We recently attended the 2025 ASCP conference in Newport to hear directly from safety and compliance professionals from social housing providers across the UK about the issues facing the sector, and to showcase how our compact and efficient Thermino heat batteries can address these concerns. Here’s our top takeaways from the event.
Tackling safety issues including legionella
Legionella is a key safety and compliance issue for social landlords. Cases of Legionnaires disease, a potentially fatal form of pneumonia caused by inhaling droplets of water containing legionella bacteria, are on the rise in the UK. Legionella bacteria can grow in hot and cold water systems, contaminating the water.
Landlords have a legal duty to assess and control the risk of legionella in their properties, and may be liable for prosecution if a tenant contracts Legionnaires disease from the water system in their home.
To overcome this, social landlords must run legionella checks and ensure that any hot water system in their properties performs a regular legionella cycle. These preventative measures are extremely important, but do represent additional costs for social landlords.
Unlike traditional hot water cylinders, Thermino heat batteries have been designed to minimise the risk of legionella. Less than 15 litres of hot water is stored within the system which means it isn’t necessary to run legionella checks, giving social landlords and residents peace of mind.
In addition to this important safety feature, Thermino heat batteries are non-flammable and store energy in a safe, non-toxic phase change material.
Meeting energy efficiency requirements through innovative system design
Another issue discussed at the ASCP conference was energy efficiency. As the UK moves towards net zero by 2050, social housing providers must consider incorporating low carbon heating and hot water systems in their housing stock.
The ASCP conference and exhibition showcased a number of low carbon heating options which can help meet net zero goals, including heat pumps and efficient electric heating systems. Thermino heat batteries can work with a range of energy sources to provide hot water – Thermino xPlus works with heat pumps, boilers and solar PV, while Thermino ePlus is ideal for pairing with solar or off-peak grid electricity.
Something which may be overlooked is the ongoing energy efficiency of a chosen hot water system in the years following installation. Over 60% of households in the UK are in regions with hard water and therefore likely to be affected by limescale problems. In a traditional hot water cylinder, limescale can build up on heating elements, which reduces the heat transfer efficiency and means the appliance needs to use more energy to heat water. In fact, just 1mm of limescale on a heating element increases its energy consumption by 7-10%, resulting in higher energy costs and carbon emissions.
The innovative design of Thermino heat batteries protects against the risk of limescale as the heat exchanger inside isn’t submerged in water. Instead, heat is stored in our patented Plentigrade phase change material. Along with protecting the heating element from corrosion, this material is much more energy-dense than water. This means that Thermino heat batteries can provide the same volume of mains-pressure hot water while taking up around a quarter of the space of the equivalent hot water cylinder.
Getting ready to scale up heat networks in social housing
Thermino heat batteries can also be used as part of a heat network – another important topic at the ASCP conference. Heat networks currently provide around 3% of nationwide heat consumption and the UK Government is aiming for this to rise to 20% by 2050, with heat coming from decarbonised sources. According to Ofgem, 66% of existing heat networks are owned and managed by social landlords, a figure which may rise as new heat networks are introduced.
We attended a panel discussion at ASCP covering the key considerations for social landlords in complying with upcoming heat networks regulations, chaired by Ian Edgeworth from CORGI Technical Services.
The panel members agreed that heat network regulations are a positive move for both social landlords and tenants. Tenants should benefit from individual metering and billing, allowing them to just pay for the energy they use. Gareth Davies, property services manager at Tai Calon pointed out that this is good for decarbonisation as well as tenant satisfaction, because tenants will now see the benefit of taking actions to save energy in their home.
Alongside billing and metering, Dan Perager, head of heat, energy and water at Notting Hill Genesis explained that new regulations will set standards for the efficiency of the heat network itself. This is a change from the past where the main measure of success was heating performance, meaning that systems were often set to provide the maximum heat for residents with little consideration for efficiency.
James Blanksby, consultant at CORGI Technical Services pointed out the importance of setting expectations for residents who may be used to having very hot radiators and opening windows to cool down. James advised that the strategic approach to heat networks should start with the end user and look holistically at the whole system, adjusting things like radiator and hot water temperatures and adding pipe insulation, to maintain comfort levels for residents while making sure the system runs efficiently.
Thermino heat batteries can be a great addition to a heat network, with high performance insulation guaranteeing low heat losses and fast-flowing hot water on-demand boosting tenant satisfaction.
Thermino heat batteries as a tried and tested solution
Thermino heat batteries are already being used in a number of successful social housing heat network projects across the UK. In Thurrock, night storage heaters were replaced with a network of ground source heat pumps and Thermino heat batteries in 273 social housing flats, leading to an estimated 70% reduction in carbon emissions and 67% reduction in energy bills for tenants.
In space-constrained social housing flats looking to switch from gas combi boilers to a heat network, finding space for the accompanying hot water storage system can be a challenge. The fact that Thermino heat batteries are up to four times smaller than the equivalent hot water cylinder helps overcome this problem, as seen in the Core 364 project with Gentoo Group.
Gentoo Group replaced combi boilers with a network of ground source heat pumps and Thermino heat batteries, enabling the removal of the gas supply from 364 flats which would not have had room for a traditional cylinder. An added bonus was that the work was carried out without the need to decant tenants, minimising disruption during the installation period.
The ASCP conference was a great opportunity to hear from safety and compliance professionals in social housing on key issues such as legionella, limescale, energy efficiency and heat networks, and to discuss how Thermino heat batteries can overcome these challenges through innovative system design and flexible application.
