In a first for the housebuilder, CALA Homes (East) is installing a Mixergy hot water tank into all of the 40 five-bedroom detached family homes at its Queenswood development in Linlithgow.

The move will see CALA build all homes at the development to the highest A-grade energy performance rating possible, with the tanks featuring alongside PV solar panels as well as electric vehicle charging provision, to allow for easy installation by the home owner.

With the hot water tank linking to the solar panels on each home via Mixergy’s onboard PV diverter, buyers at the Linlithgow development will benefit from reduced gas use which could lower their energy bills. Buyers will also be able to control their water usage from an app on their phones. 

The Mixergy tank is designed to only heat what a household needs, as opposed to heating an entire tank – which the tech start-up says could help to reduce annual water heating bills by between 10% and 40% compared to traditional hot water cylinders.

In recent years CALA has made significant steps towards helping customers to live more sustainably with electric vehicle provisions, PV solar panels and air source heat pumps at many of its developments in the East of Scotland.

Tom Mitchell, technical director with CALA Homes (East), said: “We came across Mixergy when we were researching new ways of making our homes even more energy efficient. Mixergy really caught our eye, and we invited the team up to visit us in Autumn 2019.

“Since then we’ve been working closely with Mixergy, our site managers, and everyone throughout CALA East to get the tanks installed at Queenswood. We love the technology behind Mixergy and the idea that buyers can control the system from their phones so they only heat what they need each day.

“Thanks to Mixergy’s connections to our solar panels we’ve been able to build each home to an A grade energy performance rating at Queenswood.”

Mixergy’s reduced energy use is possible due to a combination of smart scheduling, heating smaller volumes of water when needed, improving gas boiler efficiency by up to 21% (Energy Savings Trust verified), and utilising low carbon energy sources such as solar PV.

A key feature of the Mixergy tank is its automatic heating control function which uses machine learning to predict at what times of the day a household needs hot water, automatically adjusting to a schedule as required and ensuring buyers optimise their energy use and cost of heating water.

David White, business development director at Mixergy, says this is a pivotal point for the start-up, which was co-founded in 2014 by two Oxford University alumni, Dr Pete Armstrong and Dr Ren Kang.

David said: “To be in a position whereby CALA, a premium housebuilder, has made the decision to work with us on Queenswood is both flattering and extremely encouraging – we feel privileged to be in this position.

“CALA is providing house buyers with EV provision and solar panels on the Queenswood development which is fantastic, and adding Mixergy to this is a neat way of tying all of these elements together.

“What’s been so nice about working with CALA is that they have had the foresight to look beyond the minimum building regulations, which is what drew us to them and Queenswood in the first place.

“They are the first premium housebuilder to work with us and install Mixergy tanks into their homes which is fantastic. Our partnership means that buyers are getting a home that’s not only beautifully made, but also environmentally considered.”