There is a lot going on in the heating industry at the moment, with regard to saving energy and gas usage.
Not a lot of people know, or care, but the majority of gas and oil boilers in the UK are massively oversized, and interestingly, in 2017 the UK recorded the third highest gas boiler sales in the whole world, after China and South Korea! 😮
I have recently attended a Warmurs Heating Hydronics Pilot course in Northampton, led by hydronics expert Kimbo Betty.
The essence of the course is to try and simplify all the math that goes into designing efficient heating systems, so it can be applied to not only current heating systems, but to heat pump systems.
The reality is, the physics of heating design doesn’t change.
What is highlighted on the course, is that we have a massive energy wastage crisis, and helping to make existing systems more efficient will in turn, prepare us for the no room for error heat pump systems.
The harsh reality is, that there aren’t enough qualified engineers out there to cope with the inevitable change to heat pumps, and what we are now seeing, is heat pumps being installed poorly, on heating systems that will never work.
The question is, how is it resolved?
Heat Pumps gets a lot of bad press, and although some is warranted, a lot isn’t. The simple fact is, there are too many installers, that don’t know what that don’t know what they are doing.
The answer to that is simple…. we need more education, simplified so that heating engineers can learn and change with the times, but also homeowners have a responsibility too, to ensure that they understand the big differences between gas/lpg/oil heating systems and heat pump systems.
They are not the same..
Over the last 3 years, I have heavily invested into heat pump training, desperate to get up to speed, and its working, but it is what I wanted to do, I find it interesting, and I have become quite passionate about heating efficiency across the board, so the transition has been easier.
Now take an engineer who is happy doing what he is doing, and try to teach them the complexities of heating design.
Its an uphill fight, which will take years to overcome.
