Sunamp’s phase change technique provides a compact way to store heat

By Julian Singer One of the obstacles to using heat pumps for domestic heating is the need to store hot water, since unlike the combi gas boiler the heat pump cannot produce hot water instantly on demand. It needs to be stored in a hot water tank, but since the advent of combi gas boilers [...]

By |2022-03-17T13:32:49+00:00March 17th, 2022|Heating|Comments Off on Sunamp’s phase change technique provides a compact way to store heat

How to make Heat Pumps more effective

By Julian Singer On 20 January Dr Matthew Trewhella, managing director of Kensa Contracting, a division of the KenslaGroup, gave a stimulating talk on the past, present and future of heat pumps as part of the Oxford Energy series. Kensa is based near Truro and claims to be the only British manufacturer of ground source [...]

By |2022-02-04T19:36:29+00:00February 3rd, 2022|Heating|Comments Off on How to make Heat Pumps more effective

Replacing boilers with heat pumps is not simply a matter of price

By Julian Singer The government is reported to be considering an incentive scheme to encourage home owners to replace their gas boilers with heat pumps. A sum of £4000 was floated, recently increased to £7000. Even so it is unlikely that many owners will take up the offer. The problem is not just that heat [...]

By |2021-08-17T07:25:11+00:00August 17th, 2021|Heating|Comments Off on Replacing boilers with heat pumps is not simply a matter of price

Water in abandoned mines holds heat, but how useful is it?

By Julian Singer The water in abandoned coal mines has received increasing interest as a source of residential and commercial heating. There are certainly many such mines in the UK and most of them will contain significant volumes of tepid water, but how much useful heat can be delivered? Two projects at Gateshead and Seaham, [...]

By |2021-07-20T07:50:03+00:00July 20th, 2021|Heating|Comments Off on Water in abandoned mines holds heat, but how useful is it?

Hydrogen Safety: the results of H21’s Phase 1 study of hydrogen in the gas network

By Julian Singer In May the H21 project released its Phase 1 report on the safety of replacing natural gas (methane) by hydrogen for residential heating. The hydrogen molecule is much smaller than methane so that there are reasons to fear that hydrogen might leak more easily from the gas network. On the other hand, [...]

By |2021-07-05T14:30:34+00:00July 7th, 2021|Heating|Comments Off on Hydrogen Safety: the results of H21’s Phase 1 study of hydrogen in the gas network

Heat Wayv, a new way to decarbonise domestic heating

By Julian SInger Heat Wayv is a private UK company developing a system for domestic hot water and space heating using microwave electricity on the same principle as the microwave oven. The company claims that its boilers will be the same size as conventional gas combi-boilers and with a similar fast response time. As a [...]

By |2021-05-23T07:54:57+00:00May 18th, 2021|Heating|Comments Off on Heat Wayv, a new way to decarbonise domestic heating

The H100 Fife project: the first real-life test of hydrogen for residential heating

By Julian Singer The H100 Fife project is designed to be a real life test of the use of hydrogen for heating homes. The idea is to build a facility in Levenmouth, Fife, that will use offshore wind power to generate hydrogen from electrolysers. The hydrogen will be stored on site and used to feed [...]

By |2020-12-10T08:27:25+00:00December 10th, 2020|Heating|Comments Off on The H100 Fife project: the first real-life test of hydrogen for residential heating

H21 pushes ahead with examining the feasibility of using hydrogen for heating

By Julian Singer The interest in hydrogen as a carbon-neutral fuel has increased significantly this year, with shares in some of the companies involved rising sharply (Greenbarrel, 28 July). Much of the interest has focused on hydrogen powering vehicles or storing energy. However while hydrogen may be the solution for commercial and industrial vehicles it [...]

By |2020-08-20T17:06:09+00:00August 19th, 2020|Heating|Comments Off on H21 pushes ahead with examining the feasibility of using hydrogen for heating

What is the full cost of installing a heat pump?

By Julian Singer Heat pumps are expected to play a major role in decarbonising residential heating, which contributes 14 per cent of the UK’s CO2 emissions, about the same as transport. In fact they are nearly the only solution currently available and will remain so unless the gas grid is converted to hydrogen. But what [...]

By |2020-05-14T08:32:40+00:00April 22nd, 2020|Heating|Comments Off on What is the full cost of installing a heat pump?

Decarbonising Heat III: the hydrogen solution

The two previous articles on Decarbonising Heat summarised the National Infrastructure Commission (NIC)’s study of the costs of different solutions and looked in more detail into the most effective but also the most expensive of these solutions – heat pumps. This article will look into the other main contender – the use of hydrogen instead [...]

By |2018-11-27T19:09:26+00:00November 27th, 2018|Heating|Comments Off on Decarbonising Heat III: the hydrogen solution
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