A trial to build the UK’s first zero-carbon homes is underway - and it will mean no gas or electricity bills for the 153 residents that buy them.
The first-of-its-kind homes will be factory build and use low-carbon and battery technologies to provide new owners with free heating, hot water, and electricity.
The firm behind it estimates that the average owner could save £40,000 over 20 years on bills.
ilke Homes, the company behind it, said 153 factory-built houses will be placed on a site in Stanford-le-Hope, Essex, and will also be available to buy on the Shared Ownership scheme.
The announcement comes as energy bills are set to double for at least three-quarters of UK households, as regulator Ofgem plans to increase the price at which bills are capped.
The two-storey family home will be build on production lines at ilke Homes’ factory in Knaresborough, North Yorkshire. Once complete, the homes will be transported to site and craned into place.
ilke claims that by harnessing artificial intelligence, robotics, and digital design, it is capable of creating homes that are incredibly well insulated, meaning less heat escapes and consequently reducing bills.
To reach the zero bills specification, low-carbon technologies will be built in to create cheap, clean energy.
For example, solar panels will be installed on the home’s roof to capture renewable energy by absorbing sunlight.
This energy will then be used for electricity and to power the home’s air source heat pump, which provides all heating and hot water.
ilke Homes will also install battery technology into the home.
This matters because when solar panels generate electricity, it has to be used almost instantly meaning any excess is usually sent back to the grid. By using a battery, the home will be able to store this energy for later use.
All walls, floors and roofs will also be airtight to retain heat and stops draughts and lighting will be LED-only, which uses less than a quarter of the energy of a halogen bulb.
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Fossil-fuel gas boilers will replaced by low-carbon air source heat pumps that use a third of the energy.
Heat pumps are quite costly to buy outright - between £6,000 and £18,000, depending on the type and the size of your home.
They basically absorb heat from the air, ground or water around a building.
For example, air-source pumps suck in outdoor air and pass it over tubes containing refrigerant fluids to produce heat.
Launched in July 2021, ilke zero said it aims to deliver 1,000 operational zero-carbon homes per year for major investors, housing associations, and councils across the UK.
The homes have already been trialled in London, Newcastle, Gateshead, Newark, and Sunderland, and are now ready to be rolled out en masse.
Giles Carter, chief executive at ilke Homes, said: “The cost-of-living crisis is here and now. Since the turn of the century, UK households have become overly reliant on gas imports, leaving consumers at risk from rising wholesale gas prices. Thanks to advances in manufacturing, materials, and renewable energy, we have created homes that not only drastically reduce household bills but also give consumers greater control over their own energy usage.
“There’s a huge opportunity here to tackle fuel poverty while helping investors meet their green targets, which is why we’ve spent years investing into our manufacturing capabilities. The launch of the zero bills home is a great example of how the private sector can respond to politicians’ net-zero pledges and address some of society’s most prominent problems.”
The energy sector is the source of around 75% of the emissions of greenhouse gases that are driving up global temperatures, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA).
Around 14% of UK emissions come from homes, mostly from gas boilers.
Over the next 15 years, these boilers will be banished from newly built houses, followed by an outright ban for all homes.
It's one of 400 steps on the road to net-zero proposed by the agency in a special report.
The sale of new petrol and diesel cars around the world would end by 2035.
