Heating & Renewable Energy Feature Connecting the dots
Rupert Kazlauciunas of Zehnder Group UK discusses how technology such as AI assisted ventilation can tackle some of the housing sector’s chronic issues
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hat connects net zero targets, smart devices, social housing, the UK’s housing crisis and healthy homes? All these jigsaw pieces slot together to create a picture of the
chronic issues facing the UK’s homes and the new technologies that may help offer the solutions needed.
NET ZERO & SMART HOMES “I want you to act as if the house is on fire, because it is.” – Greta Thunberg. The recent report, ‘Net Zero’, pledged to reduce UK greenhouse gas emissions
to create a net zero economy by 2050. Its implications include a rapid expansion of renewable and low carbon
power generation to allow activities, such as heating, to be electrified. Switching homes to low carbon heating will cost £15bn each year, requiring
large-scale deployment of heat pumps, district heating and hydrogen technologies. And, it also needs us to expand energy efficiency in homes. Help may be at hand in the unlikely disguise of AI. There are already 57 per cent of our homes using at least one smart device.
And it’s not just lights and entertainment that is getting smarter – smart heating could play a role in the net zero drive. Smart thermostats offer greater energy savings and efficiencies of up to 19
per cent, by switching off the heating as the desired temperature is reached or by allowing your mobile to turn the heating off and on remotely. But, the future could be even smarter. Heating devices directly connected into supply data could store energy to use
at times when demand on the National Grid is high. Automated algorithms will allow devices to know that, when it’s windy, the grid has greener and cheaper energy.
SOCIAL HOUSING, ENERGY EFFICIENCY & HEALTHY HOMES “Social housing providers are doing better than the private landlords or the home ownership sector, accounting for 17 per cent of homes but only 10 per cent of carbon emissions. In new homes and in retro-fitting, this sector has led the way. Social housing can raise the bar and set the standards for all housing provision.”– Lord Best, president of the Sustainable Energy Association (SEA). Sounds good? But here’s his colleague: “There are significant obstacles we
face for social housing to lead the way in reaching net zero: stable and consistent policy together with funding support is required.” – Lesley Rudd, chief executive of the SEA. It may be that the obstacles run deeper than this.
Ventilation is very much the missing link that can connect the dots between net zero targets, smart devices, social housing, the UK’s housing crisis and healthy homes.
Efficiency
www.housingmmonline.co.uk | HMM February/March 2020 | 25
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