Session overview

How can social housing providers cut operational carbon and residents’ energy bills while maintaining warm, comfortable homes?This fast-paced DINnovation Showcase brings together innovators offering different approaches to low-carbon heating, smarter hot water and renewable energy for social housing.Each innovator will have seven minutes to present their solution, followed by a short Q&A.

Meet the innovators

Jon Cape, MD of Power Circle which is pioneering the use of Thermify:

Thermify’s HeatHub places cloud-computing equipment within the housing block and captures the heat it produces for space heating and hot water. Jon will introduce this highly unusual alternative to conventional data centres and domestic boilers, which aims to use the same electricity twice while reducing household heating costs.

Peter McBride, Sales Director, Mixergy:

Mixergy’s intelligent hot-water cylinders heat only the water required and can schedule heating around solar generation, lower-cost tariffs and grid demand. Hear how smarter hot-water storage can reduce energy costs while giving landlords portfolio-level performance information. Their new Flex Rewards concept pays households for hot-water flexibility. We will also learn how Mixergy ties into Smart Secure Electrical Systems (SSES) legislation, and the Home Energy Model's “smart hot water” category.

Owen Coyle, Co-founder and Director, Union Technical:

Union Technical is a strategic partner in Nusku, an all-in-one outdoor unit combining a heat pump, hot-water cylinder and smart controls. Owen will explain how it could make heat-pump installation quicker, cheaper and less disruptive, particularly for social housing retrofit, where retaining space within the home and avoiding replacing radiators or pipework can be even more important.

One additional final slot will be confirmed shortly.

What we will explore

• Alternatives for homes where heat pumps may be difficult to install
• Smarter and more flexible hot-water storage
• Using waste heat from computing to heat homes
• Extending solar and battery benefits to residents of flats
• Implications for resident comfort, affordability and operational carbon
• The evidence, practical requirements and potential for deployment at scale

Why attend?

Sustainability and decarbonisation remain major priorities for housing providers, but the technology market is evolving quickly and can seem confusing. This showcase offers a concise opportunity to learn about some very different solutions and consider where they might fit within social-housing investment programmes.You will leave with a clearer understanding of:

• How each solution works
• Its potential application across different homes and building types
• The likely benefits for residents and landlords

Who should attend?

This session will be particularly relevant to colleagues working in:

• Asset management
• Sustainability and decarbonisation
• Retrofit and energy efficiency
• Property services
• Investment planning
• Development teams

Format

Each innovator will have seven minutes to present, followed by a short Q&A. We will then move quickly to the next presenter, giving members a broad view of four contrasting approaches within one hour.