Partners revealed for £16m research facility Energy House 2.0

The University of Salford’s Energy House Laboratories has announced its first collaborative project partners ahead of the launch of its multi-million-pound Energy House 2.0 research facility in 2022.

Among the partners included are residential housebuilder Bellway Homes, development partnership, The English Cities Fund (ECF), and a joint venture between construction materials and solutions firm Saint-Gobain and Barratt Developments.

Across the studies, the organisations will be supported by leading academics from the University of Salford in a bid to tackle some of the built environment’s biggest challenges when the state-of-the-art research and testing facility opens next year.

The £16 million test laboratory will allow scientists to change the weather conditions surrounding four furnished houses that will sit within two chambers.

Within these chambers, a state-of-the-art heating, ventilating and air conditioning system will replicate climatic conditions and environments experienced by 95% of the global population.

For more than a decade, the University of Salford’s Energy House Laboratories has been leading the way in low carbon innovation in the home.

Professor William Swan, Director of Energy House Laboratories said: “Domestic energy and heating is a major source of carbon emissions and this was a hot topic at the recent COP26 Climate Change conference in Glasgow this month. It has clearly been acknowledged by world leaders that we need to act now to protect our planet.

“Homes and the built environment contribute around 40% of the UK’s total carbon footprint, and the global picture is similar.

“That’s why we’re so excited to announce new partnerships which will help our work with key players in the private sector to drive innovation and solutions that that address global, domestic energy efficiency challenges – making a world of difference to our future and our planet.”

The research facility will allow partners to innovate, test and validate housing design, home heating and approaches to using a variety of energy technologies.

Each of the research partners will be building a house in one of the state-of-the-art environmental chambers within the facility and will investigate distinct challenges over an estimated nine months.

Energy House Laboratories and the Energy House 2.0 partners are looking to collaborate further with businesses across the UK and globally that may be interested in supporting their studies.

Last week, the Energy House Laboratories and partners held a ‘Dragon’s Den’ style pitching event with Greater Manchester-based businesses with the capabilities and ambitions to contribute towards a greener, cleaner, and lower carbon future for homes.

The event aimed to identify potential businesses to support the facility’s global investigations into the future of domestic energy and was attended by 28 local businesses from across the supply chain.

Will Swan continued: “It was great to see such a great turn out at our event, which saw businesses across the region present innovative technologies and approaches that could be considered for our

research and testing plans at Energy House 2.0 next year.

“There is a great deal of talent across the Greater Manchester business community and our partners are keen to hear from – and work with – businesses that can help contribute towards the solutions to some of the challenges our partners are looking to solve.”