I have spent the last month trying to build a heat pump deployment strategy for my town and have come around to this point of view. Even in Belgium, with the worst spark gap in the EU (3.8 as of H1 2023), heat pumps can beat gas if they are installed well. 1/ - ThreadSky

adrianhiel.bsky.social • 96 days ago

I have spent the last month trying to build a heat pump deployment strategy for my town and have come around to this point of view. Even in Belgium, with the worst spark gap in the EU (3.8 as of H1 2023), heat pumps can beat gas if they are installed well. 1/

Reposted from Michael Liebreich

Keep calm and improve your COPs! #EnergySky 🔌💡

www.writefirstdraft.co.uk/heat-pump-ma...

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adrianhiel.bsky.social•96 days ago

So we shift our focus from overly subsidising the purchase of heat pumps (which often just drives up the price) - to working with installers to ensure they can actually install heat pumps really well and monitor actual performance! 2/

adrianhiel.bsky.social•96 days ago

I haven't yet worked out exactly how to do that - the first step will be gathering local installers to actually speak with them and find out their current training/comfort levels with heat pumps but a big part of solving a challenge is defining it well. 3/

adrianhiel.bsky.social•96 days ago

Basically, we need more people like https://www.youtube.com/@UrbanPlumbers who is a thoughtful and curious heating engineer and we need to tie the work into the local one-stop shop so the simplest and cheapest building upgrades are done too. end/

adrianhiel.bsky.social•96 days ago

And look who is here: https://bsky.app/profile/helloheatpumps.bsky.social

imhelenj.bsky.social•96 days ago

Here we have @heat-geek.bsky.social and @openenergymon.bsky.social on that mission.

adrianhiel.bsky.social•96 days ago

yes, that is a big source of inspiration and education for me.

charlesknight.co.uk•95 days ago

I do not know if you follow octopus is doing in the UK but it's pretty clear their model is to build a data infrastructure at scale to control and adjust remotely with no user intervention. That feels like the model that will win out over the "end user has to become an engineer to use it".

adrianhiel.bsky.social•95 days ago

They are doing some amazing things to be sure. And ease of use for the end user is a really, really key point. But ensuring the quality of the install, with correct sizing, upgrading of radiators if necessary, etc seems like a precondition to being able to do that kind of remote control effectively.

chchristiaens.bsky.social•96 days ago

Well I'm not sure that is enough, especially in Belgium where the spark gap work that well and subsidies are absolutely necessary.
Many HP OEMs already have extensive installer training and certification programs (I was quite happy with how Daikin dealt with it when our A2A was installed)

adrianhiel.bsky.social•96 days ago

oh some subsidies are still necessary (and the regional subsidies are a good start) - but they can be a blunt tool. And the challenge is ensuring the local installers have the necessary training and incentives based on actual performance.
Do you know what kind of SCoP you get?

chchristiaens.bsky.social•96 days ago

so, apparently the Daikin app doesn't show this directly. need to extract data and calculate it myself.

adrianhiel.bsky.social•96 days ago

That's a bit of a pain. When you get some time you should do it.

chchristiaens.bsky.social•96 days ago

But you could add some sort of COP guarantee promise/obligation in contracts. Should not be a problem if installers are properly trained.

adrianhiel.bsky.social•96 days ago

yeah, that is exactly what I am thinking.

bayartpierre.bsky.social•96 days ago

You mean 1970?

adrianhiel.bsky.social•96 days ago

I do indeed. Will make a proposal in a couple of weeks to our new echevine - it won't be a finished product but more the strings I think should be pulled - and we will see where we go from there.

bayartpierre.bsky.social•96 days ago

yeah!

adrianhiel.bsky.social•96 days ago

that's the kind of enthusiasm I like to see!

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