Decent homes are easy with electric heating
When an Essex ALMO was looking at refurbishing its housing stock to meet Decent Homes standards, it needed reliable, energy efficient and easy to use electric heating – and Dimplex provided the ideal solution.
South Essex Homes (SEH) is the ALMO of Southend-on-Sea Borough Council and as part of its ongoing programme of upgrades to meet the Decent Homes standard, it scheduled Barringtons, a seven-story block of 107 flats, for refurbishment. Built in 1990, the homes weren’t in need of extensive work, but to meet the Decent Homes energy efficiency-related requirements, SEH specified a heating upgrade using the latest Dimplex technology.
Andrew Holley, electrical service engineer at SEH explains: “The residents liked their existing electric storage heating and understood how to use the off-peak tariff to maximise the energy efficiency of their homes, so we opted for what was substantially a like-for-like replacement, but using the latest Dimplex products.”
The heating refurbishment of the one-bedroom flats consisted of a range of Dimplex products; electric towel rails in the bathroom, downflow heaters in the kitchen and a mixture of storage heaters and combination storage/convector heaters in the remaining rooms.
The Dimplex storage heaters from the XLS range and the combination CXLS heaters feature the manufacturer’s patented Twin Sensor automatic charging system, ensuring the correct charge is taken regardless of changing weather conditions without the need for user adjustments.
Andrew Holley adds: “The new CXLS combination storage and convector units are particularly well-liked by the residents, as they can give a boost of instant heat if the weather is especially severe or changes suddenly. In the exceptionally cold winter of 2009-10, we had no issues at all with how the heaters performed.”
The installation itself was very straightforward, thanks in part to Dimplex’s high levels of customer service. “Our Dimplex sales contact was always available and helped with any queries on the specification and installation,” comments Andrew.
“We know we won’t get problems with the Dimplex heaters, we’ve used them before and know residents like them – they look good and work well. We’ve got some other refurbishment projects in the pipeline, and we’ll be looking to specify Dimplex again for these.”
The Barringtons refurbishment was one of two projects for which SEH specified Dimplex heating solutions in 2009, with a total of 338 flats refurbished in four blocks.
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