Future
housing development 
Gateshead Housing - Solar Success
Gateshead Housing, an ALMO for Gateshead MBC, manages its
housing stock. Last year it brought over 2500 homes up to ‘
Decent Homes’ standards. Reducing energy use and greenhouse
gases is one of the organisation’s key targets. As part of this
a pilot installation of solar heating has been installed on one
of their properties in Birtley using an Elson hot water unit.
The semi-detached house, presently used as offices by the
renovation team, has two solar panels mounted on the roof. The
interface with heating system is via an Elson Opal water storage
unit with a manifold and an additional solar coil to provide
input to the system. Top heating is provided by electric
immersion heaters. A Fifas electric boiler provides central
heating in the property. The solar installation is expected to
provide about 55% of the year round water heating load.
Gary Stirling, of Gateshead Housing, describes the thinking
behind the pilot project. “ Solar heating sounds simple but the
important part is the detail of linking the panels into the hot
water system of the home and controlling it so the solar heating
and the rest of the system don’t clash with each other. The
Elson unit, with its in built coil and manifolds, provides a
simple and reliable way of achieving this.
Email: david@holyrood.com