to have had the opportunity of joining the HHP and going on a very real and practical journey of creating the ultimate in low energy living.  I hope that our experience shared with thousands of visitors and others that have read or seen HHP on the numerous broadcasts, has played a part in turning the tide towards greater awareness of mans environmental impact and brought about significant change to reduce this.

Looking back I have to pinch myself to realise how far we have come, turning stapled information packs to a publication available from Amazon, from tours of a muddy building site to full day technical workshops, from student dissertations to GCSE curriculum material. However the HHP people haven’t changed very much – Whether you are a politician, royal, businessman, architect, student, environmentalist or even Laurence Llewellyn Bowen or the many others that have walked through our homes – you have all been asked to take off your shoes and share the experiences or normal people trying to do things differently.

Over the last few years the sight of buzzards around Hockerton has become increasingly common, mirroring their wider success across the UK.  We are also fortunate to have resident kestrels to keep in check the abundant vole population and occasionally a sparrowhawk races through the site.

Over the last couple of weeks we have been very pleased to also have regular sightings of a peregrine (and in one case a pair) dashing across the skies over Hockerton. 

The most exciting sighting at Hockerton was an osprey last weekend. It travelled from one of the far ponds near our wind turbines, flew over the lake in front of the houses at quite a low level and did a flypast for the group visiting that day! 

One of HHP’s objectives is to enhance wildlife by providing suitable habitats in association with our own human habitation. The siting of the osprey represents something very important about the Hockerton Housing Project…it’s biodiversity.