CPD PROGRAMME Professional The CIBSE Journal CPD Programme
Members of the Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers (CIBSE) and other professional bodies are required to maintain their professional competence throughout their careers.
Continuing professional development (CPD) means the systematic maintenance, improvement and broadening of your knowledge and skills, and is therefore a long-term commitment to enhancing your competence. CPD is a requirement of both CIBSE and the Register of the Engineering Council (UK).
CIBSE Journal is pleased to offer this module in its CPD programme. The programme is free and can be used by any reader. This module will help you to meet CIBSE’s requirement for CPD. It will equally assist members of other institutions, who should record CPD activities in accordance with their institution’s guidance.
Simply study the module and complete the questionnaire on the final page, following the instructions for its submission. Modules will be available online at
www.cibsejournal.com/cpd while the information they contain remains current.
You can also complete the questionnaire online, and receive your results by return email.
Professional development
Condensing, continuous flow hot water heaters
This module considers the role of condensing continuous flow hot water heating in helping to reduce carbon emissions, as part of a low carbon future
The recently published annual progress report1
by the UK government’s Committee
on Climate Change (CCC) indicated that significant improvement was needed in the take up of energy saving measures to meet the UK’s CO2
emission reduction targets,
particularly as there are practical limits on applying fabric improvements to existing buildings. This CPD will provide a brief update on the provisions that are driving this improvement and consider how one technology – condensing continuous flow hot water heating – can help to achieve a relatively small but significant reduction in CO2
emissions.
The European Union (EU) is rolling out legislation2
to ensure that end users are
more properly informed about the potential environmental impact of many appliances, including hot water heaters. According to the background research undertaken by the EU, it is thought that the continued strong sales of low-efficiency water heaters is due to end-users considering the purchase costs of products rather than their life cycle costs, since the information available to purchasers on the energy efficiency of water heaters is limited. This lack of knowledge, combined with potentially weak standards, can lead to the developers of an installation providing equipment that requires lower capital outlay but at higher
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life-cycle energy (and environmental) costs – a particular risk with tenanted properties. This situation is seen as especially challenging when water heaters are linked in as part of a solar-led system, resulting in end users missing opportunities for cost-effective improvements in energy efficiency. There have been a number of legislative processes and white papers published by the UK government since the landmark 2004 Energy Act that, in various – and possibly disparate – ways, attempt to direct future energy use in buildings to reduce CO2 government3
impact. Just last December, the confirmed that heating and
powering buildings still produced 35% of the UK’s ‘greenhouse gas’ emissions. An aspiration of that report was that by 2050 ‘emissions from heating and powering our buildings will be virtually zero’. The expectation is that the energy supply will be ‘decarbonised’ by reducing the UK’s dependence on traditional fossil fuels. In the meantime, improvements in the effectiveness of the building envelope and the efficiency of its environmental systems are in the forefront of carbon reduction measures. Data collected in 20054
indicated that
water heating (both gas and oil fired) emits 6% of all fuel-related CO2
in the
EU (as shown in Figure 1). This EU study considered opportunities to reduce the carbon resulting from water heating, and suggested that even applying a reasonably conservative ‘realistic’ outlook for improving the efficiencies of hot water production, 71Mt CO2
equivalent per
annum across Europe might be saved compared with ‘business as usual’. The report proposed that such a scenario would require: Financial incentives – The recent CCC report indicated that the 2010 boiler scrappage scheme was responsible for an increase in replacement rates for boilers. Under certain restricted circumstances, the Green Deal may provide opportunities for funding replacement hot water heaters; Certification – Such as building energy performance certificates (EPCs) or display energy certificates (DECs); Labelling – Such as that resulting from the proposed rollout of labels to meet the EU energy efficiency labelling directive5 (as illustrated in Figure 2). The proposed energy labels are for stand-alone water heaters and hot water storage tanks, as well as for combined packages of water heaters and solar thermal systems; and Minimum targets – Set through such devices such as the UK Building Regulations. For example, the current
August 2012 CIBSE Journal 45
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