15 July 2024
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By Ian Rose, Sales & Strategy Director at Passiv UK
For the last 40 years, most homeowners had a gas boiler. Life was simple. They were easy to install, they were reliable, they heated homes quickly, and they could be turned on and off with a thermostat at will.
Then we got smartphones. What! Why can’t I control my heating on my phone? But I control my entire life on my phone! Welcome to the dawn of the smart thermostat. Consumers can now do exactly what they did before with their heating, but they can do it without moving from their chair, or being anywhere near their home, offering peace of mind that they’re not pointlessly heating an empty space.
New technology
But what’s this coming along? Heat pumps? A ‘new’ technology, using a different fuel source and entirely different heating characteristics to that good old boiler. But it’s low carbon, it’s the future, so maybe everyone should get one.
This is where the challenges start. People really liked the instant gratification of turning up the thermostat, they liked the ease of use, and they loved bills that were reliably consistent, regardless of when they used their heating.
Challenges
These challenges have been front-ofmind for the industry for years and the need to develop innovative solutions to combat these challenges has been our focus for over a decade. The rise of smart technologies across all industries is as such that there is a natural appetite for these types of technologies when dealing with solutions that are owned and managed by consumers.
It’s for this reason that smart controls, designed purely for heat pumps, play a major role in the UK’s drive towards a net zero future. The application of artificial intelligence for domestic heating, the optimisation of heat pumps for improved efficiencies, and the integration of heat pumps into our low-carbon energy system – it’s a no-brainer, right but why?
Great seasonal performance
Heat pumps love a low flow temperature. It allows them to deliver a great Seasonal Performance Factor - the ratio between the annual heat energy output and the annual electric energy input. And, that’s what every consumer wants because that means lower bills. Setting this flow temperature is usually in the hands of the commissioning agent to get the heat curve right. That’s a tough job when we know that the current tools used to calculate the thermal performance of the building envelope are best described as crude. Smart controls can solve this problem by learning the thermal performance of the building and amending the flow temperature appropriately. And the controls do this constantly, so whatever happens to that building, the heat pump is optimised and can do its job to the best of its ability.
Consumer benefits
That’s great news for consumers, as it means they are receiving the lowest bills possible. Except…what’s this? Electricity costs more in the evening than in the middle of the day. But consumers want to heat their homes in the evening. Unfortunately, this is our energy future – we no longer have a readily storable fuel like gas for our heating, available whenever we need it. But electricity that is increasingly generated by renewables such as wind and solar and constrained by the size of the wires connecting that generation to homes. Electricity can be cheap (sometimes they will pay you to take it!) when the wind is blowing and nobody else wants it. Sadly, this simply isn’t the case on a cold winter's day when the wind is absent.
by the size of the wires connecting that generation to homes. Electricity can be cheap (sometimes they will pay you to take it!) when the wind is blowing and nobody else wants it. Sadly, this simply isn’t the case on a cold winter's day when the wind is absent.
This is when things start to get complicated. It’s easy to turn the heating off when the prices are high. It’s easy to turn it on when prices are low. Sadly, that delivers terrible results for consumers. To manage this challenge, you need to know what the price of electricity is doing in advance, to understand the opportunities for cost avoidance. You need to understand what the weather is going to do, to ensure homeowners don’t risk being unable to get their property warm without destroying the heat pump’s Seasonal Performance Factor. You need to understand when the consumer wants to be warm. And you need to understand what happens to the heat when you deliver it into the building. Then taking in all that information, you must figure out what you’re going to do. Every minute of every day.
Sounds complicated, doesn’t it?
The good news is that this is exactly what some smart controls do. They take on the challenge of operating a complex heating system in a dynamic energy environment and tailor heat delivery for every user in their specific home environment. No fuss. No inconvenience. No discomfort. Just lower bills and a great experience.
Some controls will also optimise a homeowner’s heating against the solar panels on their roof, plug into their time-of-use energy tariff, and participate in the National Grid Demand Flexibility Service so they get paid for their heat pump pleasures.
Smart controls can deliver savings of up to 30% on heating bills and improve the Coefficient of Performance of a heat pump by reducing flow temperatures. The world of heat pumps just got simpler and cheaper. Maybe the next 40 years on our net zero journey won’t be so painful after all.
