Energy Savings with New Homes
Rising energy costs are impacting everyone. For those looking to buy a new home, according to the research from the Home Builders Federation (HBF), there is an opportunity to reduce energy usage and bills in a new house by up to £2,600 per year. In this blog we’ll look into the research from the HBF that shows how new builds are more energy efficient and how our Acorn Green principles are implemented to not only cut energy usage but reduce impact on the planet too.
A report by the Home Builders Federation (HBF) has suggested that due to technological advancements in new homes – such as innovation of the materials used in their construction and the appliances installed, new build homes are becoming more energy efficient than ever, resulting in energy usage that is considerably less than older properties, with the average new home using approximately 100 kWh per m2 per year compared with older properties which require an average of 259kWh per m2.
According to data from the HBF, on average, new build purchasers save an annual £395 on heating bills, £28 on hot water and £12 on lighting. In total, the yearly household bill for owners of older properties was £890, almost twice as much as the annual bill for a new build which was £455.
Each Acorn development is individually and intelligently designed and built to the highest quality and centred around our Acorn Green principles to ensure that each home will have a positive impact on the environment as well as smart building technologies that will lower the cost of everyday living. All our new build houses are energy efficiency rated EPC B or above and feature high performance window systems, as well as superior insulation to ensure limited heat loss. We regularly install underfloor heating because it distributes heat evenly around the room preventing hot and cold spots, plus our integrated kitchen appliances and LED lights are all energy saving. We’re also electric car charger ready in many of our sites.
An air source heat pump (ASHP) is an energy efficient, renewable solution that’s used on many of our schemes instead of gas. They work by moving existing heat energy from outside into your home, and in doing this they deliver more heat energy than the electrical energy they consume – therefore a heat pump system can cost less to run than a traditional fossil fuel heating system. Alternatively where any of our sites do use gas, the boilers are highly efficient and in most cases are hydrogen-blend ready.
Our pinnacle in energy efficient new homes will be Arcady in Newlyn. All homes here will have an EPC rating of A as a minimum. To achieve this, a number of innovations will be used; heat will be supplied by air source heat pumps instead of fossil fuels and the homes will benefit from PV panels; A Sunamp thermal storage system will be installed to efficiently store heat for the hot water system, replacing the traditional hot water cylinder, and a Mechanical Ventilation Heat Recovery system will feature to take the hot air created in the warmest rooms such as the kitchen and bathroom and then extract it, so that the stale air is filtered out and blended with fresh, clean air from outside in a heat exchange unit. In addition, there will be electric vehicle charging. All landscaping will be bee-friendly and peat-free to also help with carbon reduction.
To read the full ‘Watt a Save’ report from the Home Builders Federation click here
