Heat Pumps Today

April | May 2021 Every right-thinking person agrees that decarbonisation – the process of removing or reducing carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) emissions from human activity, all of which ultimately find their way into the atmosphere – is crucial to creating a sustainable future and a clean, stable environment. After all, CO 2 acts as a greenhouse gas, trapping in heat and driving global warming, the e ects of which are already significant and may well be catastrophic to life as we know it. There are, of course, many other gases that contribute to global warming, but CO 2 is the most prevalent. Its average atmospheric density in 2019 was almost 410 parts per million, higher than at any point in the past 800,000 years. Carbon dioxide concentrations are rising mainly because of the fossil fuels that people burn for energy and that is why the priority is to reduce our use of oil, gas and coal to decarbonise the atmosphere. There are hundreds of ideas and technologies that can help with the decarbonisation process, many of which involve little or no noticeable ‘operational’ compromise. In heating, for example, in older building stock, particularly homes. This is obvious of course, but no less important to mention for being so. Insulation really is a no-brainer for environmental reasons, but there is also a strong financial argument for it – the payback period for improving industrial insulation is, on average, just two years, according to the European Industrial Insulation Foundation. Well-insulated buildings have a marked impact on the design of heating systems not least because a well-insulated and airtight space will reach its set point faster than a poorly insulated space for the same heat input. This has significant implications for the specification of heat generation and emitting equipment. As a side note, care must be taken not to over-insulate such that summer energy use for cooling outweighs the saving made for cooling, but that’s another article in itself. The over-arching message, however, should be that a joined-up approach is essential to a successful move from CO 2 – singular products and approaches are not the answer, and can end up being ine ective and crucially, ine cient. The UK has committed to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2050. To achieve this target, millions of people will have to switch to low-carbon heating. Tim Mitchell, Sales Director of Klima-Therm, discusses some of the options 18 C O MM E N T they include edge data centres which can produce heat as a by-product for nearby homes, and ground source heat pumps which can be used as district heating solutions for multiple buildings. But cleaner heating technology is not enough on its own. Decarbonising heat is easier if energy demand is reduced, as less or lower grade heat will need to be produced. That’s why it makes sense to adopt a ‘fabric first’ approach – in other words, to prioritise insulation – especially Winning the heat generation game