Insurance giant sets sights on building energy-efficient modular homes

One of the UK's largest insurance companies has set its sights on building modular, energy-efficient homes, a recent news report has been able to suggest.

Legal & General Modular Homes will build 154 homes at an eight-acre site on Portholme Road, Selby in North Yorkshire. The houses will be constructed offsite at Legal & General's in Sherburn-in-Elmet factory and transported in large pieces to the site. This modular way of constructing offsite will help lower material use and waste, while streamlined construction processes will lower the carbon footprint of the project.

The company has ambitions to build 3,000 modular homes out of the factory annually by 2024. An additional 350 homes are expected to be created this year.

The development will consist of 76 one-and-two bedroom apartments and 78 two-and-three bedroom houses, with 30% consisting of affordable housing. All homes are being designed to achieve EPC A ratings, of which only 1% of all new builds achieve.

"Using modular construction, Legal & General will be able to deliver high-quality homes at a much faster rate than through traditional construction. In a post-Covid-19 crisis environment, the speed of delivery will be more important than ever before," Legal & General Modular Homes' chief executive Rosie Toogood said.

HeatingSave — the Building Management System (BMS) of Choice for Modular Buildings

A single HeatingSave system will control the comfort conditions within a single modular building. Modular buildings allow for cables to be effortlessly installed during manufacture to provide a low cost advanced heating/cooling and energy management system. Smart card access control can be installed on the front door and you won't have to change the locks when a key is lost/stolen. Simply cancel the smart card, assign a new one and you are up and running in minutes. This can be done locally or at a central location.

Works on electric, IR heating panels, gas or oil

Infrared panels connected to HeatingSave's occupancy management allows for typically 3KkW fan heaters or far IR panels to be turned on when people are around and off when they are not. Since both of these heating devices have a fast recovery rate, they work wonderfully well with HeatingSave; all the time monitoring and measuring the energy consumption.

Monitor and manage all utilities including water

It's simple and cheap to install a pulse output water meter when the modular building is constructed. HeatingSave can monitor and alert on over-usage or leaks; emailing or Texting a cascading priority of people if things go wrong.