Llwyn Eirin, Denbighshire

Ground source review: Llwyn Eirin

Sewing the seeds for sustainable housebuilding in Wales

Denbighshire Housing is building 18 two-bedroom and 4 four-bedroom semi-detached houses for social rent on land above Tan y Sgubor in Denbigh. The low carbon homes are being built and certified to the energy-efficient Passivhaus standard, making them among the greenest in Wales.

Along with solar panels on the roofs, ground source heat pumps from Kensa will be installed to keep tenants warm, as an alternative to gas. As non-combustion carbon-neutral systems, ground source heat pumps can achieve 70% carbon savings compared to gas.

9 boreholes of up to 136m have been drilled on-site, ready to extract naturally occurring and regularly replenished heat from the ground where temperatures remain constant all year round.

The Shoebox heat pumps in each individual property are connected through a scalable district heating network known as Shared Ground Loop Arrays. This design reduces ground array costs and time and allows each household to retain control over the use of their own heating and hot water.

The 22 properties are the first new council homes to be designed and built for the Denbighshire area of North Wales in 30 years, and contribute towards Denbighshire County Council’s target to provide 170 more council houses by 2022.

Funding for the project is from Denbighshire County Council and the Welsh Government’s Innovative Housing Programme. Brenig Construction started on site in October 2019 and the development is expected to be completed in 2022.

With the government pushing energy-efficiency measures and banning fossil fuel heating in new builds from 2025, Denbighshire County Council is ensuring its return to house-building is up with the times, recognising new priorities of energy-efficiency and future-proofing these new properties with sustainable, low carbon heating.