National partnerships developer and contractor, Lovell, has launched a new pilot housing programme called Tomorrow Home.
The programme will develop state-of-the-art, low-carbon smart homes that will help to address the climate crisis and save residents money.
The first Tomorrow Home demonstration home has been delivered at the firm’s Cornish Park development in Spennymoor, Durham, which forms part of a wider scheme of 124 homes that are currently under construction. Lovell is partnering with Thirteen Group to bring a range of two, three and four-bedroom homes for Shared Ownership.
There are two homes that are being used for the project, a pair of adjacent three-bedroom semi-detached corner turner house types – one complete with Tomorrow Home features, and the other home with more limited technologies installed.
Lovell, in partnership with Teesside University, has collected the data from the construction of these two demonstration homes and will continue to monitor the homes’ performance in use, using metrics including operating costs and embodied/operational carbon figures to assess how the Tomorrow Home performs against other technologies. This will inform the specification of future homes that Lovell develops as the business moves to Future Homes Standard and beyond.
The Tomorrow Home will incorporate a range of energy-saving and carbon-reducing features such as an Eco Heatwave infra-red system, a Vent Axia whole-house MVHR, triple-glazed windows, myenergi solar inverter and battery store linked to an electric vehicle charger and photovoltaic panels.
Across Cornish Park, Lovell has built in a range of environmentally friendly measures to support local ecology including planting the gardens with biodiversity in mind to make sure they are wildlife-friendly in line with the RSPB recommendations. For birds, they have integrated boxes and feeders, to provide both shelter and a regular source of food for a range of different species.
In addition, further biodiversity enhancements include bat boxes, bumble bee boxes, bug hotels, compost receptacles and water butts.
National sales director, Justine Elliott, said: “We are delighted to formally launch our Tomorrow Home pilot programme, as part of our commitment to building a brighter, more sustainable future for all.”
“As a responsible business, we are driving our emissions down year on year and are constantly looking at innovative ways we can do this, while at the same time continuing to deliver much-needed, multi-tenure homes right across the UK.”
“Collecting and sharing data is massively important here. Thanks to our partnership with Teesside University, we are able to measure the performance of alternative electric heating systems and various other new-to-market technologies, so we can gain valuable insight and continue innovating, as we plot a path to net zero.”
