BTS focus on building performance to optimise heat pump system specification

Build Test Solutions (BTS) have secured support from BEIS under the Heat Pump Ready Programme (HPR) to focus on the role of using on-site measured building performance parameters to optimise and validate heat pump system specification, design, and management.

The HPR programme forms part of BEIS’s £1 billion Net Zero Innovation Portfolio, which aims to accelerate the commercialisation of innovative clean energy technologies and processes. 

As a key solution for decarbonising homes, heat pumps will play an important role in meeting the UK’s commitment to achieve net zero by 2050.

The Government’s recently published Heat and Buildings Strategy sets out several key commitments for helping to ensure that the transition to low-carbon buildings is affordable and achievable, including delivering a package of measures to scale up the deployment of heat pumps to 600,000 a year by 2028.

The strategy aims to work with the industry to reduce the upfront costs of heat pumps by 25-50 per cent by 2025 and to parity with boilers by 2030, as well as making them as cheap to run as a gas boiler.

The capital cost, lifetime operational cost and lifetime efficiency of both ground and air source-based heat pumps are all linked to establishing the required combined space heating and hot water demand profile. Get it wrong and an undersized heat pump cannot adequately heat the home, while oversized heat pumps cost more and don’t run as efficiently.

In most cases, approximately two-thirds of this demand is driven by space heating requirements. However, this is currently determined through heat loss calculation software underpinned by a series of assumed inputs.

This can be useful as a guide but it is now possible to measure key performance parameters directly on a per property basis at scale.

The 15-month project, delivered by BTS in partnership with Veritherm and Elmhurst Energy Consultancy, will support the development of innovative solutions across the heat pump sector.

Richard Jack, technical director at BTS, says: “No two buildings are ever the same and yet desktop heat loss calculations rely on identikit assumptions and fixed parameters.

“We are delighted to have been awarded this project and we are going to take this opportunity to demonstrate that the measurement of building heat loss is not only cost-effective and highly scalable, but it also delivers better outcomes including, crucially, optimal lifetime heat pump system functionality and performance.”