New grant will boost research to help keep homes cool

Energy House Labs has been awarded a multi-million pound grant to build the brand new state-of-the-art sun array. Funded through the award of a grant of £4.84m from the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA), the array will be used as part of Energy House 2.0 to help researchers find the best ways of keeping our homes cool as the planet heats up and we experience ever higher temperatures.

 

The funding was awarded in the latest round of allocations from the GMCA’s Good Growth Fund. The fund aims to accelerate regeneration and drive long-term growth across the city region, facilitating investment in new homes, employment opportunities, innovation spaces and transport infrastructure.

Energy House 2.0 is a huge climate-controlled laboratory with two chambers that are big enough to build full size houses inside. The facility can create temperatures from -24 °C to +51 °C, and also relative humidity, rain, wind and snow are fully controllable.

 

This means researchers can simulate weather conditions experienced by 95% of the world’s populated land mass. With this new rig, which recreates solar radiation, that will go up to 100%.

 

This summer has seen record temperatures fall, with 38.1 °C recorded in Kew Gardens in London and with 54 weather stations recording all-time daily maximum temperatures as the UK was hit with a series of heat waves, meaning research into how to keep homes cool is more vital than ever.

 

Lubo Jankovic, Professor of Energy and Buildings at the University of Salford, said: “The UK Health Security Agency estimated 2,877 excess deaths this summer attributed to May-June 2026 heatwaves, and that is only going to get worse as the planet heats up.

 

“This new solar array will enable us to carry out much more accurate testing in extreme conditions as well as simulate climates around the world, giving us accurate measurements and allowing us to really help discover the best ways of keeping our houses as cool as possible under continuing challenges of climate change.”