Electric wallpaper proposal for social homes put to West Berkshire Council

Proposals for electric wallpaper in social housing instead of heat pumps have been put before West Berkshire Council – to cut carbon emissions.

Ian Sanderson and Matt Billington from NexGen Heating, based in Hampshire, gave a presentation to the council’s environment advisory group.

They said the heated panels would work with solar panels and would deliver “projects with renewability”.

Each sheet of paper is wired into an ultra-low voltage electricity supply (24 volts).

The lightweight cables run from each sheet to a transformer, usually in a central closet or cupboard.

They said they had been in contact with the Big Issue, in order to train people to install the electric wallpaper.

If the project was successful, there would need to be 10,000 installers by 2030, installing in 150,000 houses per year.

The full cost for installing the system into a house would be approximately £8,000 with every room working independently, controlled via an app or in the room, with no maintenance – which they said was significantly cheaper than installing heat pumps.

The environment advisory group is a discussion forum run by West Berkshire Council to assess new innovations in green technologies.