Sustainable heat network
The decarbonisation of heat in private homes is one of the UK’s greatest challenges in achieving it’s net-zero targets. Through Heat the Streets in Stithians, Kensa demonstrated an example of a practical solution to this problem.
Private retrofit of ground source heat pumps
Stithians is a village in Cornwall, located approximately 3 miles from the Kensa factory. Within the village are many examples of the UK’s typical housing stock, making it an ideal demonstrator for Kensa’s vision for the mass deployment of ground source heat pumps.
Heat the Streets was open to all residents within the village, Participation was subject to property survey and eligibility criteria, details of which are available here.
Following a series of information sessions and recruitment campaigns the team were able to provide its’ contractors with a list of areas within the village for them to start shortlisting for the deployment of the ground source heat pump infrastructure.
From this the contractors alongside an experienced design team were able to short-list the areas of the village which they believed would offer the most cost efficient solution for the heat network. These areas were divided into Phase 1 and Phase 2 installations.
Considerations for selection included the following criteria
- Clusters of homes that all registered interest
- Ease and speed of installation (e.g. no special considerations such as distance from overhead lines)
- Replicability (to help us show government that this is appropriate for medium density ‘typical’ British housing stock)