heat pump

A new wave of government funding is driving fresh opportunities for social housing providers and developers to decarbonise their UK housing stock. Adam Greaves, Panasonic Key Account Manager – Heating Solutions, puts forward the case that embracing renewable technologies such as installing heat pumps can have a significant effect in meeting net-zero goals.

Fuel poverty is a serious issue across the UK, especially for families living in old, energy inefficient housing. As the temperatures drop and the cost of energy rises, tackling this issue is high on the agenda – and housing associations, among others, are addressing it as a top priority. To reduce costs, an increase in energy efficiency is a must, and action needs to be taken as soon as possible to lift households out of fuel poverty.

Alongside fuel poverty, achieving net-zero is another key national issue. For housing associations that we at Mitsubishi Electric are working with, these heating options are not mutually exclusive. Not only does an implementation of energy-efficient measures reduce operating costs, it also slashes the carbon impact of providing power to tenants.

Leading HVAC manufacturer LG has recently launched a New Build Design Service, to assist new build developers including social housing developers when specifying heat pumps into new homes. In the short time it has been in place, it has already been welcomed by new build developers taking advantage of the new service.
This new service is for developments of 6 or more plots and will provide full designs for plumbing and heating layouts along with equipment schedules that specify the heat pump required, radiator or underfloor manifold heating positions, pipework type and length and controls to ensure that the system which is specified will provide the necessary heating and hot water solution for any house archetype. Furthermore, LG also offers a unique service for CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) analysis, determining the optimal location and performance simulation of the outdoor units.

by Scott Ditchfield, Head of Sales Network - Residential Product Group, Mitsubishi Electric

Decarbonising the built environment is one of the biggest focuses in the UK today, in order to reach the ambitious goal of net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. Heating and hot water are big emitters of carbon, so changing the way we heat homes is vital to achieving this – and housing associations embracing low-carbon heating play an important part.
 
For social housing, keeping tenants warm and comfortable while ensuring energy costs stay low is critical. As we head into the colder months, it’s important that housing associations are supported to be able to move towards technology like heat pumps, which can provide heat and warm water to multiple homes or apartments, while being efficient enough to keep both energy use and costs to a minimum. 

In conjunction with East Cambridgeshire District Council, Palace Green Homes is in the final phase of a new 54-home residential development in the village of Haddenham, Cambridgeshire, with 19 affordable housing properties for the Haddenham Community Land Trust (CLT). The Team at Panasonic and Specialist heating and cooling distributor Oceanair, worked with CG Plumbing to provide each property with sustainable heating thanks to Panasonic’s Aquarea Mono-bloc air to water heat pumps which supply heating and domestic hot water to each home.

So, for the first time Prince Charles, the future King of the United Kingdom, gave the Queens Speech, which provides the government with an opportunity to highlight its main priorities for the months ahead.

There is one bill that stood out for me most. The Energy Security Bill. But, there was also a section in the government’s background briefing entitled “Housing Reform”.

Let’s cover this first.

Given that the country is in the thick of the biggest housing crisis and property affordability crisis the governments “housing reform” announcement borders on being pathetic.

by Russell Dean, Head of the Residential Product Group at Mitsubishi Electric

The Government recently brought forward an Energy Security Bill as part of the Queen’s Speech, which sets out the policies and the proposed legislative programme for the new Parliamentary session.

Although the news was full of the fact that this was the first time the Queen had been unable to deliver the speech since 1963, with Prince Charles stepping in to deliver the address in place of his mother, there was another important omission that hasn’t yet gained any coverage.

The Energy Security Bill is designed to deliver the transition to cheaper, cleaner, and more secure energy and will deliver the Government’s commitments in the British Energy Security Strategy and the Ten Point Plan for a Green Industrial Revolution to build a more secure, homegrown energy system that is cleaner and more affordable.

Although the bill focuses on new proposed legislation, there was no mention of how this builds on existing plans, such as the recently published ECO4 initiative, which is the fourth and final phase of the Government’s Energy Company Obligation (ECO).