Thursday 9th October 2025
Showground, Wadebridge

‘Community Heating Project of the Year’ connects Cornish company to national success

A 133 home improvement scheme delivered by Cornish ground source heat pump manufacturer, Kensa Heat Pumps, has been awarded ‘Community Heating Project of the Year’ at the Heating & Renewables Awards 2015.

The culmination of three months’ work, the award winning project in association with social housing provider, Trent & Dove Housing, featured the replacement of night storage heaters with ground source heat pumps in 133 sheltered bungalows over 15 separate sites in Staffordshire.

Tenants are already reporting energy bills reduced by as much as 50%, whilst Trent & Dove Housing has also confirmed that tenant health and well-being has also improved. Kensa calculates that tenant electricity costs will be reduced by a total of over £50,000 per year, at an average of £390 per resident. The average electrical energy consumption of each property is expected to drop by 75%, producing an annual CO2 saving of 2.8 tonnes of carbon dioxide (tCO2).

Chris Davis, Kensa’s Commercial Director, said: “As a Cornish business we are particularly delighted that this ground breaking project has been recognised by the wider heating and renewables community as an exemplar application of ground source heat pumps at scale; it is an exciting and new direction for our technology, which historically is better known for its individual applications in private dwellings.”

The project saw the installation of a ground source heat pump and new heating system in each of the 133 homes, with small clusters of 2-5 homes then connected via a series of communal boreholes. The system approach is recognised by DECC and Ofgem as district heating and qualified the project for Energy Company Obligation (ECO) funding, and 20 years of income via the Non-Domestic Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI), equating in total to £2.3m of income for Trent & Dove Housing, more than offsetting the £1.8m investment.

In honour of the award win, Kensa Heat Pumps have released a film which documents the scheme via a series of candid interviews with tenants and Trent & Dove Director of Property Services, Steve Grocock. One ‘star’ of the film, Mr Carter remarks:

“There is no comparison to this system and the night storage heaters – this is 1000 times better. It is absolutely wonderful. The house actually feels cleaner. The temperature is terrific. You can control it. It’s brilliant, absolutely brilliant. I’m sure it’s knocked years off my age!”

The video can be viewed on Kensa’s website here: http://www.kensaheatpumps.com/video/case-study-trent-dove-housing/