A game-changer for retrofit at SNG and across the UK
SNG has one of the largest retrofit programmes in the country. Combining our own investment with government funding from the Warm Homes: Social Housing Fund (WH:SHF) will enable us to improve 4,500 of our existing homes more quickly over the next three years.
As part of our ‘Homes and Place’ strategy, we’re also funding additional pilot projects to trial different heating and hot water technologies, so that we can benchmark the outcomes before rolling out future phases of our retrofit programmes.
One of the most exciting pilots is with Mitsubishi Electric 
and involves installing Ecodan R290 high-temperature air source heat pumps into gas heated and other homes with existing ‘microbore’ or small bore pipework.
This innovative approach cuts installation costs, reduces disruption and has the opportunity to transform the social housing renewable heating landscape in the UK.
- Installation can be as little as two days - around 40% quicker than for a low temperature ASHP system
- Installation cost savings by using existing radiators and pipework (which would have to be replaced if a low temperature ASHP system was installed)
- Improved energy efficiency
- Reduced disruption and a better experience for customers
Find out more in this video, where architect and Ecodan brand ambassador - George Clarke, visits one of our homes in the pilot project and chats with installer, Kim Faulkner of Faulkner Heating, and SNG’s Kathryn Hulkes and Richard Young.
George Clarke voiceover: There’s an estimated 4 to 5 million homes in the UK that use microbore pipe work. Retrofitting with high temperature heat pumps, like the Mitsubishi Electric Ecodan R290 range, is the perfect solution to switch these homes to renewable heating.
Today I'm visiting Sovereign Network Group, one of the UK's leading social housing providers to learn more about the benefits of retrofitting microbore with Ecodan.
Here to meet me are Kathryn Hulkes, Head of Retrofit Delivery, and Technical Director Richard Young. Sovereign Network Group provide homes and invest in communities across the south, west, and east of England, including London. Lovely to meet you both.
Kathryn Hulkes and Richard Young: Nice to meet you too.
George: Kathryn. Let's start with you. So the company have had a long-standing relationship with Mitsubishi and you've installed many Ecodan air source heat pumps, which is brilliant. Just tell me about that story.
Kathryn: Yes. So we've been on a journey with Mitsubishi Electric for the last 15 years. And at the moment we manage 84,000 homes and we're on a journey to decarbonise our portfolio: taking out less energy efficient systems and putting in low-carbon technology. It means that our customers can live in homes that are cheaper to heat, reduce their energy bills, lower carbon emissions, and it really talks to our goal of striving to be carbon neutral by 2050.
George: And Sovereign Network Group have also secured government funding to decarbonise, haven't they?
Kathryn: We have. And it means that our investments are now going to go further. So, we've just been successful in our Warmer Homes wave three bid, which will help us improve 4,500 homes over the next 3 years. 4,000 of those are currently gas heated homes.
George: Fantastic. And Richard, let's come on to you. What are the challenges that you face in transforming and changing your gas housing stock?
Richard: Well, our challenges, George, are with the installation time and also minimising the disruption to our customers. When we go and retrofit an existing gas home with a low temperature air source heat pump, we'd have to go and probably remove the entire system. So, that would be the radiators, that would be the pipe work, and that would also be microbore - pipe work that's less than 15 millimetres. For us, there’s a lot of work that needs to be done around the home to actually facilitate that piece of equipment going in.
George: So pipe work needs to be taken out. Radiators potentially have to be changed as well. How does the Ecodan R290 air source heat pump overcome all of those problems?
Richard: The Ecodan R290 is a high temperature heat pump. So what that enables us to do - we can use the existing microbore pipe because the Ecodan R290 has a flow temperature, and a differential temperature, that works like a gas heated home. So therefore we can use all of that existing pipe work, all that existing radiator system. It'll be much easier and less disruption for our residents.
George: So, on a really simple level, if my mum was watching this, having the high temperature air source heat pump provides a higher temperature through that pipe work and you don't need to change the microbore. You don't need to change the radiators for a high temperature heat pump.
Richard: Absolutely.
George: And what about things like running costs?
Richard: Well, with the running costs, we have two parts to that. We have the installation cost as well as the running cost to the customer.
An air source heat pump will automatically have a lower running cost because it has greater efficiency.
With the installation cost - if we can go on to use the R290 air source heat pump - what that enables us to do is reduce the cost of all that disruption and all that pipe change that we would have had to do in the first place. We can then put that towards, say, solar panels or battery storage. So once you add that to the home, well actually it's going to pull down that customer's cost quite significantly.
And what we're expecting to see is an EPC rating of say B+ where currently the national average is around EPC C. So that plays, for us, into the fuel poverty question and all of the questions that come from that.
George: So the Ecodan R290 really provides a new solution to retrofitting a house that's got microbore pipe work?
Richard: Oh absolutely. It's a game changer for us.
George: Massive game changer.
Richard: Yes, absolutely. And the work we've done on the white paper with Mitsubishi Electric has all of this work in it and we hope it'll be changing the industry for the better.
George: That sounds absolutely fantastic. Thank you very much.
George voiceover: Richard's arranged for me to visit one of their homes in Marlborough. I'm meeting their local heating contractor, Kim Faulkner.
George: Kim, nice to see you.
Kim Faulkner: And to see you, George.
George: Can I come in?
Kim: Of course you can, follow me.
George: Thank you very much. So, Kim, we're standing at the back of one of SNG's properties. Tell me a little bit about it.
Kim: Well, this is a typical two-bedroom semi-detached house, built in 2015. It had a gas combination boiler fitted with microbore pipe work.
George: But it hasn't got a gas boiler system any more. We're standing alongside a Mitsubishi Electric Ecodan R290. Correct. This is a big deal, isn't it?
Kim: This is a massive massive, massive change to the industry.
George: And just tell me a little bit about it and how it works. Why you would go for a high temperature heat pump?
Kim: Well, the beauty with this unit is that we can utilise the existing system. There's no pipe work to change. We can connect onto the existing microbore pipe work. Existing radiators. The only thing we're going to be changing, or we changed, is the unit and the cylinder upstairs, which I'll show you later.
George: So the gas boiler's gone?
Kim: Gas boiler's gone.
George: The combination gas-burning heating system is completely gone?
Kim: Correct.
George: And you don't have to change any pipe work. That's really important, isn't it? You're working with the existing microbore and the existing radiator.
Kim: Correct. It's a game changer.
George: So, it sounds like a big change and it obviously is - with the renewable heating system, but did it take a long time to install?
Kim: This took about 2 days, which is probably half the time a full installation would take.
George: So Kim, tell me about the heat load calculations and how you looked at the existing house.
Kim: Yes, the heat load for this property is 3 kW. So that's why we chose the 5 kW R290.
George: And this does the job perfectly well. But Ecodan have expanded the range beyond just 5 kW, haven't they?
Kim: They have. They also make a 6 kW, an 8.5 kW, a 10 kW and, indeed, a 12 kW as well.
George: So there really is an Ecodan for every home.
Kim: It covers pretty much every property you're likely to come across.
George: That's fantastic.
George: So, Kim, now we're inside. Just talk me through how simple the installation was.
Kim: Well, you saw the pipe work outside, George. The new pipe work comes up on the outside and we run under the floor here - about 3m of pipe work straight into the linen cupboard.
George: And that means you've got no changes to pipe work. Haven't had to upgrade the radiators, no new decorations, no making good, nothing. Just a super easy run in the floor to the new cylinder?
Kim: Yes. And minimal disruption.
George: Can we have a look at the cylinder?
Kim: Of course.
George: Well, you talk about neat and precise. That's a really neat installation in that cupboard. What did you have to do between the old gas boiler and this new cylinder?
Kim: All we had to do is extend a couple of pipes from the old combi boiler through the roof space and drop down into the linen cupboard.
George: And because that combi boiler's gone, whoever lives here has gained an extra cupboard in the house for storage.
Kim: They gained another cupboard. Yes.
George: That is fantastic. Well done.
Kim: Thank you.
George: What Mitsubishi Electric and SNG are doing here is industry game-changing. Retrofitting a gas heating system with a high temperature heat pump, reusing microbore piping and radiators is paving the way for mass market adoption of renewable heating. There's an Ecodan R290 for every home.
On-screen text: To find out more about installing Ecodan with microbore pipe work, visit their website .