WATER HEATING
www.heatingandventilating.net
The changing state of water heating
Martyn Bridges, director of technical services at Worcester Bosch, discusses the different technologies that contribute to water heating and what the future looks like in this space
I
t goes without saying that water heating is one of life’s essentials. There are a number of ways that this can be achieved, however with the net zero
target to meet, many of the current ways of heating water may be up for change. There is definitely a push from the government at the moment to opt for electric based heating systems such as heat pumps.
Where we currently stand
The government currently has a preference for heating systems and hot water production to come from a low carbon or renewable source, for many years though most domestic and commercial properties have been heated by gas fired systems. This obviously will need to change in order for us to meet that zero target. Either the method that we use must change or the gas type we use to something like Hydrogen. In domestic properties it is likely that heat pumps will be more prevalent than they are today. Heat pumps are a really good solution for low temperature heating systems, however for high temperature hot water production, this is when they start to be slightly less efficient. Heating a hot water cylinder to around 50-55˚C and perhaps topping the remaining temperature requirements from an immersion heater, which could be powered from a solar PV system, would seem a sensible halfway house. Alternatively,
a solar thermal system could also contribute a sizeable amount to the hot water generation however, these types of systems seem to be losing their popularity to solar PV.
Improvements needed
What are the downsides of using heat pumps or even electricity to heat volumes of hot water? The downside is that you need to store hot water, so it will be an interesting time for commercial properties where hot water in abundance is needed and they can no longer use gas fired instantaneous water heating, or even smaller but with higher recovery storage systems. A heat pump will take a lot longer to recharge a
hot water storage cylinder, so in a small hotel or a pub, it is likely that larger storage volumes will be required due to the fact it does take longer to reheat to the desired temperature. The question of space and cost will be uppermost in the mind of the owners of such premises, perhaps
32 November 2022
DOWNLOAD THE HVR APP NOW
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40
