Council chiefs have given the green light to spending £1.85 million on a pilot heating and hot water system in two West Leeds high-rise flats.
The Heights East and The Heights West will be equipped with new renewable energy ground source heat pumps – the first time this sort of system has been used in Leeds.
The pumps use pipes that are buried underground to extract heat from the ground.
A council report authorising the move says energy usage will be reduced by 30% in each flat, reducing fuel poverty and improving the efficiency and quality of homes for residents. It adds:
“The current heating systems in these blocks are near or at the end of their life, and their replacement provides an opportunity to pilot renewable technology, Ground Source Heat Pumps (GSHP) not previously used in Leeds.”
Carbon emissions for each block could be reduced by 70% each year.
Cenergist Ltd will start the work in summer, with work due to finish nine months later in early 2021. Findings from the pilot scheme will be be analysed by Leeds Beckett University’s sustainability team.
Always baffles me why high concentrations of people such as tower blocks so rarely have methane digesters to make gas out of their organic waste.