Paving the way in South Wales

 

Introducing Sustainable Social Housing of the Future

 

Based in South Wales, the new-build development at Bryn Bragl is set to become one of the first energy-positive social housing schemes in the country. This is a Wales & West Housing pilot project being funded by the Welsh Government. The design for the homes is based on the Solcer House developed by Cardiff University’s Welsh School of Architecture with project engineering by Hoare Lea.

The design is that the fourteen homes built will contribute rather than draw from the national grid and can even be effectively 'off grid' from late spring until the end of summer. Solar powered, with battery storage, these homes are sustainable, eco-friendly, foster great air quality and boast a 90% drop in predicted household bills.

Our Role

 

In order to provide insight into how the project is performing we have implemented a solution that gathers data from these houses at frequencies from one-minute to thirty-minute intervals. This monitoring includes but is not limited to:

  • Home electricity import and export

  • Charging and discharging of in-house battery system

  • Generation from the solar PV systems

  • Internal temperature

  • Extensive data from the integrated heating, ventilation and hot water system (Pichler PKOM4)

  • Submetering of electrical sockets

We will be continuing to collect and monitor data during the occupancy of these houses to ensure that everything is working as intended. Detailed performance analysis of the data will be completed by Hoare Lea.

Looking Ahead

 

We are proud to be part of this pioneering development that will set the bar high for social housing of the future. Developments such as these will become increasingly important as the UK strives to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2050.