First Zero Energy Bills Home To Be Factory-Built

As the UK is faced with spiralling domestic gas and electricity costs, a zero energy bills home sounds highly desirable to many. Now a pre-modulated home which is projected to have no fuel cost is to be installed in Essex, Development Finance Today reports. The project is to be delivered by Ilke Homes, in partnership with Gresham House and SO Resi.

The innovative new house is to be delivered as part of the Hope Green project in Stanford-le-Hope, Essex. The £44m scheme of affordable modular housing will also include 2.6 hectares of open green space, which will be maintained to encourage biodiversity.  The shared ownership houses will double the borough’s stock of affordable homes.

The homes will be engineered at Ilke Homes’ factory in Knaresborough, North Yorkshire, and assembled on-site with the aid of cranes. To create the zero-bills home, solar panels will be installed on the roof to convert to electricity, which will be used to power an air-source heat pump, to provide heating and hot water.

Giles Carter, CEO at ilke Homes, said: “The cost-of-living crisis is here and now. Since the turn of the century, UK households have become overly reliant on gas imports, leaving consumers at risk from rising wholesale gas prices.”

He added: “Thanks to advances in manufacturing, materials, and renewable energy, we have created homes that not only drastically reduce household bills, but also give consumers greater control over their own energy usage.”

Kush Rawal, director of residential investment at SO Resi, stressed that the move towards sustainable green technology in housing must be done with the whole of the market in mind, and not just be available to those who can afford to invest in it. A further 101 zero-carbon homes are to be introduced as part of the scheme.

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