HEATING, VENTILATION & SERVICES 53 A guide to low carbon heating
Joseph Raftery from Samsung Climate Solutions gives architects the lowdown on the specification and installation of heat pumps
O
ne of the central conundrums to solve in architecture over the next decade will be how our homes can
be sustainably built, without compromising on the design aesthetic of the property. The fast-approaching Future Homes Standard of 2025, which will rule out fossil fuel heating in all new build developments, means that there has never been a better time to start incorporating low carbon heating into property designs.
As architectural designer (and brand ambassador for Samsung heat pumps) Charlie Luxton points out, “There are two areas of focus in low carbon buildings: reducing energy consumption in construction and occupation. Any remaining demand for heating or cooling then needs to be met with renewable or low carbon sources.” “In practice, during construction means using low embodied energy building materials that are long lasting but also designing buildings with a ‘loose fit/ long life’ ethos so that they can be easily adapted for different uses over many years. In occupation it means lots of insulation combined with airtightness and optimising for solar gain while mitigating against overheating to drive down heating/cooling and lighting requirements.” Luxton adds: “Finally, heat pumps can be used to provide what heating or cooling is required.” Rapid innovations rippling through the sector from both an energy efficiency and design perspective, make low carbon heating more viable in both the retrofit and new build architectural space. This innovative method includes taking a fabric first approach to property design, determining the potential heat loss of a building as well as calculating its heat load, to ensure final designs are fitted with appropriate low carbon heating systems.
How do ASHPs work?
An air source heat pump (ASHP) is a low carbon heating system for domestic heating and hot water. Traditional gas boilers operate on fossil fuels whereas ASHPs
ADF OCTOBER 2022
When properly maintained, an ASHP can be as much as 500% efficient
use electricity and energy available from passing ambient air over a heat exchanger. Energy cannot be created, just exchanged, and heat pumps have a particularly clever way of doing this – the fan takes the energy from the air, uses it to heat a liquid (R32 refrigerant, which has less environmental impact than others) into a gas. This transfers the stored heat energy to heat a home and its hot water tank, then the liquid re-compresses and the cycle repeats.
Why choose a heat pump? Entirely powered by electricity, when properly maintained an ASHP can be as much as 500% efficient, compared to an average of 92% efficiency for gas heating systems. Typically, for every kW put in at an ambient air temperature of 7 degrees (average for the UK), you would expect to get around 5 kW thermal output to heat a home and its hot water. This COP (coefficient of performance) means in simple terms that the heat output is more than the electricity input; therefore a heat pump can increase the energy efficiency of any home.
As we look towards the future, as the primary source of electricity in the UK shifts in favour of renewables like wind, hydro and solar PV, air source heat pumps offer a viable low carbon option to help the UK meet its ambitious net zero ambitions in the domestic heating sector.
This technology has been around for decades, and is backed by an industry that is driving change and spearheading innovation. As government targets such as the Future Home Standard 2025 and the Heat and Buildings Strategy (October 2021) take effect, complemented by the Boiler Upgrade Scheme for retrofit projects, an architectural focus on low carbon heating
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