Water
Meeting sustainable hot water demands
Greg Brushett, sales director at Adveco, looks at how care homes can best take advantage of a burgeoning renewable heating market, and asks whether hybrid systems combining new technologies and existing systems might be the best option
Residential care facilities, with their focus on patient comfort and enhanced efficiency, are being seen as one of the key proving grounds for the government’s ambitious net zero targets. According to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), commercial businesses account for 17 per cent of total carbon emissions, 40 per cent of which are generated through the process of heating, cooling, and lighting buildings. When demands are high, water heating has the potential to be the most energy intensive process of all, accounting for up to 30 per cent of daily energy demands – making it an obvious target for making quick wins. Despite this, government support for the commercial sector has been lacking, which has muddied the waters for many decision makers. Recent fluctuations in energy prices have added further concerns over the operational costs of new technologies, although many would argue that renewables present an opportunity to obtain energy independence and potentially lower running costs in the long term. In general terms, most organisations today claim to be prioritising sustainability to meet mandated environmental reporting needs and building regulations, and to attract environmentally conscious customers and investment, with renewable heating seen as a potential contributor to all these goals. However, it is estimated that at least 70 per cent of the existing care home building stock will still be in use by
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2050 – creating a huge challenge in terms of refurbishing buildings with energy- efficient technologies. The renewable heating market for commercial buildings is projected to experience significant growth in the coming years, with air source heat pumps (ASHPs) expected to be the dominant technology due to their versatility and increasing efficiency. Electric boilers are expected to become more competitive as renewable energy sources and grid infrastructure improve, while solar PV for space heating and solar thermal systems for applications with high hot water demand will likely find wider adoption through building design optimisation. Hybrid systems, combining elements of these different technologies and existing systems, also offer a workable option for care homes.
The renewable heating market is projected to experience significant growth in the coming years
Research project As a hot water specialist with a long history of working with care homes, Adveco has considerable experience dealing with the numerous challenges homes can face when securing resilient, guaranteed hot water at a realistic cost. To better understand how care homes can make the transition to alternative low-cost water heating, we need to recognise the current state-of-play across the sector. We therefore commissioned a research report on the adoption of technology for water heating, tracking new build and refurbishment projects over the past five years to gain insight the scale of the challenge. Accounting for approximately 100 new care home sites each year, new builds – with their higher levels of insulation and a moratorium on new gas connections – will, by default, specify renewables to meet the latest building regulations. Applications for new care homes rose steadily from 110 in 2019 to 221 in 2022, with actual completed projects slightly below these figures. By far the most work carried out was in the refurbishing of existing care home properties, of which there are more than 17,000 in the UK. Of those undertaking
www.thecarehomeenvironment.com January 2025
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