Networked heat pumps: a primer

To meet net zero goals, local authorities are looking for innovative solutions to decarbonise transport, housing, waste, energy and a range of other services. For our latest blog, we want to focus in on the benefits, potential barriers and opportunities of one solution to low carbon heating – networked heat pumps. Balazs Csuvar, DG Cities’ Head of Delivery and Wouter Thijssen, Managing Director of Kensa Utilities, a leading UK heat pump manufacturer, explain.

What are networked ground source heat pumps?

Networked heat pumps replicate the gas grid model, whereby you have an individual heating appliance in your home (in this case, a ground source heat pump instead of a gas boiler), connected to a shared communal loop of pipework in the ground that supplies energy to this appliance (an ambient temperature heat network, as opposed to the gas grid).

Low-temperature heat can be sourced from the ground all year round. Networked heat pumps absorb this sustainable and constantly replenished heat source through pipework under the street. In each home, there is a heat pump, which is connected to this ground loop. The heat pump uses electricity to upgrade the heat from the ground and provide heating and hot water to homes.

“Compared to various air source, electric, gas and combined heat and power configurations, shared ground loop arrays are the most efficient and lowest carbon heating and hot water solution currently available for homes.”

— DG Cities & Kensa

How efficient are they?

On average, the overall energy efficiency of this system is four times greater than using direct electricity for heat, and five times more when compared to gas boiler efficiencies – for every 1kWh of electricity consumed to power the heat pump, approximately 3-4kWh of free energy is gained from the heat stored in the ground.

In effect, the system creates a district heating network. As generations of district heating systems have evolved, the temperatures circulating the district network have also been reduced, further improving efficiency – in networked heat pump systems (often called fifth generation district heating), an ambient temperature flow of below 20°C is possible. This enhances efficiencies and reduces heat losses, whilst still delivering the heating and hot water the end user needs. Ambient temperature loops are also an excellent source to capture waste heat and further improve the efficiencies of networked heat pumps.

The feasibility of a networked heat pump system has been proven; they have been rolled out commercially across the UK in a range of new developments, multi-storey social housing blocks and other, non-domestic, building types. The next boundary is to implement this system at scale in medium density urban areas, such as the residential terraced streets that make up a large proportion of the country’s towns and cities. These are areas likely not dense enough for traditional high-temperature district heating, but in lots of places, too dense for individual air-source (due to noise issues) or individual ground-source heat pumps (due to limited external space).

As part of a recent project, DG Cities and Kensa looked into the feasibility of such a system for a residential neighbourhood – here are some of the key takeaways from our study:

1. Do they work on terraced streets?

Yes. The technical and financial feasibility of the system depends, to a great extent, on the density of homes that will be connecting to the ambient temperature heat network. With a utility provider funding the ground array infrastructure, costs to householders are the same, if not lower, than for air source heat pump installations. Clustered sign-ups over time make this solution viable for the utility provider.

2. How do you design a consumer journey?

The scale of the challenge is massive. To meet 2050 targets, we need to decarbonise 28 million homes in 27 years. That is more than one million per year, or 20,000 homes per week. With that in mind, we need a scalable approach that tackles streets and regions at a time, rather than individual houses one-by-one. Clustered solutions like heat networks and networked heat pumps are great for this. The key, therefore, is to design a consumer journey that engages whole neighbourhoods at a time – a locally-driven transition. This is what DG Cities, Kensa, SELCE and the rest of the Heat Pump Ready Greenwich consortium developed together.

Initial surveys showed what we suspected: heat pump awareness in the UK remains low, with less than half (42%) of survey respondents knowing about heat pumps to varying degrees. Heat pump installation can also be a technical and unfamiliar process for homeowners, as with any new technology.

To address this, we built a ‘funnel’ approach to the consumer journey. This focused on engaging locally and starting very wide; first building up an awareness and understanding of the technology, before giving more specifics and detail about the system to enable people to make an informed decision.

 The diagram highlights the phases of the marketing funnel:

• awareness: making consumers aware of the energy debate, net zero and potential solutions, including networked ground source heat pumps. This includes site visits to existing heat pump sites where residents can talk to those who already have heat pumps, as well as demonstration heat pumps in the local area that they can see and ask questions about.

• consideration: providing consumers with more information to help them decide which technology offers are right for them. This is through 1:1 discussion (e.g. through scheduled ‘coffee hours’) where residents can ask all their questions.

• conversion: allowing people to deploy new technologies in their homes – if a networked heat pump is relevant, providing them with guidance on how to sign up to a scheme. This starts with surveys and quotes specific to their home and situation, giving them the specific details they need to make a decision.

• loyalty and advocacy: once customers have enrolled in the heat pump scheme, the focus moves to making sure customer service is positive, then using their experiences as a success story to recruit more consumers.

3. How can policy accelerate progress?

While we coordinated the key industry players to deliver the best possible consumer journey, we see several policy tweaks that could help fast-track this journey to much more rapid decarbonisation. First, rebalancing electricity and gas levies to avoid unfairly taxing the cleaner fuel of electricity. Second, going from heat network zoning to heat zoning, so that each local authority has the power to designate streets and regions ‘most suitable’ for a certain heat decarbonisation solution, based on local conditions. Third, granting statutory rights to ambient temperature heat networks to enable easier in-road deployment; matching the rights granted to electricity, gas and water utilities.

We believe these three tweaks can significantly speed up coordinated solutions, and would be a great example of a successful partnership between industry and policy to achieve decarbonisation.

Are you a local authority looking to trial a networked heating system?

Our feasibility study showed that current technologies can already make a huge difference to the decarbonisation of many terraced homes. However, for this to work, it will take significant commitment and large-scale behavioural change, along with trials and further evaluation. We are looking for local authorities that are interested in starting this journey with us – to harness a transformative, UK-leading innovation to deliver on decarbonisation goals. Please get in touch if you’d like to discuss this further.

Countdown to COP26

You’ve probably heard a lot about COP26 this year and might wonder what it is and what it might mean for you. We’ve taken a closer look and have outlined below why COP26 is one of the most important events in the global climate change policy agenda:

What is COP26? 

We’re nearly a month away from this year’s United Nations’ Conference of Parties, COP26, a global leadership summit on climate change topics. 

This year’s climate change conference will take place in Glasgow, Scotland, with the UK acting as a president of COP26. World leaders - alongside negotiators, government representatives, businesses and citizens - will visit Glasgow on October 31st for twelve days of important discussions about the global climate change crisis.

Why is it crucial? 

In 2015  the Paris Agreement was signed in which global leaders committed to developing plans called National Determined Contributions (NDCs), outlining how they would reduce their emissions.

COP26 marks five years since the signing of the agreement. 197 countries will be required to update their NDCs with much more stringent and ambitious targets that will ultimately aim to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees by 2050. This process will occur through negotiations between the different countries. 

In detail, at COP26: 

1. Countries will present ambitious 2030 emissions reductions targets that align with reaching net zero by 2050.

2. Countries will present plans demonstrating how they are adapting to climate change. Countries will need to support citizens that are most affected by climate change. 

3. Developed countries must present $100 billion in climate finance to support developing countries meet their net-zero commitments.  

4. The UK, as COP26 President, must negotiate and finalise rules that will enable the Paris Agreement commitments to be met. 

Why do we need to act now more than ever? 

Recently, the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) published the sixth assessment report on climate science, which summarises the physical science for climate change from thousands of peer-reviewed studies. 

The report is stark and ominous, and provides strong evidence to demonstrate that humans are responsible for causing this widespread climate destruction, much of which is irreversible. The impacts of climate change can no longer be ignored. 

The report also highlights that the current NDCs outlined by countries to achieve net-zero are not sufficient enough to keep warming below 2 degree celsius; further proving why COP26 is so important. 

The IPCC stresses that if net-zero CO2 emissions are not reached by 2050, and there isn’t an overall reduction in global greenhouse gas emissions, then the 1.5 and 2 degree limits set out in the Paris Agreement will be reached before 2040.

Reaching net-zero requires collective effort from countries to shift to renewables, and to reduce emissions from practices with a high global warming impact: agriculture, particularly meat farming, fossil fuel production and waste management. 

Reducing greenhouse gas emissions will help us minimize the catastrophic weather risks of global warming - including sea level rise, glacier melting, rainfall, floods and droughts. 

DG Cities and Net-Zero 

 DG Cities is an innovation company that is focused on supporting cities and communities to capitalise on the benefits of technology and data. As a company we have  worked on a number of major projects relating to the transition to a low-carbon future ranging from net-zero housing, decarbonisation and fleet electrification (Birchmere & ERCV), to support local councils such as the Royal Borough of Greenwich meet their carbon reduction targets. 

In recognition of our work in electrification we’ve also recently been awarded further funding that focuses on fleet electrification in Greenwich, London and Devon, Cornwall. This is exciting as we will be exploring both urban and rural applications of this vital technology.

COP26 is an important global milestone on the journey towards a low-carbon future. As the world looks expectantly on, many will wonder how the discussions and meetings in Glasgow will translate into practical changes in the day-to-day lives of citizens and businesses. We’re here to help, so at DG Cities we’ll be keeping a close eye on the discussions and working hard to make sense of what COP26 will mean for UK towns and cities. Follow our blog to find out more.