BEIS project finds ‘all housing types are suitable for heat pumps’

The Electrification of Heat (EoH) demonstration undertaking, funded by the Section for Business, Strength and Industrial Method (BEIS), has discovered that throughout 742 unique warmth pump installation all over the place, ‘there is no home kind or architectural period that is unsuitable for a warmth pump.

Heat pump advocates believe that the final results of the project led by the Electricity Devices Catapult (ESC) will spike the guns of people who assert that warmth pumps are only suited for new builds.

From Victorian mid-terraces to pre-WWII semis and a 1960s block of flats – the task has established that warmth pumps can be correctly put in in properties from just about every model and era, claimed ESC.

The first report on Warmth Pump Installation Data includes the figures and forms of warmth pumps mounted, residence variety/age and on vs off-fuel grid.

ESC explained that the 742 heat pumps had been installed into a wide spectrum of housing sorts and socio-financial groups, that demonstrates a consultant sample of households across Fantastic Britain. The heat pump systems installed ended up also intentionally diverse, such as very low-temperature and high-temperature air-supply heat pumps ground-supply heat pumps and hybrid heat pumps included with a gas boiler. In addition, more technologies, these types of as heat batteries were being installed where by acceptable.

ESC makes a number of conclusions:

1. The EoH task was profitable in setting up the complete selection of heat pump technique varieties into the whole selection of targeted property kinds and ages
2. The undertaking has not determined any particular form or age of home that cannot have a productive warmth pump installation. The suggestion that there are individual home archetypes in Britain that are “unsuitable” for warmth pumps is not supported by project working experience and knowledge.
3. There were modest shortfalls (even though in planned tolerances) in the range of installations for properties created pre-1945 (22 per cent set up versus about 30 per cent in actual-earth), with a slight excess in later age brackets. ‘This is indicative of there becoming a higher challenge in productively designing warmth pump methods for older properties. Having said that 163 installs had been effectively obtained in these more mature pre-1945 attributes, obviously showing that these kinds of difficulties are workable,’ stated ESC.
4. 80 per cent of the installations have been in houses that ended up earlier related to the fuel grid and in which (prior to the warmth pump set up) the major heating method was fuelled by mains gasoline.

The undertaking appointed 3 delivery contractors to function with purchasers in a few locations across the British isles:

• South East of Scotland – guide shipping and delivery contractor Warmworks, working with Electricity Personal savings Have confidence in and Changeworks.
• Newcastle – direct supply contractor E.ON, working with Newcastle Metropolis Council and Your Residences Newcastle.
• South East of England – direct shipping contractor Ovo Energy, working with Kaluza, RetrofitWorks, Parity Tasks and SunAmp.

Vitality and clear advancement minister Lord Callanan stated: “Heat pumps driven by clean, renewable energy will be key to warming UK homes in a net zero long run. This trial demonstrates that low-carbon heating systems are an effective alternative for households of all forms and ages. As know-how continues to strengthen and fees plummet about the following decade, they will grow to be the evident, inexpensive alternative for customers.”

The EoH project now moves on to the ‘monitoring and optimisation’ stage the place the shipping contractors obtain comprehensive general performance data on the mounted heat pumps and glance to make certain they are doing inside the expected parameters.

Richard Halsey, Capabilities Director at Energy Devices Catapult, explained: “The Electrification of Warmth venture is supporting us have an understanding of the purchaser journey, set up and functionality of warmth pumps across Britain and the job that distinct heat pump technologies will perform in distinct sorts of properties and places. There is option for innovation to make sure warmth pumps can produce fantastic heating experiences and run competently as element of a smarter electrical power technique. Now the set up period is entire we will be checking how the methods accomplish and the experience of households to tell the upcoming measures on finding properties ‘heat pump prepared.’”