BSEE
his year the UK achieved a milestone it has not seen since 1882, signifying an important step on its path to net zero carbon emissions. The country’s power grids ran for 67 days without the use of coal, beating the previous 18-day record set in 2019.
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Max Halliwell, Communicaons Manager, Residenal Heang,
Mitsubishi Electric
The world has been gripped by the impact of COVID-19 since the start of 2020. As we look to the future and lifting the lockdown across the world, there are growing calls within the international community that any economic and social recovery plans take into account the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement. A big part of how the world recovers and goes greener is how we decarbonise the built environment. The Government has pledged to be carbon neutral by 2050 but according to the UK Green Building Council, the built environment accounts for around 40% of the UK’s total carbon footprint. While a lot of this comes from construction, as well as electricity usage for essential services like IT, a significant portion of this carbon reduction can be made through changes to how buildings are heated. Despite the renewable gains, in 2019 only 8.5% of heat generated came from low-carbon sources.
As part of its drive for a cleaner, greener environment, from 2025, new homes will no longer be connected to the gas grid. This means that we must make a conscious effort to equip the homes of the future with renewable, energy-based heating systems – like heat pumps. The pace of heat pump installations in the UK has been slower than anticipated mainly due to lack of awareness, a misunderstanding around the technology and the price associated with them. To combat this, until now the Government has its Renewable Heat Incentive scheme to provide funding to homeowners wishing to adopt renewable technology in their home.
At the end of April, the Government announced its proposed replacement to the long-standing Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) grant – the Clean Heat Grant (CHG).
Out with the old
In the March 2020 Budget, the Government announced the RHI would be extended for another year, until 31st March 2022. After this point, the RHI would be replaced in favour of the newly proposed Clean Heat Grant. With very much a similar purpose, the CHG will aim to help households and businesses decarbonise their heating through low-carbon heating solutions, primarily air source heat pumps (ASHP). The CHG would offer up to £4,000 for each household that integrates low carbon heating technology to replace traditional fossil fuel heating sources. The Government set out ambitious targets to become carbon neutral by 2050. To do this, the Government’s independent advisory body, the Committee of Climate Change (CCC) has said that up to 15 million homes would need to be fitted with heat pumps, or hybrid heat pumps, by 2035. The scheme is similar to those seen in other European countries, such as Germany, which have proven to be successful in large scale uptake in heat pumps. The CHG however has excluded hybrids from eligibility within the proposed scheme. Hybrid systems are used in conjunction with existing, often more polluting, heating systems like oil boilers, so would therefore reduce the effectiveness of the funding when seeking to decarbonise heat as effectively as possible.
The proposal suggests that industry voices and contributors to the new scheme were crucial in helping the Government to understand the market and the current uptake in heat pumps. The CHG would bring a new two stage application and redemption scheme for
homeowners, reducing prohibitive administrative burdens that have limited the current RHI scheme.
HEATING
How we heat our comes must change if we are to reach net zero
The upfront £4,000 per household grant also helps to address one of the key barriers to the uptake of heat pumps so far. It makes it a much easier financial decision-making process for homeowners when considering the replacement of their existing heating system. The current RHI delivers quarterly payments for seven years to help offset the cost of a low carbon heating system. The proposed upfront capital grant of £4,000 brings simplicity and peace of mind to users wanting to make a greener switch but also concerned about the initial upfront capital cost implications of doing so.
What does a heat pump do?
An Air Source Heat Pump (ASHP) extracts energy directly from the outside air and delivers it to a heat exchanger. This heat is then transferred within the house to heat the hot water cylinder and radiators just like a normal boiler. ASHPs have a significant advantage over alternative systems like a Ground Source Heat Pump where space becomes a limiting factor as ground alternatives require extensive digging and very large capital costs. ASHPs can be readily fitted to an external wall, minimising surrounding disruption and installation costs. The design and installation of ASHPs is also ideal for those in residential areas. They are suitable for almost any property and can work alongside existing heating systems in a hybrid situation if required, removing the need for an expensive re-fit. The ultra-quiet operation of a modern ASHP provides the additional benefit of flexibility in where they can be positioned, adhering to planning regulations while still ensuring no disturbance to homeowner or neighbour. As our urban communities become denser and more populated, ultra-quiet heat pumps are expected to become the common solution.
26 BUILDING SERVICES & ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEER AUGUST 2020
The opportunities are out there
The current uptake of low carbon heating in the UK is lower than in other countries and the CHG is seeking to change this by placing the installer at the centre. The technology has not been pushed for as long and lack of understanding among both consumers and installers is widespread. The CHG seeks to change this by placing the installer at the centre of the application process.
For those installers wishing to diversify their businesses there is a readymade market for homes needing to make a switch to cheaper, cleaner low-carbon heating. With 1.6 million homes throughout the UK using oil as a heating system, these homes are much more susceptible to fossil-fuel price fluctuations. While now it might seem like a big benefit as global oil prices have plummeted in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis, this price is unlikely to stay so low as the world looks to recover and economies and transport systems start to return, albeit in a different way to before. But it’s not just the running cost of a heavy fossil fuel heating system. Each one of those boilers generates an average of 5.3 tonnes of CO2 from each house every year. That’s a total of 8,480,000 tonnes of CO2. With consumers becoming even more aware of their carbon footprint, that could make a massive difference. By replacing all oil boilers and half of the existing gas boilers with an air source heat pump, we would reduce our national CO2 emissions by 8%, or nearly 29million tonnes by 2018’s standards. The Committee on Climate Change recognises that heat pumps could meet up to 75% of the total residential heat demand in the UK. This amounts to a staggering number of homes that could be using truly clean, low carbon, renewable energy.
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