Summary
Gallions Eco Park located in the heart of Thamesmead, is an affordable housing scheme built of 39, 2, 3 and 4 bedroom houses; the housing is split into 4 blocks accompanied with a visitor's centre. Each individual block uses its micro climate and location to its maximum beneficial use for example Blocks A and C have a south facing elevation, this creates a cost effective and sustainable way of maximizing the energy produced by the sun, Block B uses a sustainable and cost effective method of under-floor heating and mechanical ventilation heat recovery system. The underfloor heating negates the need for conventional radiators as hot water from the boiler runs through plastic pipes under the surface of the floor, enabling the whole of the room to be heated evenly. The radiators in all the other housing block will have much smaller radiators as a result of good insulation.

Background
At the Kyoto conference in 1997 participating governments agreed environmental targets aimed at reducing the environmental impact of human society. This has led Ecopark to become an example of how the UK social housing sector can contribute to environmental sustainability and with the park recently receiving a joint winner of the ODPM’s Construction and Renovation Category at this year's Water Efficiency Awards, has set an impressively high target for further projects and companies to reach theses standards.

Implementation
Once complete the Urban Village will comprise over 1500 new homes' shops and a school, the development of the land in and around Ecopark, has been designed to include the drainage of rainwater into a network of canals containing reeds and other water plants. These filter and clean the water, providing a biologically diverse habitat for plants, insects and animal life essential to the natural ecosystem.

Each home is fitted with double-glazed windows which are filled with a highly efficient gas called argon, which carries less energy between the glass panes than air does, thus creating an effective insulation for loss of heat. The heating in each of the homes is provided by a condensing gas boiler which can potentially convert all but 2% of the energy from the gas into heat for the home

Results

• 98% of the gas produced from the boiler is converted to heat for the home.
• Features such as rainwater harvesting units, spray taps, ultra low-flush toilets, low consumption baths and showers, along with grey-water recycling have produced an almost 30% reduction on water consumption based on the UK average.
• Recycling - all our homes have waste separation facilities in their kitchens to assist and encourage recycling. Furthermore, four underground recycling waste storage banks with a 3m3 capacity have been installed to enable the recycling of glass, paper, aluminium and (later) plastics
• Insulation - the walls and roof have a U-value 0.25 W/m2K

The systems applied in the houses include:

• an externally located weather station to collect information on wind speed and direction, outside air temperatures, relative humidity, barometric pressure, solar radiation, UV and rainfall
• humidity meters to monitor humidity levels within the houses
• electricity meters to monitor the consumption of both the heat recovery supply and various exhaust systems
• heat follow meters to monitor the heat flow between cold supply and warm water output providing total heat flow of hot water systems
• water meters to monitor the cold water supply to domestic heating systems providing total hot water consumption

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