GRANT JOINS ECO NEIGHBOURHOODS PROJECT

Birmingham Family Housing Association has offered free of charge solar systems to privately owned households in the Summerfield Area with incomes of less than £20,000 per annum, or those claiming benefits. This will ultimately help fuel poverty, by significantly reducing annual fuel bills.

Currently the largest renewables project in the Country, the scheme involves approximately 250 homes. After a successful trial with local installation company New World Solar, Grant Solar Thermal was chosen as their preferred system. Installations include a standard arrangement using a twin-coil hot water storage cylinder and where houses have combination boilers fitted, a thermal store was utilised with Grant’s specially developed CombiSOL valve arrangement. The various house styles mean that installations include Aurora and Sahara in-roof and on-roof mounting, with single and double collector arrays, and even South and East/West facing arrangements.

Staff of both Birmingham Family Housing and New World Solar attended a solar course at the Grant UK Headquarters in Devizes. The training covered key features and benefits of the Grant Solar System, including solar collector installation, pump station function, control system operation, filling, flushing and commissioning procedures. Attendees commented on how informative the course had been and that it was extremely beneficial to the success of the project.

Councillor John Lines, Cabinet Member for Housing, said:
"It is great to be able to help make a difference to the lives of residents and at the same time reduce CO2 emissions. Birmingham is leading the way in tackling Climate Change and reducing fuel poverty and working in partnership with Family Housing will continue to make further improvements to housing in the area."

Birmingham's homes produce over 2.3 million tonnes of CO2 per year according to Birmingham Strategic Partnerships draft Climate Change Strategy. Utilising Grant Solar Thermal in this scheme will help the city reduce carbon footprints and bring them closer to the greenhouse gas emissions target for 2010.