Monitoring

We are determined to provide a working model of sustainable development, one that other housing associations and private building organisations can follow. As a result, Gallions has tested the four different house types at Ecopark by monitoring both the technological and social elements to measure how worthwhile the eco features in our homes really are.

A monitoring plan, devised and developed by DHV and implemented by Skyview Systems, measured:

• how airtight the buildings are
• how effective the insulation is at preventing the heat inside from escaping
• how well the walls stop sound travelling between rooms and houses
• the effectiveness of the solar water heating system

Temperature logging sensors were installed and readings collected from different rooms in the homes. Our residents were involved in the long-term monitoring programme but the majority of the monitoring equipment works by telemetry to minimise resident disruption.

This information, together with local meteorological data has been used to work out how effective the sustainable features at Ecopark are in proactive. Thanks to support from the Housing Corporation, a series of reports have been produced and distributed to share our findings.

The systems applied in the houses include:

• an externally located weather station to collect information on wind speed and direction, outside air temperatures, relative humidity, barometric pressure, solar radiation, UV and rainfall
• humidity meters to monitor humidity levels within the houses
• electricity meters to monitor the consumption of both the heat recovery supply and various exhaust systems
• heat follow meters to monitor the heat flow between cold supply and warm water output providing total heat flow of hot water systems
• water meters to monitor the cold water supply to domestic heating systems providing total hot water consumption
  

Monitoring Plan