Heat Pumps Today

20 December | January 2023 D I S T R I C T H E A T I N G Lee Hermitage By Lee Hermitage, EMEA Marketing Director for Advanced Materials at Honeywell District Heating – Keeping heating prices affordable and stable In the blink of an eye, 2022 will soon be over. When we reflect on the past year, perhaps all the tumultuous events will spur the world on to adopt greener, cleaner energy. Extreme climate change is just one of the stark reminders that we must act with urgency. When it comes to energy supplies, this year has been filled with uncertainty and instability of where our energy might come from and how much it will cost, but it doesn’t need to be this way. With the demise of fossil fuels, electrification is the only way, and adopting renewable energy is a must. There has never been a better time to consider the use of heat pumps which can help with keeping costs down. They are the future, and a potential energy crisis lifeline because they provide a greener, more stable, and reliable source of energy. At a domestic level, heat pumps are the most sensible solution as they can be between 50%–80% renewable, using energy from an external environment to produce heat. If you compare that with a normal direct electrification approach, for example the boiling of an electric kettle, putting one unit of electricity in to generate less than one unit of heat. By comparison, for every unit of electricity that you put into a heat pump, it generates between three and five units of heat. Alternatively, large scale heat pumps can be used to provide hot water to a large number of homes and buildings through a district heating network. The Government must act now If world events and the uncertainty, they have delivered to the energy markets were not catalyst enough, the annual publication of the UN’s SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals) provides a constant reminder that we must act now to avoid yet more damage to our fragile planet. There is consumer pressure too. In a recent poll of 2,000 people, commissioned by The John Lewis Partnership, 77% believe the new government should do even more than their predecessors to protect the United Kingdom from global warming. While initial capital outlays needed to support our heating system evolution will be significant, they will ultimately pay for themselves many times over through reduced energy costs and quality of life improvements. The government has o¢ered some help to accelerate the uptake of heat pumps on a domestic and district level. The recent news of the government’s plan to fund district heating network projects across South England is a positive step, albeit a small one. The fund of £54m awarded to four heat network projects in England will mean that approximately 28,000 homes and businesses will be shielded from costly fossil fuels, helping reduce energy bills and the country’s energy independence. According to the government, the annual carbon savings from these four projects is the equivalent to taking more than 5,500 cars o¢ the road or the average household use of over 400 kettles. As well as the district heating fund, the government also set aside £450m to encourage the installation of electric heat pumps by homeowners over the next three years as part of Britain’s e¢orts to hit its 2050 net-zero targets. It amounts to a £5,000 grant, awarded to 90,000 households over three years. However, that equates to only 30,000 homes a year. In our view, this is an inadequate incentive to shift use away from traditional gas