Heat Pumps Today

20 By Jason Allen, Commercial Product Manager at Hamworthy Heating The role of the Heat Pump in today’s changing climate With rising energy tari s and increasing awareness of our environmental impact, maximising energy e ciency plays a key role in helping to lower operational costs and meet the required regulations. While it is, without doubt, a di cult time, some steps can be taken, which can also help to accelerate the transition to the UK government's net zero goal for 2050. Energy e ciency is the attempt to reduce the amount of energy used by making improvements to technology and buildings which can, in turn, help to lower operational costs and increase sustainability. It is also central to achieving the UK’s commitment to reducing its greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. Regulation driving change The ‘Heat and Buildings Strategy’ launched in October 2021, is the UK Government’s plan to decarbonize virtually all heat in buildings and is fundamental to the Net Zero goal. At the heart of this strategy is phasing out the use of fossil fuels to heat buildings by 2035, whilst increasing the application of low-carbon products, fuels, and energy sources. The uplift of Building Regulations ‘Conservation of fuel and power: Approved Document L’, introduced in December 2021 and in force as of June 2022, is the legislative method adopted to ensure new buildings will be fitted with low-carbon heating and high levels of energy e ciency achieved. Under the new framework, decarbonising heating is key to cutting emissions across commercial buildings. If we look past the building fabric and focus solely on the heating system, one of the main points highlighted in the latest regulations states that a heating system must be designed to work at 55 ° C flow. This new legislation will e ectively mean an end to like-for-like boiler replacements and will eventually phase out the use of non-condensing units in new and existing buildings altogether, except under February | March 2023 T R A I N I N G Jason Allen, Commercial Product Manager at Hamworthy Heating exceptional circumstances. This means that only high e ciency condensing gas boilers will meet the minimum requirements. However, when it comes to sustainability, there’s no doubt that heat pumps play a key role towards achieving the Net Zero goal. How do heat pumps work? Heat pumps gather heat energy from the surrounding air which, via a heat exchanger, is transferred into the heat pump’s refrigerant and turned into vapour. The vapour is passed through a compressor and turned into high pressure, high temperature refrigerant, raising the temperature to a point that can deliver heat throughout a building's heating system. Heat pumps don’t require high external temperatures to function; they can continue to operate with external air temperatures down to -20 ° C. What makes heat pump technology energy ecient? The energy e ciency of heat pumps is in no doubt; they are up to three times as e cient as a gas boiler. Heat pumps change low grade heat into useable heat, with the most popular type being the Air Source Heat Pump. This uses a small amount of electrical energy to transfer the ambient heat in the air outside of a building and move it inside, where, at a higher temperature it can then be used for underfloor heating, radiators, or maintaining a supply of hot water. Delivering up to 4 kWh of energy for every 1 kWh of electricity used to power it, heat pumps can be 300 to 400% more e cient than electric heating alone. But the benefits don’t end there. In addition to providing a controlled climate with improved air quality, once correctly installed by a qualified installer with maintenance in line with manufacturers recommendations, a heat pump could last between 10-25 years, or more.