Ventive started out as a designer and manufacturer of innovative passive ventilation systems, before expanding into developing a smart, zero carbon home solution, that includes: low carbon heating and cooling, electrical and thermal energy storage, hot and cold water and ventilation all in one box – Ventive Home.

Ventive secured a pilot project with Nottingham City Council to demonstrate the feasibility of Net Zero retrofitting of social housing at a reasonable cost.

• The tenant gets great indoor air quality, excellent levels of comfort and dramatically lower energy bills.
• The local authority or housing association get a simple to install and cost-effective whole house retrofit solution, with all technologies accessible in the one box plugged into the outside of the home.

Following a rigorous Innovator Challenge application process for start-ups developing innovative smart heating and cooling solutions, Energy Launchpad selected Ventive to receive support for commercial development.

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Ventive needed to better understand which market segments were ready for complex retrofit solutions, what business models could finance their product and how to deliver improved consumer services.

Energy Launchpad delivered for Ventive:

• Segmented the market, quantified the opportunities and prioritised sectors based the value Ventive created.
• A viable “Comfort-as-a-Service” commercial model that makes Ventive Home more affordable for both tenant and landlord.
• Evidence for Nottingham City Council (and other housing housing providers) how Ventive could support their plans to retrofit around 20,000 homes in response to the climate emergency.

Where are Ventive now?

• Ventive begin manufacturing their Ventive Home innovation from May, 2022 with 7,500 systems set for UK homes within 18 months.
• New and bespoke manufacturing facility at Hartlebury, Worcestershire, creating 40 new jobs.
• Production set to rise to 100,000 by 2025, to accelerate the UK’s drive towards Net Zero.

Sunamp has developed groundbreaking heat batteries using a patented phase change material that provide the residential market with a low carbon, reliable, space-saving thermal battery storage system.

With dynamic time of use tariffs emerging, households will be able to cut carbon emissions and fuel costs by charging the battery with mains power at times when grid demand and cost is low or by using on-site solar PV. The energy can then be released to deliver space heating, hot water and even cooling on demand.

Energy Launchpad delivered for Sunamp:

• Market landscaping
• Innovative service-based Business Models by sector (New Build, Build to Rent, Social Housing Retrofit), exploring the value of integrated smart home solutions.
• Home Energy Dynamic simulations delivering data on optimal configurations of battery size by building and occupancy type.
• Consumer Insights research validating the propositions using in-depth interviews with Housing Directors in social and new build organisations. This independent verification helped Sunamp evidence the value of installing heat batteries in high rise dwellings with social housing providers.

Sunamp are now gaining traction in this market, having undertaken two product trials that led to confirmed sales, including their biggest single order to date.

Energy Systems Catapult’s support has also helped Sunamp to progress the Technology Readiness Level of their product from 8 to 9.

Impact update: Nov 2022

Thermal storage manufacturer Sunamp is to receive £9.25 million to develop and trial its advanced thermal storage system in 100 homes across the UK in Energy Systems Catapult’s Living Lab. Sunamp will extend their existing heat battery to provide increased storage duration and capacity and pair it with household energy systems to tackle periods of low renewables generation on the grid.

The funding is awarded through the Longer Duration Energy Storage Demonstration programme, part of the Net Zero Innovation Portfolio (NZIP) from the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero of which provides funding for low-carbon technologies and systems.

A heat pump will change renewable heat into large capacity time-shifting thermal storage, delivering space heating and hot water on demand. The bulk of input electrical energy is from offsite wind energy. Customers will have the option of part ownership of a wind farm through Ripple Energy. The proposed system uses smart control logic from myenergi and a significantly large thermal storage from Sunamp to overcome lulls in wind energy supply.

In addition, the Living Lab now connects to our new Whole Energy Systems Accelerator, allowing us to test the benefits that Sunamp’s heat battery technology brings to the wider electricity network, utilising real-time data on real world household behaviour

Founded in 2017, Sero sit at the intersection of buildings and energy and have developed a range of services and toolkits to help developers and property owners design, build and run zero-carbon building, optimising the performance of the properties and providing ongoing services to homeowners and tenants to ensure homes are comfortable and cheap to run.

Energy Launchpad delivered for Sero:

• Consumer Insight & Proposition Design – to develop innovative consumer service offerings
• Business Model Innovation support.
• Digital & Data support.

Key for Sero was Investment Readiness support to secure funding required to scale the business and build a pathway to a decarbonised community.

Impact update: 11 January 2022

Legal & General Capital and Hodge has announced that they were investing £5.5million into Sero Technologies.

With over 10,000 new build and existing homes within its identified pipeline, Sero has forged strong relationships within the housing sector, creating tailored net-zero energy retrofit plans for homes, assuring them using building passports and managing them using its smart home energy management system, ‘The BEE’ (Building Energy Engine) and comfort based service model.

Sero has initially focused on working with social housing providers facing major challenges around regulation and funding, as they look to meet net-zero targets. Legal & General and Hodge’s investment will support Sero in its next stage of growth, as well as its aims to support the delivery net zero financial products with institutional partners.

Energy Launchpad helped Sero with investment readiness, including advice and support to prepare an investor pack, identification of target investors and curated introductions.

Digital Engineering has developed technology that can precisely monitor the impact of weather on the condition of electricity network overhead lines, allowing network operators to invest in maintenance and upgrades in a far more efficient way.

A wide range of environmental conditions, especially wind, are known to impact the condition of overhead lines (OHL), conductors and fittings, influencing both their asset life and the lines’ dynamic power rating.

Digital Engineering uses weather modelling software and analysis to help electricity transmission and distribution infrastructure owners optimise their asset management strategies, increase system reliability and protect investment.

At the time of engaging with us, Digital Engineering were at a proof-of-concept stage and accessed our support to develop their route to market, partnerships, and business model.

Energy Launchpad & International delivered for Digital Engineering:

• Digital Energy Fitness Assessment: To measure their digital maturity, benchmark their progress against the wider sector and make informed decisions about their future development plan.
• Digital and Data: Providing recommendations on streamlining their front-end operations (e.g. recommendations to improve the dashboard) and backend operation (e.g. data management and storage options).
• Partnerships: Introducing them to potential research and business partners (e.g. distribution network operators, sensors manufacturers etc.)
• International Market Study.

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The Impact for Digital Engineering included:

• Support to produce and test a prototype/demo version of their Asset Health software, as part of a collaborative Networks Innovation Allowance bid.
• Development of a cloud-based data architecture enabling them to scale their data services while maintaining low data storage costs for their clients.
• Gaining new insights through conducting a UK and EU market studies and a virtual mission to India, which helped them to understand the business and regulatory environments; and better connect with network operators and potential supply chain partners.