Heating
Domestic Heating
A typical Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) carried out to the standard assessment procedure (SAP) identifies energy saving measures already taken and those where there is further scope for reducing energy consumption and CO2 emissions. This provides a convenient checklist of the policies the UK government are promoting; they break down into three categories:
- Improved home insulation to reduce the energy consumption for a given comfort level:
- Cavity wall insulation (where feasible)
- Loft insulation (or additional insulation to 270mm)
- Cavity wall insulation (where feasible)
- More efficient heating technology
- Upgraded controls
- Change heating to a gas condensing boiler
- (Thermal) solar water heating
- Electricity saving or generating
- Low energy lighting i.e. LEDs
- Solar photovoltaic panels
The UK government position on gas boilers is ambivalent; they will not be allowed for new build houses from 2025, yet under the Energy Company Obligation (ECO) scheme new condensing gas boilers are provided to qualifying households for free, or at a subsidised rate. policy for reducing CO2 emissions attributable to domestic heating - namely spacing heating and domestic hot water
- Replacing gas heating with electrical heating, in particular Ground Source Heat Pumps and Air Source Heat Pumps
- Reducing energy demand, through improvements to Home Insulation
Commercial Heating
Offices, public buildings, commercial premises and so on have similar heating requirements to homes - possibly similar solutions and benefitting from economies of scale
Industrial Heating
Industrial applications are more intractable especially where high temperature is required e.g. cement, steel, glass, ceramics manufacture