Future Homes

The Future Homes Project (FHP) is an industry-academic partnership for the delivery of new and existing net zero homes - a significant challenge for the UK and globally. Regulatory change is driving developers and asset owners to seek new solutions to ensure homes meet the needs of net zero performance, as well as future climate and occupant satisfaction.

Using the unique facilities at the University of Salford (Energy House 2.0 and Salford Energy House), the partnership will develop net zero solutions for the housing sector, conducting research under controlled conditions using demonstrator homes built within the facilities. This allows net zero solutions to be explored under controlled repeatable conditions, an approach not possible anywhere else globally. Previous work in these facilities has shown that this provides innovators with robust useable data about their innovation far quicker, allowing innovations to reach market more quickly than using conventional approaches, including field trials. The FHP brings together housing developers, asset owners, and their supply chains, with the research team, to gain an understanding of energy efficiency and carbon dioxide emissions reduction improvements that products and systems will bring for operational performance and the impact of the materials used in the products. This can be explored at the individual product level, but also generate an understanding of how they work at the whole house level, considering issues such as overheating, noise and indoor air quality, factors that can significantly impact occupants.

This work is extended by developing digital tools and process improvements that allow these solutions to be scaled up, meaning they can be more rapidly deployed, with more confidence of their actual performance in use and ensuring technical barriers to adoption are removed. The research team will support this deployment by bringing independence and technical knowledge to support demonstration projects and field trials during the life of the project. By bringing together leading industry partners, the FHP will have a far-reaching impact on the delivery of new and retrofit homes, as well as supporting the wide range of companies (heating, cooling, ventilation, controls, digital, materials, delivery) within the complex housing supply chain, bringing together innovations in net zero solutions for housing. This will not only deliver net zero homes but create the opportunities for Clean Growth that will come from the innovative work, creating policy, economic and social benefits for Greater Manchester and the UK.