Whether you’re a homeowner, self builder, developer, landlord, or business, find the perfect ground source heat pump for your project with Kensa's heat pump solutions.
Kensa's design & support services coupled with a comprehensive range of ground source heat pumps ensure homeowners enjoy significant energy efficiency, bill savings & government funding.
Kensa’s ground source heat pumps bring social housing communities together to help eradicate fuel poverty & reduce heating bills. Using cost-effective Shared Ground Loop Arrays, housing associations can reduce carbon emissions on a huge scale.
Swimming pools, hot tubs, boat sheds, boats, water parks: you name it, we've fitted it! Ground source heat pumps offer an energy-efficient solution to heating & cooling water sources, as well as using water sources to heat & cool buildings.
Small but packing a punch, the award-winning Kensa Shoebox series produces temperatures up to 65°C. It features the quietest & smallest ground source heat pump on the market, offering an efficient, practical & affordable heating & hot water solution.
The efficient Evo series features 7kW, 9kW, 13kW & 15kW single phase models, & a 15kW three phase model. The elegant, simple-to-install, & ErP A+++ rated Evo series offers a 15% gain in efficiency & low noise outputs, perfect for medium to large homes.
The Kensa Q comprises of modular three phase models to provide tailored outputs for high heating & cooling demands, providing greater flexibility & compatibility with Building Management Systems
Kensa is unique - in addition to manufacturing heat pumps, we also help you to design & install your system. Find your ground source heat pump installation solution using Kensa-approved installers, our consultancy service, or Kensa Contracting’s services.
Kensa works as a partner with installers to deliver exceptionally well-designed systems which out-perform the market. We pride ourselves on the quality of our technical support, whether via training, on-site, remotely or online.
Looking for a verified heat pump installer? Kensa has a nationwide network of trusty installers to help you with your project. Simply submit your plans & Kensa will recommend the right installer for you.
Kensa Contracting, sister company to Kensa Heat Pumps, are the UK’s specialist delivery partner for large-scale ground source heat pump programmes. Find out more about Kensa Contracting.
The Boiler Upgrade Scheme is a government-proposed scheme to deliver grants of up to £6,000 towards heat pump installations in UK households. The scheme, which was known as the Clean Heat Grant, is intended to replace the Domestic Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) from April 2022 to 2028.
The ECO supports retrofit efficiency works in the domestic sector with an upfront grant, with a particular focus on vulnerable consumer groups & hard-to-treat homes.
The Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme is a fund dedicated to heat decarbonisation & capital energy efficiency projects in non-domestic public sector buildings across England.
Through this scheme, an investor funds the network – known as Shared Ground Loop Arrays – to cover the most expensive aspect of the project. In return, the investor can charge connection fees if they wish.
Home » Ground Source Heat Pumps for Social Housing
Ground Source Heat Pumps for Social Housing
Ground source heat pumps keep tenants affordably warm all year round. By installing heat pumps, social housing providers can tackle fuel poverty and reduce household heating bills – relieving tenants of the ‘heat or eat’ ultimatum. Kensa’s systems also help providers to deliver on Climate Emergency Declarations and lower the carbon footprint of UK housing.
Why choose heat pumps for social housing?
Independent & easy-to-control heating
With Kensa’s Shared Ground Loop Array system – a low-carbon and decentralised district heating network – tenants have independent heating and hot water. A heat pump is installed inside each home to give them complete control over comfort levels. They even have the freedom to switch between energy suppliers.
Safe heating
Kensa’s Shoebox heat pump is a compliant and reliable match for social housing, particularly high rise buildings replacing gas combi boilers. Like all Kensa heat pumps, the Shoebox uses non-flammable refrigerant; a safe alternative to combustion fossil fuels and flammable-refrigerant renewables.
As well as that, non-combustion ground source heat pumps do not need flues, ensuring compliance with fire safety and building regulations.
Honour Climate Emergency Declarations
Ground source heat pumps emit no air pollution, bringing environmental improvements to the community. Using the lowest carbon form of heating, local authorities can take immediate action to reduce carbon emissions in social housing and honour Climate Emergency Declarations.
Shared Ground Loop Arrays with ground source heat pumps can offer passive cooling, while the ambient temperature of the distribution system prevents potential overheating.
Minimal disruption
The installation can be kept to the desired schedule, minimising disruption to tenants’ day-to-day lives. All works can be completed while tenants are in situ.
What are the cost-saving benefits for social housing?
Affordable heating
Ground source heat pumps use free renewable heat to cut heating bills by typically 30-50% when replacing night storage heaters. Providing affordable warmth, they can eradicate fuel poverty, reduce excess winter deaths, and improve tenant health and wellbeing.
Low-lifetime ownership costs
Landlords and tenants will appreciate the minimal maintenance, lack of annual servicing requirements and 20-year longevity of the heat pump. This ensures that whole-life ownership costs and disruptions are very low.
Split the costs
Housing associations unable to finance the most expensive element of a ground source heat pump system, ground arrays, can utilise a split ownership model to attract external investors to fund the ground arrays. In return, they can receive a ‘standing charge’ when heat pumps are connected to the infrastructure.
This makes the ground source heat pump project costs relative to that of an air source heat pump system, but with the added benefit of significant carbon, energy and lifetime cost savings.
With the support of Kensa, Trent & Dove Housing has achieved an outcome that many housing associations dream of; halved tenant energy bills, halved CO2 emissions in our stock, improved tenant health and well-being - and all of this in just 3 months.
More housing associations should be doing this - what are you waiting for?!
Steve Grocock, Director of Property Services, Trent & Dove Housing
Why are heat pumps ideal for social housing heating?
They are perfect for community district heating schemes
Ground source heat pump district heating networks bring communities together – in new or existing homes – to eradicate fuel poverty, reduce excess winter deaths and deliver significant carbon savings.
In Kensa’s district heating schemes, a ground source heat pump is installed into each home, providing heat and hot water at the point of use. By connecting individual heat pumps through Shared Ground Loop Arrays, each household has independent energy bills, heating and hot water. The decentralised approach prevents issues such as heat loss through the distribution pipework and overheating – a common problem for traditional residential district heating systems.
Close-knit social housing communities can use Shared Ground Loop Array systems for quicker installations and reduced groundwork costs by sharing smaller numbers of deeper boreholes. Using the drilling equipment whilst on site means projects can save on multiple mobilisation costs compared to disparate projects.
They offer the most efficient approach to heating & cooling
Building regulations and Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs) demand lower carbon emissions than ever before. By delivering efficiencies to, and occasionally beyond 400%, a heat pump is social housing’s answer to energy efficiency now and in the future.
The more the electricity grid decarbonises, the lower the carbon factor associated with ground source heat pumps becomes; Kensa ground source heat pumps installed today will have lower carbon factors in the future as hydro, solar and wind power dominates the electricity grid.
They provide smart & controllable heating
Ground source heat pumps can be combined with smart controls to enhance comfort and savings for tenants.
By using smart controls that learn a household’s heating preferences and building heat physics, tenants can avoid the peaks of grid strain and shift the heat pump’s power consumption to the times when the grid can best accommodate it – when there is lower carbon and lower-cost electricity. The heat pump will turn on when there is extra electrical capacity, and turn off when the grid is under strain from peak electricity times.
Ground source heat pumps have far more potential to participate in load shifting initiatives than air source variants, as the ground is a very stable temperature heat source. A ground source heat pump can be run at the same efficiency any time of day or night.
The grid generally generates excess power overnight, and some of the variable tariffs can go negative. When that happens, people actually get paid for running their heating.
They tackle fuel poverty
In existing homes, space and water heating accounts for two-thirds of a typical household bill. By replacing expensive heating systems – such as night storage heaters – with low-running-cost ground source heat pumps, social landlords can immediately reduce fuel poverty and improve tenant wellbeing.
Ground source heat pumps rely on just one-third of paid electrical energy input to deliver 100% of a property’s heating and hot water needs. By providing resilience against rising fuel prices and energy security, they can prevent future fuel poverty in homes.
Whether in new social housing or replacement heating system installations, heat pumps give tenants the lowest heating and hot water costs and highest levels of energy efficiency. They can even choose their own energy provider to get the best price.
All in all, ground source heat pumps tackle fuel poverty like no other communal heating system.
Energy saving tips for rented properties
Kensa has compiled some energy-saving suggestions to share with residents to raise awareness of energy efficiency and help reduce the cost of their energy bill. Download these tips as a shareable PDF.
Our Wellbeing Plan commits us to a continual improvement in our energy use and carbon footprint. This project is a fantastic example of how we can use renewable energy sources to help reduce our carbon footprint, tackle fuel poverty and support the global agreement to achieve net-zero emissions by the second half of the century.
Rebecca Hazlewood, Flagship Housing Group
They help UK housing achieve net-zero targets
The UK government has ambitious, legally binding targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 100% by 2050 (compared to 1990 levels). The switch to low-carbon heat with ground source heat pumps in social housing – which makes up a sixth of the UK’s housing stock – will significantly help to reduce emissions and achieve the UK’s net-zero targets.¹
Heating and hot water for UK homes make up 25% of total energy use and 15% of our greenhouse gas emissions.² The UK Heat Strategy recognises that heat pumps have a critical part to play in meeting future residential heat demand, while the Committee on Climate Change sees the installation of heat pumps as an infrastructure priority.
How much do heat pumps in social housing cost?
Project cost for retrofitting heat pump systems into 60 flats
This example portrays the typical costs of replacing night storage heaters with heat pumps in 60 flats. A Shoebox heat pump is fitted into each property, connected to a Shared Ground Loop Array of boreholes:
Pay £698,500 for the heat pump and groundwork installation.
Save £484,045 over 20 years in running costs vs. night storage heaters.
Project cost for 85 new-build homes
This example is based on installing heating and hot water systems in 85 newly built social housing homes. This project features a Shoebox heat pump in each home, connected to a Shared Ground Loop Array of boreholes:
Pay £606,960 for the heat pump and groundwork installation.
Kensa’s Shoebox ground source heat pump is commonly used to replace ageing night storage heaters, gas boilers in tower blocks, and costly exhaust air heat pumps.
The Shobox fits easily into an airing cupboard, or often underneath a new hot water cylinder to distribute hot water and heat via upgraded radiators. It provides 100% of the property’s heating and hot water needs.
How does a social housing project work with Kensa?
Support from Kensa Contracting
Our approach is very different from typical suppliers. Kensa Heat Pumps is first and foremost a manufacturer. However – whether for new build or refurbishment schemes – our specialist delivery arm, Kensa Contracting, provides complete project management, including direct supply from Kensa Heat Pumps, full system design, delivery, compliance and post-installation support of our systems for social housing customers.
Tenant liaison
This support is absolutely key, both to ensure the quality and sustainability of the installations, but also to ensure that delivery is well-managed and hassle-free. Kensa introduces schemes to tenants to make sure they’re aware of what’s involved in a heat pump installation, what to expect, and how the project will benefit them in the long term.
Across eight tower blocks in the London borough of Enfield, inefficient electric heating was pushing tenants towards fuel poverty. They had no control over their heating and no choice but to pay a fixed monthly payment towards heating and hot water.
In England’s largest Shared Ground Loop Array scheme, Kensa Contracting teamed up with Enfield Council and ENGIE to swap pricey electric for ground source heat pumps. As a result, tenants are saving between £450-700 every year on their heating. Reflecting on the positive impact of the project, Enfield Council commented:
This is an eco-friendly system that has enabled residents to save between £450-700 a year in heating costs at a time when household budgets are being squeezed. This project is good for residents and good for Enfield.
To complement the construction of 12 affordable homes, South Western Housing wanted efficient and sustainable heating systems. They chose to install Kensa’s ground source heat pumps.
The heat pumps provide tenants with low-cost and eco-friendly heating. Paul Davies, Senior Surveyor for the project, commented:
The new homes are excellent examples of great design and the embodiment of modern technology to ensure they sit well with the local character and tradition. [Ground source heat pumps] provide both heating and hot water from a sustainable source, which the occupier and the society will benefit from long term with reduced energy bills and happy tenants.
With tenants off the gas grid and facing expensive energy bills, Stonewater Housing wanted an affordable replacement for storage heaters. Ground source heat pumps were the answer.
The result? Heating bills have halved for the tenants. Leon Storer from Stonewater Housing said:
Not only do our residents benefit from significantly reduced bills, more controllable heating and improved health and well-being, CO2 emissions are halved and Stonewater gains an income from ECO funding.
Ground Source Review: Flagship Group. During Spring 2016 Kensa Contracting completed a compact and challenging heating upgrade programme for the Flagship Group featuring 11 properties on an estate in Fressingfield built in 2010. The project showcases the largest variety of communal ground source heat network designs installed on one site to date. READ IN FULL AT KENSACONTRACTING.COM
In Spring 2015 Trent & Dove Housing and Kensa Contracting delivered the UK’s most ambitious retrofit upgrades programme of its time, replacing electric night storage heating with Kensa ground source heat pumps connected to a micro heat network over 133 one and two-bedroom bungalows over 15 different sites throughout Burton-upon-Trent. This video documents this multi-award-winning…
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