Retrofit for Social Housing - Solihull, Birmingham

The project partners are:

• Beattie Passive - inventors of the patented TCosy™ Retrofit build system
• Encraft: energy consultants and Passivhaus designers, who are the TSB lead partner
• Coventry University: for tenant involvement and assessment
• Solihull Community Housing: a subsidiary of Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council, who own the block of 6 flats to be retrofitted

Beattie Passive is actively involved with a project for Social Housing in the Midlands using its innovative Retrofit solution TCosy™ which provides a fast, low cost and highly replicable solution for a wide range of buildings. The TCosy™ dramatically reduces energy requirements, creates a healthier living environment and can be delivered whilst residents remain in their home.

The project has a three stage approach:

• Analysis of tenant energy usage pre-retrofit
• Retrofit of apartments block containing 6 flats
• Analysis of tenant energy usage post-retrofit

Project Benefits:

• The project will deliver CO2 savings, typically in the range 2-4t CO2 per year per dwelling. On realistic assumptions of rapid scale up to 1000-5000 properties a year, will contribute up to 20,000t CO2 savings a year to the national effort to reduce CO2 emissions.
• There was minimal disruption to residents as they remained in their homes for the duration of the retrofit process.
• Energy bills will be dramatically reduced (anticipated 84% reduction from £1,064 per flat to £166) and residents will also benefit from an enhanced and healthier living environment.
• The approach provided training and labour opportunities which is hoped to have a positive impact on social inclusion and long-term economic benefits for local communities. The Jericho Foundation manufactured the TCosy structure.
• The project developed models for best practice in tenant and community engagement, ongoing liaison and feedback loops which ensure energy use is optimised but also ensures tenants and communities are happy with the outcomes of the project.

Technical Specification:

“We’ve enjoyed working with Beattie Passive on the Retrofit project at Grandys Croft in Solihull and seen with great interest the impressive transformation of these six flats. Throughout the project Beattie Passive’s Site Manager Steve was on site to liaise with the residents who were able to remain in their homes for the duration of the construction process.

His presence as a supportive and familiar point of contact throughout the project was really appreciated by our residents and was an important feature of the way Beattie Passive managed this project. We are looking forward to the feedback from our tenants and seeing the impact their new super insulated homes have. This type of project is central to our commitment of providing improved thermal and energy performance for the homes in our community.”

Ron Beattie and Mark Pinnell at Gandys Croft