Client Situation:

ClwydAlyn Housing Association required retrofit improvements to 20-year-old, EPC D homes in Conwy, North Wales.

Tom Boome, Head of Technical Innovation and Climate

“We were looking for a heating solution that would help to reduce energy bills for our residents, whilst fitting well with our sustainability goals.

The NexGen Ceiling Paper product has offered us a simple, low maintenance option, which is quick and easy to install, without too much disruption for our residents.

We are seeing very positive feedback from residents, who are delighted with the warmth, significantly lower running costs and the ability to operate the system easily from the thermostats in each room or the smart app on their phone.”

Pre-Installation Findings

Tenant Situation: Tenants had been struggling to meet comfort warmth at an affordable level.

Issue: The sitting room and entrance hall & bedrooms failed to consistently reach 18°C. Storage Heaters would run out and require expensive boost function.

Supplementary Heating: Several tenants were using supplementary heating, mainly an electric fire to increase temperature in their sitting rooms.

Heat dissipation: Tenants commented on heat feeling as though it escapes very quickly with rooms affected from drafts and prevailing winds.

Post-NexGen Installation Findings

Efficient Heating: Delivered efficient cyclical and zonal heating. Rooms stay warmer for longer.

Rapid Warm-Up: Quickly warmed up to the target temperature (e.g., 21°C).

Energy Reduction: Cyclical heating & increased control delivered energy reduction.

Comfort: Tenant defined comfortable heat at 20°C.

Humidity Control: Significant reduction in humidity.

Initial Support: Initially, tenant used manual in room thermostats – with support and training now able to use the mobile App for further refinement on controls.

Stabilised Humidity: Humidity now stable under 60%.

Net results:

Before: Average 14 day consumption on storage heaters was 138kW

After: Average 14 day consumption with NexGen was 78kW

Outcome

Everything is great! The system is working perfectly, and we are finding the optimum way bit by bit. At first, we found it a bit weird, but very soon found it so much better than the storage heaters, not once have we had to resort to topping up the evening temperature using our electric fire as before.

The app works well for me and the wife is happy to stick with the manual control. Based on our experience to date I would highly recommend this system to all. It works really well with the solar batteries and is slashing our bills magnificently we can use cheap rate electricity to pre charge the battery when the following day is expected to be overcast and store the days sun for all our needs when the sun is out.

Having come from a house heated by gas our main issue here was the delay and cost of staying warm… now it’s better than before! I started some tomato seedlings off in trays on the now redundant storage heaters… they all germinated in 7 days and thought they were in Spain!!!

Best regards,

Mike

ClwydAlyn resident, Conwy. February 2024