Builder’s hunt for zero carbon living family

Persimmon Homes is looking for a tenant family to live in its first zero-carbon home, helping the company on its journey to fulfil its commitment to build net zero homes.

The company has pledged that its homes will be net zero-carbon in use by 2030 and net zero across all its operational activities just 10 years later.

The Germany Beck sustainability project in Fulford will support the company’s environmental journey, providing valuable data and learnings to support the industry’s transition to future living.

Working in partnership with research experts, The University of Salford, the chosen family will live in a specifically constructed three bedroom detached home for two years where their experience and carbon usage will be closely monitored.

Simon Usher, Group Director of Transformation and Land Strategy for Persimmon Plc said: “Ideally we are looking for a family of four consisting of two adults and two children, with local connections to the city of York, who run at least one electric car and have an interest in environmental issues.”

“For the purpose of this project we have chosen a more challenging house type and used current building methods and available technology. We are looking for a family that can commit to living in the property for two years and is comfortable with a reasonable level of cooperation as we collect and evaluate their carbon usage.”

For effective evaluation of the project Persimmon Homes is looking for another similar family set-up to live in a ‘control’ home so that comparisons and real-life learnings can be effectively gathered.

Simon added: “Our Fulford zero-carbon home forms part of a series of demonstration projects to enable us to meet our science-based sustainable targets. We will be continually learning and refining to ensure we can create homes to meet the housing need and support sustainable living for our customers.”

Professor William Swan, Director of Energy House Laboratories at the University of Salford, said: “Salford is pleased to be working with Persimmon on this exciting project. Our role will be to understand how the new home performs through a wide range of different building performance and systems tests to provide an independent view of the direction of Persimmon’s future homes to support the UK’s journey to net zero.”

Interested families are asked to contact Hudson Moody at lettings@hudson-moody.com or call 01904 629629.

Persimmon Homes will release further details on the Germany Beck zero-carbon home and future projects in due course.