New report highlights need for more sustainable temperature controls
Comfort cooling is only financially viable in London residential schemes with values of around £1,000 per sq ft and above, a new study has found.
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The Heating & Cooling Study 2020, carried out by Knight Frank, MSMR Architects and Core Five cost consultants, highlights more sustainable and less costly options for developers.
It suggests air source heat pumps, which can heat and cool homes at scale, would be a viable alternative.
Heat pumps can serve larger more complex residential developments, as well as offering lower carbon heating and cooling.
They also operate more efficiently at a lower temperature than a conventional boiler, meaning the likelihood of overheating is diminished, leading to cost savings for developers.
The Committee on Climate Change suggests that by 2030, 2.5 million heat pumps should be installed in UK homes, compared to 20,000 in 2016.
In Norway, heat pumps represent 95% of heating systems in new homes and are installed in one third of households.
Tom Dailey, a partner at Knight Frank and co-author of the report said: “London is hot and getting hotter; developers need to find more sustainable and cost effective ways to heat, and more importantly cool, their buildings. With the drive towards London becoming a zero carbon city by 2050, developers need to change their approach. The good news is that the opportunities to provide affordable, flexible and sustainable solutions are evolving quickly.”
Read the report in full here