Where are we with ACTL and Power-Roof – ACTL

Where are we with ACTL and Power-Roof

ACTL has now run two projects in which we have placed cassette roofs on houses as set out in these projects below:

The first house in 2019 project (Figures 1 and 2) with Innovate UK was basically successful and we have had a video of it being installed and have shown it to the world, However, this design was not ideal because it had a steel frame, which caused some cold bridging and was less sustainable than we would have liked.

The second project ( Figure 3 ) involved social houses in Southwest Wales again funded by Innovate UK where we placed a revised and sustainable timber-based cassette roof on a pair of semis. This project is basically complete and will soon be providing the tenants with significantly reduced costs of energy.

In both cases we have learnt a great deal. In particular that the manufacture and installation of a complex system such as Power-Roof® needs very close attention to detail. We are now working to lighten the cassette and the overall weight on the roof and also to take cost out of its production and installation.

Innovate UK 1

Figure 1.

Innovate UK 2

Figure 2.

Innovate UK 3

Figure 3.

To do the above, we are working with Fforest Timber Engineering Limited as part of a new project which will focus on automating the construction process, again under an Innovate UK grant (Project 10150868 – Fforest Timber Automation). It will also link to the demand from social housing for their houses which will need retrofitting, site survey for the supply chain which starts with the social housing provider identifying houses that need retrofitting, their survey and input into parametric design and its conversion into CNC code for the machine tools in the timber factory.

This project starts on April 1 2025. It is based at Fforest Timber Engineering near Swansea. During the project we aim to produce prototypes of the new roof and then a set of cassettes for a project offsite

At the end of the upcoming project we aim to have created a circular system from retrofit need, to manufacturing, then install and commissioning in a manner that significantly reduces the cost to the social housing provider and delivers effective net zero houses from their existing stock making both the provider and tenant better off.

Our intention is to reduce the costs of producing the New Power-Roof® cassettes to under £2,000 each and the cost of providing a reroofed net zero house to under £30k. However, the roof will reduce energy requirement by 25% of an average cost of £2,500 (£625) and the energy generated by the roof will be worth around £2,400 while the heat recovery and solar heat from the roof will feed a heat pump and be worth around £500.

With such benefits, we see that it will be possible to deliver paybacks of between 5 and 10 years meaning that such retrofits can be funded through income and savings and deliver roofs at limited capital expense since they can be funded through what they save and what they produce.

Even without batteries and other forms of energy storage, the effect of Power-Roof® is to render a house effectively net zero. As the project progresses, we will be looking for partners in the social housing sector and in UK construction industry to run showcase projects and move towards and take our innovation forwards.

Innovate UK 4

Circular delivery of Power-Roof® for social housing under the Project 10150868 – Fforest Timber Automation funded by Innovate UK.