Heat batteries: a low-carbon alternative to heat pumps?
An innovative heat battery technology has recently completed an 18 month trial, in which it provided 30 homes across the South East and East of England with low-carbon electrified heating.
The trial, titled ‘Neat Heat’, was funded and led by UK Power Networks and was based around tepeo’s Zero Emission Boilers (ZEB) which ‘charges up’ using off peak electricity, storing most of the heat a home requires to be used on demand whenever it is needed.
Seen as a low-carbon alternative to a heat pump for properties where a heat pump is not possible, desirable or cost-effective, the project set out to test the ZEB’s suitability across a range of properties such as smaller homes, which are inherently less suited to heat pumps.
The trial is being hailed a success, notably by those households who participated in it, with none of them reporting any major issues with regards their heating experience, and every one of them prepared to recommend a ZEB.
It was also appreciated that installation was quick and non-disruptive, taking between one and two days on average.
The trial was built around an tariff developed by OVO Energy, giving customers access to a cheaper (than standard) rate to charge their ZEBs. The ZEBs were optimised to charge in response to a price curve provided by OVO.
This proved a huge success, with the ZEBs able to draw over 95% of the electricity they required, outside of the most expensive price periods within OVO’s energy price curve
The challenging conditions provide by winter, where 67% of the heating demand occurred during the most expensive price periods, presented little problem, with the ZEBs only needing to dip into this period for 10% of their total power requirement.
The trial established that heat batteries can shift energy demand for heating to off-peak times by up to 95%, providing carbon savings of 15,600kg CO2 over gas boilers.
Head of Innovation at UK Power Networks, Luca Grella said: ‘Being able to move electricity demand away from peak hours is huge, for both our network and customers.
‘The more people move to electric heating systems, the more resilient our network will need to be. Shifting demand away from peak hours will reduce the upgrades needed to keep up with the future demand of green technologies, which would ultimately have been paid for by customers across the country. We hope this also opens the door to further low carbon solutions which we know they are keen to adopt.’
CEO of tepeo, Johan du Plessis said: ‘Neat Heat’s success paves the way for the wider deployment of heat batteries, which is critical to the UK’s successful transition to Net Zero.
‘Heat batteries working in tandem with dynamic tariffs will enable millions of homes currently unable to switch to low-carbon solutions to join the green transition.’
Grainne Regan, head of Heat at OVO said: ‘The ability to decouple electricity consumption from heating is an essential part of decarbonising home heating. This trial represents a huge step forward in our joint mission to decarbonise the UK energy grid by 2035.
‘We’re committed to making it easier for our customers to access energy that is better for them, their wallets and the planet, and this trial is a great example of how we are delivering on that.’
The full Neat Heat trial can be found here.
