Hockerton Housing Project is looking for community energy projects who want to learn from our experience, to take advantage of a new Mentoring Fund.

The scheme is only open to applicants until 12 December 2013, but successful applicants will receive support through to March 2015. It’s a rare offer of funding for community projects that aim to:
·      Generate energy
·      Reduce energy use, and/or
·      Manage and purchase energy

We have a range of experience to share, in terms of scale and technologies, in energy generation, reduction and management. And we are experienced in mentoring a range of projects, having run a similar service through the Energy Saving Trust, as well as our current advisory services.

We would be particularly keen to partner with multiple organisations to improve the cost-effectiveness of our application, with the programme starting with a joint workshop here at Hockerton before moving on to a mix of one-to-one support, community outreach and shared learning initiatives.

Find out more about the fund here, noting the eligibility criteria. If you are interested in the mentoring scheme please get in touch by 2 December, telling us a little about your organization and what you are trying to achieve in the next 18 months.

We look forward to hearing from you!
The HHP team

The generally recommeded level of loft insulation, and that provided in most new build houses today, is 250-300mm.  The houses already had about 250mm of insulation in the loft, but we have topped that up to between 600-700mm.  In addition, we have then sealed the loft hatch so that occupants cannot then compact the insulation by storing lots of belongings on top of it; if loft insulation is compacted, a lot of the benefit of the insulation is lost – it restricts heat transfer because of the air pockets within the fibres.

Significant levels of insulation in the loft

Although there is no access to the loft, the houses now additional storage areas in the sun space and porch.

Insulated thermal store

The hot water in the houses is provided by a super-insulated thermal store heated with an electric immersion heater.  A thermal store is like a traditional hot water cylinder, but the key difference is that the hot water in the cylinder is not the hot water used, instead it simply acts as a heat storage mechanism, hence the term thermal store.  The hot water delivered to taps and showers, is actually cold water directly from the mains supply, which is then passed through a large copper coil (heat exchanger) within the thermal store, and in doing so extracts energy from the hot water in the store to heat it.  As the water in the cylinder is not being used directly, it does not need to be heated to 60 degrees to kill legionella bacteria; instead it can be kept at aorund 45 degrees, significantly reducing energy consumption.  The hot water delivered is around 40 degrees, more than adequate for washing and showering.

Super insulated thermal store - it is in there, honest!