Crawley Homes has joined NetZero Collective - a nationwide group working together to make a positive impact by reducing carbon emissions.

Council housing in Crawley is a mixture of flats and houses built between 1915 and the present day. Many of these homes were built to create Crawley New Town. We want to provide our tenants with more affordable energy, heating and hot water in warm, well insulated homes. But it’s becoming increasingly difficult for us to design and fit energy efficient systems in the older homes. 

Using the groups’ expertise and shared experiences we can find the best ways to make our properties warmer and more energy efficient while lowering carbon emissions.

We currently have ten council homes in a pilot programme. We have chosen different property types of various age and build which will allow us to explore a range of energy efficient options for them.

The pilot is a new and exciting way of making the most of the options available. We hope to extend it to more properties soon.

1. Monitor - First we monitor properties measuring indicators including: temperature, humidity and electrical energy usage.
2. Design – The monitoring data enables us to design a complete retrofit using energy efficient heating, hot water and electricity. This could include, solar panels, batteries, air source heat pumps, plus new insulation.
3. Install - Once the design is agreed the work is done. After completion we continue to monitor these homes to see how much impact the work has had.

These have been monitored for six months and have now been surveyed ready for design proposals.

We will soon ask for more volunteer council properties to join the scheme.

If you have any questions or you’d like more information please email Alan Moore, Mechanical, Electrical and Energy Efficiency Surveyor.

The programme will:

• help us develop the right energy efficient solutions for each property type
• bring lower energy bills for residents
• prevent fuel poverty
• provide warm, well ventilated homes and a positive environment for residents.

The project will help us reach our target of net zero carbon emissions before 2050.