How will you remember 2023? From the Coronation of King Charles III to the nail-biting FIFA Women’s World Cup finals, there’s been many memorable moments across the year. In the energy space, a major achievement arrived in May, when the UK hit the trillion-kWh renewable electricity milestone.
For Ambion, we’re happy to share that our business has continued to grow throughout 2023, and we have big plans for next year.
As this year draws to a close, join us as we take a look at some key milestones and achievements from throughout 2023.
January 2023 – A WIN-ing start to the year
To connect built environment customers with sustainable innovations, the Wates Group has launched the Wates Innovation Network (WIN) – a free-to-use network for the industry to use, to help accelerate the transition to net zero buildings.
“95% of market-ready sustainable technologies never get considered because key decision makers do not know they exist, or suppliers don’t have access to the key corporate decision makers,” explains John Dunne, Group Health, Safety, Environment and Quality Director at Wates. “The WIN portal is bridging that gap, showcasing innovation and helping businesses to meet bold environmental targets.”
Ambion began 2023 by being welcomed aboard the WIN, after our infrared heat panels were approved by a screening panel consisting of 40 environmental experts.
Read more about our partnership with the WIN.
March 2023 – At home in the Energy House
With the built environment accounting for 40% of the UK’s carbon footprint, it’s inspiring to see The University of Salford address how the country can accelerate its progress towards low carbon and net zero housing design and builds, with its Energy House 2.0 research facility.
Featuring two environmental chambers, each accommodating two detached houses, the facility can recreate a huge range of weather conditions – from wind and snow, to rain and solar radiation – and set temperatures of between -20oC and 40oC. The goal? To help understand how effective products and services are in reducing a consumer’s carbon emissions and their energy bills.
We’re delighted to be working with one of the project partners, Bellway Homes, to prove the energy efficiencies of Ambion’s low carbon heat panels in its ‘The Future Home’ build.
Learn more about the Energy House 2.0 initiative.
More recently, we also discovered that our technology has been chosen to be included in Vector Homes’ prototype flatpack home at the ground-breaking research facility.
August 2023 – Yorkshire Housing invests in infrared
In August, Yorkshire Housing announced it was investing £200,000 in a pilot project to trial our infrared technology in 30 of its homes.
Replacing bulky, inefficient and costly electric panel heaters, the properties will benefit in a number of ways. From a more economical low wattage, to a slim and minimalist design that takes up less space than the previous system, infrared heating is perfectly suited to smaller properties.
Bob Spedding, Heat of Asset Strategy at Yorkshire Housing, said: “Our 16,500 homes across Yorkshire produce around 50,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide each year and we plan to get that number down to zero by 2050.
“We’re very open-minded and keen to explore all sorts of new and emerging technology that will reduce the carbon footprint of our properties and make them warmer, healthier and more affordable for our customers.”
We’re delighted to be working with the Yorkshire Housing team on this project.
September 2023 – Controlling costs for landlords
With the cost of energy soaring, many private landlords are asking how they can best improve the energy efficiency of their rental properties – a question that the Landlord National Purchasing Group (LNPG) noticed was looming large for its members.
As the UK’s largest buying group for private landlords, LNPG is always on the lookout for products and services that can support its members. In the middle of the year, we became a member of LNPG, showcasing how low carbon heat panels can keep tenants happy with a reliable and easy-to-use heating system, while saving landlords money and improving their property’s energy efficiency credentials.
In fact, in one member’s rental property, running costs were slashed by 35% when compared with storage heaters.
Find out more about how Ambion helped one landlord comply with the new EPC standards.
December 2023 – End of year celebrations
As we approach the end of 2023, we look back on these highlights with an overwhelming sense of pride. There’s plenty of progress still to be made on moving the UK’s low carbon heating ambitions forward, but these are just some examples of the positive steps being taken.
And the year’s not over yet. Just this month, we attended the CIBSE Build2Perform Live, exhibiting as part of the Wates Innovation Zone. The event tops off a series of successful exhibitions throughout 2023, including June’s InstallerSHOW, the UK’s largest event for influential installers and specifiers of heat, water, air and energy technology. There was also The Great Holiday Home Show in Harrogate in September, where we partnered with Sunseeker Holiday Homes to supply their solar-ready lodges with our infrared heat panels, in collaboration with Mixergy’s hot water system.
As we look forward to 2024, we’re ready to help take the UK’s heating goals up a notch, creating happier and healthier homes. Onwards!