National partnerships developer and contractor, Lovell, has launched a new pilot housing programme, called Tomorrow Home, to develop low carbon smart homes that will help to address the climate crisis, and importantly save residents money.
A Tomorrow Home demonstration home has been delivered at the firm’s Cornish Park development in Spennymoor, Durham. This forms part of a wider scheme of 124 homes that are currently under construction, partnering with Thirteen Group to bring a range of two, three and four bedroom homes for shared ownership.
There are two homes that are being used for this project; a pair of adjacent ‘Cornish’ three bedroom semi-detached corner turner house types – one complete with Tomorrow Home features, and the other home with more limited technologies installed.
Lovell, in partnership with Teesside University, has collected the data from the construction of these two demonstration homes and will continue to monitor the homes’ performance in use, using metrics including operating costs and embodied/operational carbon figures to assess how the Tomorrow Home performs against other technologies. This will inform the specification of future homes that Lovell develops as the business moves to Future Homes Standard and beyond.
Across Cornish Park, Lovell has built in a range of environmentally friendly measures to support local ecology including, planting the gardens with biodiversity in mind to make sure they are wildlife friendly, in line with the RSPB recommendations to support local ecosystems. For birds, the company has integrated boxes and feeders, to provide both shelter and a regular source of food for a range of different species.
Not forgetting hedgehogs, Lovell has also created a ‘hog highway’, to provide a safe route for hedgehogs to move around and between the gardens, without having to use human roads and pathways, as well as creating a hibernaculum, which will act as the perfect place for hedgehogs to hibernate.
In addition, further biodiversity/sustainability enhancements include bat boxes, bumble bee boxes, bug hotels, compost receptacles and water butts.
National sales director, Justine Elliott, said: ‘We are delighted to formally launch our Tomorrow Home pilot programme, as part of our commitment to building a brighter, more sustainable future for all.
‘As a responsible business, we are driving our emissions down year on year and are constantly looking at innovative ways we can do this, while at the same time continuing to deliver much needed, multi tenure homes right across the UK.
‘Collecting and sharing data is massively important here. Thanks to our partnership with Teesside University, we are able to measure the performance of alternative electric heating systems and various other new to market technologies, so we can gain valuable insight and continue innovating, as we plot a path to net zero.’
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