BedZED

BedZED or the Beddington Zero Energy Development, is an environmentally-friendly housing development near Wallington, England in the London Borough of Sutton.

BedZED was designed by the architect Bill Dunster who was looking for a more sustainable way of building housing in urban areas. The project was conducted as a partnership between the BioRegional Development Group, the Peabody Trust, Bill Dunster Architects, Arup, and Gardiner and Theobald as cost consultants.

The 82 houses, 17 apartments and 1,405m² of work space were built between 2000-02. The project was shortlisted for the Stirling Prize in 2003.

Additional recommended knowledge

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Transport

BedZED is accessible from the east side of London Road (A237), opposite New Road, 1km north of Hackbridge station although cars are not recommended to be taken because of the low energy emission practice.

BedZED is within 5 minutes walk of the Hackbridge station which services trains from Victoria station or Kings Cross Thameslink. There is a Tramlink service from Croydon or Wimbledon to Mitcham Junction station which is within a 15 minute walk of BedZED itself.

BedZED is serviced by the number 127 bus on the Purley to Tooting route via Wallington rail station and Hackbridge.

BedZED encourages public transport, cycling and walking and has limited parking space.

Design principles

Key ideas are;

• Zero-energy - The project is designed to use only energy from renewable source generated on site. In addition to 777m² of solar panels, tree waste fuels the development’s cogeneration plant (downdraft gasifier) to provide district heating and electricity. The gasifier is not being used due to technical implementation problems though the technology has and is being successfully used at other sites
• High quality - The apartments are finished to a high standard to attract the urban professional.
• Energy efficient - the houses face south to take advantage of solar gain, are triple glazed and have high thermal insulation.
• Water efficient - most rain water falling on the site is collected and reused. Appliances are chosen to be water efficient and use recycled water where possible. A "Living Machine" waste water recycling system was installed but is not currently operating.
• Low impact materials - building materials were selected from renewable or recycled sources and located within a 35 mile radius of the site to minimize the energy required for transportation.
• Waste recycling - refuse collection facilities are designed to support recycling.
• Transport - car parking spaces are limited, but residents share in a car pool.
• Encourage Eco-friendly transport - Electric and LPG cars have priority over petrol/diesel cars, and electricity is provided by parking spaces for charging electric cars.

Performance

Based on monitoring conducted in 2003 ^[1], BedZED has achieved the following reductions on UK averages:

• Space heating requirements are 88% less
• Hot water consumption was down by 57%
• The electricity used, at 3kWh, is 25% less than the UK average. 11% of this is currently produced by photovoltaic panels ^[2]. The remainder would normally be produced by a wood chip fueled combined heat and power plant, but this isn't currently operational due to the company who installed it having financial problems.
• Mains water consumption has been reduced by 50%, or 67% compared to a power shower household.
• The residents' car mileage has been reduced by 65%.

See also

• Energy efficiency in British housing
• Passive solar building design

References