HEATING
STEPWISE PROGRESS TO MORE SUSTAINABLE HEATING
New year, new beginnings, reaffirmed resolutions. Rob Erwood, Sales and Specification Director at Baxi Commercial Solutions, discusses the urgent need to heat UK buildings more sustainably and outlines the options.
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s we enter 2022, heightened climate consciousness has refocused the need for greater sustainability across all operations. Where, then, to start? Heating is the biggest reason we consume energy in our society and accounts for the largest proportion of UK greenhouse gas emissions1. As such it has been identified as an urgent target for improvement. The government reiterated the importance of ‘changing the way we heat our buildings and improving the performance of the energy-related products’ in its Heat and Buildings Strategy. Ultimately, the transition to low 1 Source: Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS)
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carbon heating sources will require a shift to low carbon heat pumps, smart electric water heating equipment or hydrogen boilers. But in older, poorly insulated buildings, the move may need to be gradual. These harder to heat buildings present a tough challenge as low carbon heating technologies operate most effectively in conjunction with energy efficiency upgrades. But while full decarbonisation is unlikely to happen overnight, carrying out efficiency improvements now will help energy managers make significant progress along the path, bringing their
ENERGY MANAGER MAGAZINE • JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2022
buildings up to code and preparing the way for greater changes. And what better time than the start of the year to develop a phased refurbishment plan.
PHASED APPROACH Step one – ‘fabric first approach’. Maximising the performance of the building envelope to reduce heat losses is the best way to build in sustainability. Step two – plant upgrade. If heat pumps are not an option at present, the next step would be to identify any opportunities to use the energy
