Feature
The age of the heat pump is upon us
There are about 1.7 million non-domestic buildings in the UK and the government has pledged that by 2030, they must achieve an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) rating of B or higher.
Yet 85% of these buildings currently have an EPC rating of C, D, E or worse, meaning they need an upgrade of some description over the next five years.
That’s 1.5 million buildings of all sizes that need work to make them more energy efficient and reduce their carbon emissions.
So, what can facility managers do to plan for the necessary upgrade?
And can a switch from gas boilers to heat pumps really futureproof their building and help comply with increasingly tough targets, without compromising on occupant comfort?
Heat pump manufacturer, Mitsubishi Electric has the widest range of heat pumps available in the UK, with models delivering anything from 5kW of heating right up to a 1000+kW system for a school, an office block, a hospital, or an entire university campus.
There are also high-temperature heat pumps which can directly replace gas boilers minimising the need to change heat emitters and making the transition much smoother and more straightforward.
Bournemouth University has removed gas boilers from Dorset House on its Talbot Campus and replaced them with nine CAHV-R heat pumps to provide domestic hot water up to 70°C, which will be used for both heating and hot water throughout.
“If we’d chosen a low temperature heat pump, we’d have had to replace all the pipework and radiators throughout an operational building which was just not feasible,” explained Dave Archer, Energy manager for the University. “We needed to find a cost- effective solution that could achieve those high temperatures without needing all that extra work to be done.”
A single CAHV-R unit can deliver up to 40kW of capacity and each unit can work in a cascade system to reach higher capacities of up to 640kW, making it suitable for a wide range of applications.
20 fmuk
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