The Technology Strategy Board is a business-led executive non-departmental public body, established by the government. Its role is to promote and support research into, and development and exploitation of, technology and innovation for the benefit of UK business, in order to increase economic growth and improve the quality of life. It is sponsored by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS).
Warwick District Council is the Local Authority for the area and a major social housing landlord in its own right, letting and managing over 5,000 properties at affordable rents across the district.
Encraft will be the technical lead and project managers. Encraft are consulting engineers specialising in low carbon energy technologies for buildings and have carried out many hundreds of property evaluations and retrofit designs in the past six years. Encraft are extensively networked across the construction supply chain in the West Midlands, having delivered the AWM sponsored Sustainable Public buildings Programme from 2007-2009 (which included running dissemination and training events for over 180 local construction SMEs).
Kinetics will be the main contractor during the build phase. Kinetics are a well established firm providing complete and comprehensive repairs, maintenance, asset management, major works and facilities service to social landlords and others across the country. With their in house teams of builders, electricians and plumbers Kinetics are able to offer us a one stop shop service, managing specialist subcontractors where necessary, whilst providing us with a single point of contact and a wealth of experience in project management and delivery of retrofit projects. Keen to expand their skill-set, Kinetics are in the process of obtaining MCS accreditation on a number of different renewable technologies and will take responsibility for both solar and biomass installations. By using Kinetics we are building on an already established relationship with Warwick District Council.
The high performance PVC-U glazing and composite doors we will be using are to be manufactured, supplied and installed by Bowater Building Products. Their subdivision, Bowater Windows & Doors is able to offer products in a variety of materials including PVC-U, timber and aluminium. The experience within the organisation enables the company to operate as either a principle or main contractor on window & door replacement projects in a wide variety of locations, from high rise to sheltered accommodation in housing, and from office blocks to schools. All products are available to both the new build and refurbishment sectors. For this project they will be showcasing their new to market “Smart Sash” windows achieving our target u-value of 0.9W/m2K.
Transcast have been subcontracted by Kinetics to deliver the external wall cladding. Originating from over 5 decades experience in the render and plastering industry, Transcast are now performing as a market leader in the design and installation of specialist render systems. Having carried out over 300,000m2 to date they are currently involved in many projects throughout the uk delivering insulated render systems in huge volumes in partnership with many uk councils to deliver social housing standards for the 21st century. They will be using the Structherm system to achieve our target u-value of 0.15W/m2K.
The new innovative Wattbox heating controller that we will be trialling has been developed by West Midlands based Wattbox Ltd. They will also be responsible for supplying and maintaining all the long term monitoring and data acquisition requirements for the project.