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A new sustainable development of social housing has officially opened in Huntingdon.
The Greenhart Grove site on Mayfield Road uses the very latest technology to meet ‘level five’ of the Code for Sustainable Homes on 29 properties.
This means that the houses are only one step away from being the most environmentally friendly buildings possible and are substantially above the energy-efficiency level of a typical home.
The Code for Sustainable Homes has been introduced as a single national standard to show the housing industry how to design and construct sustainable homes without adding to the burden of climate change.
To achieve level five a home must; use a maximum of 80 litres of water per person per day, have an annual surface water run off no greater than that of the site before the development began and show a 100 per cent improvement over the target emission rate from 2006 building regulations.
Water efficiency has been applied using a calculator to ensure that occupier consumption does not exceed 80 litres per day in the 29 properties at the Greenhart Grove site; the average is 145 litres per day for this region. As well as this micro meters at nine properties will monitor usage from every outlet within the home.
Anglian Water will then be using this data to demonstrate usage and by continually working closely with the occupiers and housing association we will be able to educate them on efficient water usage and how to monitor their consumption.
As well as this the properties will recycle water from showers and baths to flush toilets, and flow limiting devices have been fitted to reduce the amount of water which comes out of the taps and showers. This will result in a reduction of wasted water in the home and continues the regions excellent work to look after this precious resource.