The Warren Report

Andrew Warren is chairman of the British Energy Efficiency Federation

01.21

Jabs and jobs go arm in arm

The potential for jobs creation in energy efficiency is immense. But this will only be realised if it is matched by government enthusiasm behind effective policies J abs and jobs. These are likely to be 2021’s main political issues. Everyone involved with energy efficiency will be delighted with a roll-out of the renewable energy economy (LCREE). The energy efficiency sector forms easily the largest component part of this sector. In 2018, it was responsible for 51 per cent of LCREE jobs, providing work for the first, as COVID 19 undoubtedly hindered equivalent of 114,000 full-time employees. investment activity during 2020. To put this number into perspective,

But there is no question that everyone there are 49,800 people employed in involved with expanding energy the renewables businesses. And just efficiency investments will be able to 12,400 in nuclear energy generation and help both secure existing employment (mainly) reprocessing. opportunities, and vastly expand the Tellingly, although more than half numbers of those engaged in future. the people in the sector are employed

Spending on energy efficiency-related in energy efficiency, together they stimulus measures announced by are only responsible for just 36 per developed governments worldwide to date cent of total sector turnover. All of is reckoned already to generate almost which argues that either less capital is 2m full-time jobs between 2021 and 2023, required per employee? Or the average according to International Energy Agency person involved with reducing demand (IEA) analysis published in December. for energy receives significantly less

But worth remembering is that pay than those involved in energy previous analysis, contained in the generation? Or quite possibly both. Sustainable Recovery publication in June from the very same IEA, estimated a job Improve homes, create jobs creation potential for energy efficiency How much can the numbers grow in the of 4m. So long as recovery efforts are UK? Last July Chancellor Rishi Sunak set further targeted at channelling public and out a £2bn Green Homes grant scheme, private sector investment into improving part of a wider “over £3bn” plan to buildings, transport and industry. upgrade homes and public buildings.

In other words, the actual number of When first announced, the plan was set new jobs which this sector can and gladly to improve 600,000 existing homes and would provide, will be very dependent sustain 100,000 jobs. upon the enthusiasm behind and the In September, Treasury Minister Kemi effectiveness of any policies designed to Badenoch announced that, by including promote energy efficiency. an extra 50,000 public sector buildings

Many statistics are bandied around improvements, and a social housing regarding the potential for such job programme, this initiative “could support creation, sometimes differing widely. But to 140,000 green jobs.” establish where we are going, we need first However, by November the then energy of all to ascertain where we currently are. minister, Kwasi Kwarteng, was explaining

Fortunately, the Office for National to Lib Dem spokesperson Sarah Olney Statistics collects the relevant UK that 80,000 was now anticipated to be figures. These form part of a sector of the the “number of jobs created through workforce it describes as low carbon and the £1.5bn Green Homes Grant Voucher

‘The Prime Minister wants specific, realisable projects which will deliver results during the present decade’

scheme”. And that Ms Badenoch’s number related to the entire £3bn package.

Whichever, spending £3bn to support 140,000 jobs is a pretty good bargain. It works out at just under £27,482 per person employed - a sum that includes all the materials installed and all the administration costs.

It reflects the fact that acquiring a PhD is far from mandatory to install many energy-saving measures, and that a fair amount of the work can be undertaken by those who left school without necessarily acquiring a plethora of brilliant exam results. Increasingly, there are too few meaningful jobs around for such people, of all ages.

This is a point emphasised by one of the most astute journalists around, Camilla Cavendish of the Financial Times (she served as a senior member at No 10 when David Cameron was there). She has observed just how substantial a role energy saving plays among the Prime Minister’s strenuous commitments towards meeting zero carbon targets over the next decade.

We are entering a New Year which will close with an event which its original president, Claire Perry O’Neill, is describing as the most important of its kind to be held in Britain this century.

Boris Johnson is challenging all the other heads of Government to come to Glasgow for the 26th Conference of the Parties (COP) to the 1997 Kyoto climate change treaty. He asks all attendees to arrive committed not just to delivering emission savings in a generation or two’s time.

So not theoretical flights of physicists’ dreams that can’t be realised for 20 years or more. Instead, he wants specific, concrete, realisable projects which will deliver definite results during the present decade.

In short, he wants to see the developed world implement that Sustainable Recovery agenda set out by the IEA last June. Where public and private sector investment is channelled into improving the energy efficiency of buildings, transport and industry. And where the energy efficiency employment creation potential will be measured in 4m jobs. Rather than just the almost 2m we have now across the developed world. Of whom just 140,000 are currently gainfully employed in the UK. 

Heat Pumps

For further information on Mitsubishi Electric visitwww.eibi.co.uk/enquiriesand enter ENQUIRY No. 125

Max Halliwell is communications manager, residential heating, Mitsubishi Electric

Look again at residential heating

Up to 15m homes might need to be fitted with heat pumps by 2035 for the UK to meet its carbon reduction commitments. Max Halliwell explores how this target can be met

The world has been gripped by the impact of COVID-19 since the start of 2020, and there have been numerous calls for economic and social recovery plans to take into account the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement. The government’s Summer Statement signalled that these calls are being heeded, with £3bn of funding being pledged to decarbonising homes and public buildings. The latest plans set out in November are to install 600,000 heat pumps per year by 2028.

As part of its drive for a cleaner, greener environment, the government is also considering legislation which would mean new homes built from 2025 could not be connected to the gas grid. With this in mind, we must make a conscious effort to equip the homes of the future with renewable energybased heating systems. The pace of heat pump installations in the UK has been slower than anticipated mainly due to lack of awareness, a misunderstanding around the technology and the price associated with them. To combat this, the Government has its Renewable Heat Incentive scheme to provide funding to homeowners wishing to adopt renewable technology in their home.

However, at the end of last April, the Government announced its proposed replacement to the longstanding Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) grant – the Clean Heat Grant (CHG).

The RHI would be extended until 31st March 2022, and then replaced with this new scheme. The CHG will help households and businesses to decarbonise their heating through low-carbon solutions, primarily air source heat pumps (ASHP). The CHG would offer up to £4,000 for

Air source heat pumps can work alongside existing systems in a hybrid situation

each household that integrates low-carbon heating technology to replace traditional fossil fuel heating sources.

And why is the uptake of heat pumps so important? The Government’s independent advisory body, the Committee on Climate Change (CCC), has stated that in order to reach the net-zero goal, up to 15m homes would need to be fitted with heat pumps, or hybrid heat pumps by 2035.

The scheme is similar to those seen in other European countries, such as Germany, which have proven to be successful in the large-scale uptake in heat pumps. The CHG however has proposed that hybrids are excluded from eligibility within the proposed scheme. Hybrid systems are used in conjunction with existing, often more polluting, heating systems like oil boilers, so would therefore reduce the effectiveness of the funding when seeking to decarbonise heat as effectively as possible.

Understanding the market The proposal suggests that industry voices and contributors to the new scheme were crucial in helping the Government to understand the market and the current uptake in heat pumps. The CHG would bring a new two-stage application and redemption scheme for homeowners, reducing prohibitive administrative burdens that critics say have limited the current RHI scheme. The upfront £4,000 per household grant also helps to address one of the key barriers to the uptake of heat pumps so far – the initial outlay. It makes it a much easier financial decisionmaking process for homeowners when considering the replacement of their existing heating system. The current RHI delivers quarterly payments for seven years to help offset the cost of a low carbon heating system. The proposed upfront capital grant of £4,000 brings simplicity and peace of mind to users wanting to make a greener switch but also concerned about the initial upfront capital cost implications of doing so.

Air source heat pumps have a significant advantage over alternative systems like a ground source heat pump where there is limited space, as ground alternatives require extensive digging and very large capital costs. ASHPs can be readily fitted to an external wall, minimising surrounding disruption and installation costs.

The design and installation of ASHPs is also ideal for those in residential areas. They are suitable for almost any property and can work alongside existing heating systems in a hybrid situation if required, removing the need for an expensive re-fit.

For installers that want to diversify their businesses, there is a ready-made market for homes needing to make a switch to cheaper, cleaner low-carbon heating. With 1.6m homes throughout the UK using oil as a heating system, they are much more susceptible to fossil fuel price fluctuations. As the economy recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic and transport systems reopen, for example, the global oil price is likely to rise.

But it’s not just the running cost of a heavy fossil fuel heating system. Each one of those boilers generates an average of 5.3 tonnes of CO2 from each house every year. That’s a total of 8,480,000 tonnes of CO2. By replacing all oil boilers and half of the existing gas boilers with an air source heat pump, we would reduce our national CO2 emissions by 8 per cent, or nearly 29m tonnes by 2018’s standards. The Committee on Climate Change recognises that heat pumps could meet up to 75 per cent of the total residential heat demand in the UK. This amounts to a staggering number of homes that could be using truly clean, low carbon, renewable energy. 

Heat Pumps

For further information on Pure Thermal visitwww.eibi.co.uk/enquiriesand enter ENQUIRY No. 142

Garry Broadbent is operations director at Pure Thermal

The retrofit revolution

Rapid development of the technology means that heat pumps are a definite option for retrofitting industrial and commercial buildings, believes Garry Broadbent

The transition to low carbon electricity generation within the UK seems to have happened over an extremely short period and we are now regularly seeing carbon intensity figures for electricity generation of circa 200gCO2/kWh.

A dramatic increase in the application and use of clean electricity generating systems in the form of wind and solar has made a real impact over a very short space of time reducing carbon intensity levels from over 500gCO2/kWh less than ten years ago.

Clean electricity generation means that industry and commerce now have an opportunity to use this low-carbon power in ways that may not have been practical or attractive a few years ago where electricity contained a much higher level of carbon content.

Nowhere is this more relevant than in the application of heat pumps. It is clear that if we have cleaner electricity then heating via electricity will be less carbon intensive than it would have been even a few years ago. A heat pump is the most efficient means of using this low-carbon electricity to produce heat. As a result, a definite retrofit opportunity has been created to increase carbon efficiency.

Competing with boiler In summary, a heat pump would historically have had difficulty competing with a fossil-fuel boiler based on carbon intensity. However, the application of heat pumps can make sense based on the use of cleaner input power.

The result of this is that the application scope for heat pumps has widened significantly and this is particularly relevant where commercial and industrial retrofit applications are considered.

Perhaps the title of this piece is a touch dramatic but if we take revolution as its dictionary definition meaning a ‘sudden change’ then

A 200kW 80C air source pure thermal low GWP heat pump

we could definitely say that this is the case where heat pumps are concerned.

Perceptions and ideas are quickly changing based on the capability of high temperature heat pumps that are now able to operate on a straightforward retrofit basis within existing heating and hot water systems. Therefore, it is clear that the opportunity to utilise heat pumps within existing commercial buildings on a retrofit basis offers real potential to reduce carbon and importantly utilise clean electricity.

So this leads us directly into the question of retrofit heat pump use and can these units be practically applied in this way?

Any heat pump advocate would recommend that in a perfect scenario a heat pump system be designed to operate as far down its output temperature curve as possible in order to create the highest levels of efficiency.

However, we must consider that it is not practical to work on a 45oC or 55oC maximum flow temperature basis within most commercial retrofit applications and therefore a system must be considered that is able to operate with flow temperatures of 70oC and above when necessary.

Retrofit applications Several retrofit application options are available on either a heat-pumponly or heat-pump-boiler hybrid basis. Each option can be configured to maximise value and efficiency to match the needs of the particular application using heat pumps that

Pure Thermal OHT air source range performance are designed to operate with output temperatures to 80oC and above.

The base line with regard to any commercial retrofit application is that to modify the existing heating system infrastructure within a building can be impractical. For this reason a heat pump that can operate at the same flow temperature and conditions as an existing fossil fuel boiler can be an ideal solution. This higher temperature capability provides a way to utilise heat pumps via very straightforward integration within an existing heating or hot water system.

As an example the OHT air-source range provided by Pure Thermal delivers 80oC high temperature capability with a low global warming potential (Low GWP) refrigerant system.

The Pure Thermal Application Team commented that they are regularly providing heat pump selections with 75oC output flow temperatures where a heat pump is required to be integrated within a heating system that has an existing boiler. They also noted that many of the systems are hybrid where a boiler is used to operate with the heat pump in ambient temperatures below for example 2oC which reduces heat pump capital costs but importantly enables the high temperature heat pump to provide primary heating duty for the bulk of the heating season.

It is interesting to note that these high temperature heat pump ranges have the ability to deliver upwards of 900kW heating capacity in a single system with an 80oC output flow which is a real step change from how heat pumps have been conventionally viewed.

The heating capacity and higher temperatures available from these ranges mean that heat pumps can now be considered as a definite retrofit option as we now enter this period where the decarbonisation of heat is a rapidly developing priority. 

Simon Bennett is senior applications engineer at Adveco

Heat Pumps

For further information on Adveco visitwww.eibi.co.uk/enquiriesand enter ENQUIRY No. 126

Beware the silver bullet

Heat pumps aren’t an easy solution for decarbonisation, says Simon Bennett, as he considers the challenges specifying air source heat pumps to meet commercial hot water demands

Within the Government’s ten-step plan for a ‘Green Industrial Revolution’ is an aggressive target to install 600,000 heat pumps by 2028, “to make homes, schools and hospitals greener, warmer and more energy efficient.”

Air source heat pumps look to be the preferred choice due to their relative ease of installation compared to ground source systems. Able to draw and transfer thermal energy from air, under the right circumstances ASHPs represent an efficient way to significantly reduce the carbon emissions of a building.

However, with ASHPs offering greater efficiencies in lowtemperature systems, the hightemperature demands of domestic hot water (DHW) for commercial applications can be a challenge. High temperatures need greater compression of the refrigerant, requiring more electrical input which results in lower efficiency or Coefficient of Performance (COP).

Achieving 60°C in a calorifier is a basic requirement for a commercial DHW system, but means the working flow temperature from the ASHP would need to be at least 65°C. As well as struggling to achieve these temperatures year-round in the UK, the COP drops very low meaning you lose the value of deploying ASHPs. A working flow of 55°C is certainly attainable from current generation ASHPs and this is why when designing commercial DHW systems it is preferable to use a hybrid approach that uses the ASHP as preheat and combines it with either gas-fired or electric immersion top up to achieve the required hot water temperature.

Additionally, ASHPs are likely to increase the size of a system. When connected to a traditional indirect water heater the lower flow temperatures generated by an ASHP lead to around a 50 per cent

The high temperature demands of domestic hot water for commercial uses are a challenge for ASHPs

drop in energy transferred as ASHPs will typically have 5 K temperature differential (55°C flow vs 50°C stored) compared to 20 K Delta (80°C flow vs 60°C stored) of gas-fired boilers.

Different approach required Deploying ASHPs for DHW therefore requires a different approach if we want to avoid operating at less than full capacity. Rather than using a calorifier, an ASHP system would be better suited by employing a plate heat exchanger (PHE) with low temperature hot water (LTHW) and DHW buffers. By using a PHE, with its larger heat transfer area, the system capacity is no longer limited by the size of the coil, and using a LTHW buffer as a neutral/ mixing point means flow through the PHE can be reduced, reducing pump and pipework sizes. While the temperature differential across the PHE will increase compared to the heat source, it will normalise once mixed in the buffer tank. Using this design principle, it is now possible to transfer all the energy that the heat pump can produce whatever the weather.

Commercial DHW applications using heat pumps are going to be complex, and compared to gas-fired alternatives are going to have higher up-front costs. Designing the system

System designers should give close attention to the Ecodesign European temperature zones when assesing the suitability of a heat pump

for peak efficiency, and therefore sustainability, is a must to help offset this additional capital investment when compared to traditional gas-fired systems. This brings us to the most important aspect of applications that incorporate heat pumps – correctly establishing efficiency and calculating reductions in CO² emissions.

When analysing the value of an ASHP in terms of reducing CO² emissions the carbon intensity figures from SAP10 should be used. Electricity can be evaluated as being like-for-like with natural gas - once the operational efficiency has been factored in. The advantage of ASHPs is that their performance is greater than 100 per cent as they extract additional energy from outside of the building’s metered systems. This gives significant carbon savings but, when describing the efficiency of an ASHP, working flow water temperatures of 35°C are often cited. It needs to be recognised that this temperature is insufficient for commercial applications. Even if a commercial building has achieved Passivhaus standards, and this remains a rarity, 35°C is not going to be hot enough to safely provide DHW and will struggle to support underfloor heating in the UK’s winter months. For this reason, it is recommended to calculate emissions at a working water temperature from the ASHP of 55°C. This is then hot enough to provide realistic levels of preheat for a commercial DHW system.

Attention also needs to be given to the Ecodesign European temperature zones when assessing the suitability of a heat pump to serve a building’s heating load. For most of the UK the relevant defined temperature zone is ‘average’, where the annual reference temperature for the ASHP’s Seasonal Coefficient of Performance, or SCOP, is -10°C. For some southern and western UK regions, the ‘warmer’ Ecodesign temperature zone can be applied for modelling, where the lowest the reference temperature will only fall to 2°C. These differing temperature regions can have a significant impact on the SCOP. Therefore it is important to ensure the values entered into an assessment are both relevant and accurate for the installation.

While typically deployed for space heating and cooling, heat pumps can provide a far more sustainable way to meet DHW demands. Commercial projects do however come with added complexity, meaning heat pumps alone are not yet a ‘silver bullet’ response to a sustainable future. 

Heat Pumps

For further information on Panasonic visitwww.eibi.co.uk/enquiriesand enter ENQUIRY No. 127

Tony Nielsen is UK marketing manager at Panasonic

A pathway to net zero?

Pressure is building to change attitudes to renewable technologies. Tony Nielsen, considers the opportunities for the heating and cooling industry

The UK government has recently set out its proposals to accelerate progress on the road to wide availability of low carbon heat. With initiatives such as the Green Homes Grant, there is significant potential for the installation of energy efficient air source heat pumps.

The Committee for Climate Change’s report “The Sixth Carbon Budget: The UK’s path to Net Zero”1 , published in December 2020, sets out the pathway to achieve net zero carbon targets. It asserts that we are in a crucial decade: with effective action starting now, by 2030 the UK will be firmly on track to Net Zero. The report also puts numbers behind this claim; approximately 19m households could adopt renewable technologies by 2050, with current predictions of approximately 1m heat pumps installed by 2030, resulting in the UK meeting its net zero target by 2050.

However, consumers will need to be encouraged to change their behaviour and embrace heat pump technology in order to meet these net zero targets. The good news is the government has announced plans to extend the existing Domestic RHI scheme to the end of March 2022, with a new scheme set for 1st April 2022 called the Clean Heat Grant.2

The current Green Homes Grant, runs from 1st October 20 through to 31 March 2022, and provides homeowners with the option to apply for a grant to cover up to two thirds of the cost of upgrading the energy efficiency of their home. Vouchers will be provided towards the cost of installing one or more energy saving measures, including the installation of an air source heat pump3 .

Air source heat pumps currently on the market are very reliable and can potentially provide up to 500 per cent4 energy efficiency when compared to oil-fired boilers or electric heaters. Further efficiencies can be achieved when linked to smart controllers to produce significant savings for heating and domestic hot water (DHW) provision. While initial investment may be higher than other technologies, running costs are far cheaper and with a short payback period on initial cost.

Added sustainable solutions When we start to come out of the pandemic and the road to recovery begins, manufacturers are increasing their offering of sustainable energy solutions designed for residential applications. An example is the Panasonic Aquarea air-to-water heat pump range, which is one of the widest ranges on the market, with options to suit most sizes of property and output requirement. These heat pumps, together with smart remote control, monitoring, fault diagnosis and fault rectification technology provide a comprehensive and energy efficient solution for heating and domestic hot water provision.

Panasonic is currently running an additional incentive for installers: The Green Install Cashback Scheme. Under this new scheme, qualifying installers can claim cashback of £800 after the successful installation of five Panasonic Aquarea A2W heat pumps with a Smart Cloud Controller, during the period from 1 October 2020 to 31 March 2021. At the same time, homeowners replacing oil-fired, LPG, electric or mains gas boilers will be able to claim up to £600 via the Green Homes Cashback Scheme (conditions apply). Installers can therefore offer their customers this added cashback bonus.

Panasonic’s Air-to-Water heat pump range, Aquarea, is an innovative low-energy system that uses the lower GWP refrigerant (R32) and provides heating and hot water, even when outdoor temperatures are extremely low. With many sizes, capacities and options to choose

By providing data over the web, it is possible to collate data from heating systems remotely from, the Aquarea Range offers a very wide choice to ensure the most appropriate system for all sizes of properties and comes in three different versions: Monobloc, Bi-Bloc and All-in-One.

Access and collate data By providing useful data over the web to remote PCs, tablets and smartphones, it is now possible to access and collate data from heating and cooling systems remotely. This data can be stored in the cloud and made readily available for collation and analysis to improve energy management. The increased accessibility of the system can improve maintenance and repair regimes, as well as helping endusers reduce their costs and energy consumption. The Smart Cloud app provides access to home owners and users, and the Aquarea Service Cloud provides access for installers.

Simplicity and clarity are key factors in giving end-users a clear understanding of how their system is operating. With an intuitive interface (like that of popular apps) the Aquarea Smart Cloud provides a familiar feel making it easier, faster and more user-friendly when compared to traditional controls.

To help installers make the right choices for their customers energy efficiency needs prior to installation, Panasonic have also recently developed the online Aquarea Designer Tool. This program allows heat pump installers to identify the correct heat pump for a particular application. 

References 1) https://www.theccc.org.uk/wp-content/ uploads/2020/12/The-Sixth-CarbonBudget-The-UKs-path-to-Net-Zero.pdf 2) https://www.gov.uk/government/ publications/changes-to-the-renewableheat-incentive-rhi-schemes 3) https://www.gov.uk/guidance/applyfor-the-green-homes-grant-scheme 4) https://www.carbontrust.com/zh/ node/577