Because of the climate crisis, we must reconsider how we heat our homes, moving away from gas and towards more efficient alternatives. As we’ve seen in recent months, gas boilers, which are used by millions of people across Europe, pollute the environment and expose us to enormous price volatility. According to a new BEUC (European Consumer Organisation) study, heat pumps are the most cost-effective way for consumers to decarbonize their heating. District heating powered by heat pumps is competitive in high-density areas, but consumer rights must be reinforced to match electricity use. In light of this, a new IEA HPT TCP Annex (international collaboration project) led by Dr. Marek Miara is now being developed to search for and provide optimal solutions for heat pump implementation in high-density cities, focused on new and existing multi-family structures.
The study – ‘Goodbye gas: why your next boiler should be a heat pump‘ – looked at the cost of heating the two most typical homes (house/apartment) in Italy, Czech Republic, Poland and Spain with electric heat pumps, hybrid electric/hydrogen heat pumps and hydrogen boilers from 2025-2040. According to the findings from their study, ‘Smart heating’ with heat pumps will reduce consumers’ heating costs by up to 25% compared to conventional heating; this is also being addressed under the IEA HPT TCP Annex 56 Internet of Things for Heat Pumps (IoT). The research in this project is focused on the opportunities and challenges of IoT enabled heat pumps. Connected devices will play a major role in the future, addressing multiple aims, such as increased comfort for the user, reduction in energy consumption and decarbonization of heat supply.
If national governments roll out ambitious home renovation programmes, allowing many consumers to improve the energy efficiency of their homes, this could also mean lower grid tariffs for all if savings are passed on to consumers according to the report from BEUC. Under the UK-led international collaboration project IEA HPT Annex 60 Retrofit Heat Pump Systems in Larger Existing Non-Residential Buildings, these tremendous prospects will be further investigated by providing guidance methods and tools based on evidence from monitored case studies. This is a new Annex approved during the Executive Committee meeting of the HPT TCP by IEA on the 12th of November. This Annex aims to simplify and strengthen the selection of appropriate types of heat pump-based heating, ventilation and cooling (HVAC) systems for retrofitting to existing large non-domestic buildings. The complexity of large buildings, along with the wide range of feasible heat pump retrofit options, results in a rather complicated and confusing context for decision-makers who own and operate the buildings, which can hinder the take-up of heat pump systems.