Cornish Fruit Farm Branches Out With Sustainable Housing Development

A new-build housing development forming part of an existing fruit farm in Cornwall will soon see more than fruit coming out of the ground, it will also be extracting heat.

Coastline Housing’s scheme of 26 affordable houses and flats in the small village of Mitchell near Newquay, will be heated by Cornish-manufactured Kensa Shoebox ground source heat pumps and installed by sister-company Kensa Contracting. George Gillow, Business Development Manager for Kensa Contracting says, “it is a pleasure to be involved in a project which will bring affordable, low carbon heating to local families."

Currently under construction, each home will have its own heat pump, which will be connected to a series of shared borehole ground loops. The Kensa Shoebox can provide low cost heating by either underfloor heating or traditional radiators, in this case the efficient houses will be heated by radiators with a 45°C flow temperature.

The low carbon, energy efficient heating system will be eligible for the government’s non-domestic renewable heating incentive (RHI), which will give the Redruth based Housing Association valuable extra income over the next 20 years.

The homes are being built by South West building company EBC, based in Newton Abbot, which will be offered to local people for affordable rent and shared ownership. The development was made possible thanks to funding of just over £1million from Homes England.

Amy Jenkin, Development Manager at Coastline Housing, said:

“We’re very happy to be working with Kensa to install ground source heating into one of our new build developments for the first time, giving our customers guaranteed access to a efficient, sustainable heating.”

The development will work in harmony with the continuation of the family run Mitchell Fruit Garden, operating since 1977.