Heat Pumps Today

12 A solutions-based approach is essential to ensure high-performance and maximum efficiencies from hybrid heat pump systems, says Ryan Kirkwood, Baxi’s Heat Pump Business Development Manager. Greater collaboration is instrumental in avoiding conflict between the technologies and achieving optimal outcomes Prioritising performance from hybrid heat pump systems By now, everyone is hopefully aware that we must change the way we heat buildings if we are to achieve our ambitious 2050 net zero target and climate goals. As energy prices soar, the drive to heat buildings more sustainably will also assist businesses in mitigating the spike in costs. But designing the future of heat requires increased collaboration so that we can successfully prioritise performance – and practicality – every time, particularly in older commercial building stock. Take heat pumps. In its Heat and Buildings Strategy, the government recognises both heat pumps and energy H Y B R I D H E A T P U M P S April | May 2022 e ciency as key focus areas in the short term for decarbonising heat, while longer- term technologies like green hydrogen scale up. Certainly, the credentials of heat pumps to deliver low carbon heat in newer, well insulated commercial building stock are well established. And as the UK’s electricity grid continues to decarbonise apace, heat pumps will increasingly deliver close to zero carbon heat in buildings like these. We see Air Source Heat Pumps (ASHP) as the most popular and cost-eective choice of heat pump and are pleased to add our new Remeha E-HP AW ASHP range to our expanding portfolio of sustainable heating and hot water solutions. Powered by the UK’s rapidly decarbonising electricity grid, air pumps can provide a highly e cient, sustainable method of supplying low carbon heating or indirect hot water requirements for a range of non-domestic buildings. But here’s the problem: it’s unrealistic to think that we can engineer all projects and budgets fully with just ASHPs at present. In older, poorly insulated commercial buildings, air filtration, physical space, available electrical power and/or CAPEX budget are just some of the restrictions typically encountered. Hybrid Systems So rather than wait, how do we design around the limitations imposed currently? One option is to deploy a hybrid solution. Utilising existing or new high e ciency combustion fuelled appliances with heat pumps is time proven to decarbonise a large portion of the annual heat demand. A hybrid system working in perfect balance should only use condensing boilers to overcome limitations imposed by operational factors and to ensure building performance at all time. Ryan Kirkwood, Business Development Manager