Spotlight on the multi-technology approach with Jan Rijnen, MD of Baxi UK and Ireland

Andrew Gaved hears from Baxi‘s Jan Rijnen how hybrid systems could spearhead a strategy that offers benefits to installers and government alike.

I meet Jan Rijnen shortly after a successful InstallerSHOW for Baxi where it debuted its biggest booth to date – a move which enabled the manufacturer both to showcase its ever-widening range of products, including its first Heat Interface Units, and to engage with eager installers armed with a host of questions about training, technology and the future in general.

Not surprisingly, ensuring that the transition to lower carbon is as straightforward as possible for installers and building owners alike – and this includes commercial building owners, not just householders – is very much on Jan’s mind. Long-established companies like Baxi have navigated energy transitions before, he reminds us:

“At the show, one of our team did a presentation where we showed some old Baxi marketing material that was designed to manage ourselves through the energy transition from coal to gas [in the 1970s]. And that clearly came with similar emotions to what we see now with electrification. In those days, people were saying that they love the ‘cosiness’ of coal and the open flames – and so this idea was translated into the Baxi Bermuda [back boiler] where you would basically see the boiler burning the gas…”

Jan’s eyes widen at the thought of the householders excited at the prospect of a boiler in the living room with its visible flame: “You just couldn’t imagine that today – but in those days people wanted to ‘see the home heating up’.”

In the same way, the industry now needs to manage a transition away from its love affair with the dominant fuel. But there is a key difference, he notes, and that is that today it is a not a transition towards a single fuel – or a single technology.

“The UK, like the Netherlands, went towards gas because it was cheap and plentiful,” he says, “And both customers and installers have become used to it, because they can install a boiler within half a day, it’s easy…but in the next transition, there is no longer this ‘one size fits all’ and this is what is difficult for people. People are still looking for the holy grail to replace all gas boilers, but it does not exist.”

“In my opinion, there is really only one downside of gas boilers,” he continues, “And that is the carbon emissions. They are efficient, they are well-engineered, and we have had quite a few years of evolving that technology. So you can understand why the installers have really grown to love it.…and amidst all the competition, it’s still a relatively cheap solution But we cannot ignore that downside – that if the cost of carbon would be priced into the cost of gas, the world would look different.”

Addressing the spark gap

This is one reason why Jan is a strong advocate for the new government to swiftly address the price difference between gas and electricity, the so-called spark gap.

“With gas, you can have the temperature one degree lower, but with electricity, your fridge and your freezer, you don’t have that choice. And typically for people in energy poverty, they have still a freezer often consuming a lot of electricity. They don’t have the budget to buy a new one, even if the payback in energy would probably be well worth it. So there is a good argument for reducing the cost of the electricity.”

Jan is also firmly of the opinion that having a multi-technology approach to the energy transition, doesn’t just mean throwing all Baxi’s weight behind heat pumps. We are sitting in the company’s new training centre in Warwick which features boilers, HIUs and water heaters alongside the heat pumps.

He is clear that boiler technology will continue to have an important role to play on the road to net zero:

“I think an idea that often gets lost is that the government is forcing everyone to have heat pumps or is desperate for their rollout. Whereas actually what it wants is for everyone to decarbonise their homes…There will still be boilers that run on a type of gas in the future, whether that is green gas such as biomethane, or indeed whether it is hydrogen. But then we will definitely have heat pumps. We think that maybe up to 60% of the market in the future will be heat pumps.”

But there is a product that he believes needs to be taken much more notice of by today’s carbon-conscious installer or building owner, and that is the hybrid system, using a smaller heat pump combined with a relatively simple gas boiler.

The advantage of hybrids

For Jan, the hybrid is far more than just a short-term measure. Instead it is a serious solution to some of the key challenges around the current heat pump rollout:

“I think you could position the hybrid solution as an enabler of a transition to full heat pumps,” he says, offering a range of reasons why it offers less risk for the consumer, “It is less challenging for the government because they don’t have to pay so much on subsidies; it makes the heat pump installation cheaper and simpler, and with the backup of the boiler, you need less adaptation of the building that you’re using – you need less adaptation of your fabric, you need less adaptation of your radiators.”

But even more convincing, he argues, is that it reduces the gas consumption for heating by at least 80%. “The water production would mostly still be done with the boiler, although that’s a choice…But reducing the gas for heating buildings by 80% then makes that last 20% of the gas much easier to make green… It is impossible to completely make all gas consumption today renewable, because of the sheer volume, whether that is hydrogen or biomethane but at, if you look at the amount of bio methane already produced today, it becomes really feasible to make it a renewable gas source at 20%.”

Add to that the fact that you are offering the much sought-after grid flexibility and the advantages are compelling: “It allows you to balance between your sources. If for whatever reason electricity is a bit scarce, you can switch to gas. If for whatever reason electricity is cheaper, you turn the heat pump on and you run a bit extra…”

Finally, he says, there is a good technical argument to add to the economic one for hybrids – it would require less adaptation of the existing grid: “If you have a well-functioning gas grid, why would you take it out? If it’s there and it’s available, why not use it, and then okay, maybe 30 years from now when you have to do major infrastructural investments, you can rethink.”

An evolving estate of heat pumps

And all the while that hybrid systems are being installed, it is delivering an evolving estate of heat pumps for the population to get used to, Jan points out: “People will be seeing them operate; seeing the advantages; and finding the best place for them in their house, whether on the roof or inside.”

But the most radical suggestion of all, Jan suggests, is that you don’t have to risk confusing customers by referring to ‘hybrids’: “You could just call it a ‘powered gas boiler’ and then avoid the association with hybrid cars.”

On top of all that, the argument for hybrid systems should even appeal to the new government while it is watching its fiscal responsibilities:

“The hybrid route will make the whole installation that much easier and cheaper – I think you could do four hybrids for the price of one all-electric installation, and so it would need far less subsidy.”

The final point about hybrids, lest we forget, is that that 80% gas reduction could leave the door open to a managed use of hydrogen. Here, Jan remains pragmatic:

“Just because we can apply something, doesn’t make it necessarily the best solution. Hydrogen is one of those…We may or may not solve the technicalities around hydrogen, but if we do get to the point that we have enough hydrogen that we can also just burn it for heating, then why not? We are ready in case hydrogen becomes a part of residential and commercial heating, both with smaller and larger boilers…But equally, we could supply that last 20% of gas with biomethane and instead use all the hydrogen for aviation or for steel and cement plants.”

Micro heat networks

Another technology that Jan believes could play a key role in decarbonising is the small-scale heat network for multi-occupancy buildings, using a central unit incorporating air source heat pumps, either alone or, yes, as a hybrid with a boiler.

This packaged centralised hybrid plant is currently somewhat in search of a name –  perhaps ‘heating room’ or ‘heat hub’ – but, connected to a series of HIUs, it would offer a host of advantages over individual boilers, he believes:  “We could balance between the two energy sources and then each flat could become their own ‘heat as a service’ provider. Each flat could become their own energy service company – say a hundred apartment owners could come together to buy a professional connection. And instead of a boiler in each flat, you get a small heat interface unit, which is super reliable and can be also offline monitored or online monitored as required, but the people have no more gas in their flats.”

And the beauty of these micro networks is that they can be connected to create larger networks, as and when they become available, without the much larger logistic challenge of establishing a large district heating network from scratch, he stresses:

So far, our conversation has been about the domestic opportunity, but of course Baxi also works in a commercial market that also offers great scope for decarbonisation.

The commercial potential

However, the opportunity in commercial sectors comes with its own challenges, Jan notes: “The first challenge of course is that the commercial market is so diverse compared to residential – it could be that block of flats, a multi occupancy building, it could be a school, or an office building or it could even be something like a small church. Now the good thing here is that many companies are already driven by their own wish to decarbonise, whether it’s from their ESG policy or their own beliefs.”

So there’s a lot of talking with not only the building owners but also with the specifiers and architects, he notes: “Some people are deciding that maybe for the next installation they will still have a boiler, but we and they are being prepared. We are also seeing that the hybrid route is picking up here – maybe it is because of a distressed purchase that they still take a boiler, but they understand this can be then upgraded to a hybrid system. We are seeing things picking up in schools, we’re seeing things picking up in office buildings – where of course they will often have air conditioning, which are inverter-based heat pumps, so they have the same kind of technology.”

And equally, he adds, the commercial business for Baxi is changing too, to adapt to the transition: “We used to have many, many brands in this commercial arena, without making it very clear that we offer a total solution. So we were very much set on a product-based strategy. We would sell an Andrews Water Heater or we would sell a boiler or we would sell a Heatrae Sadia direct water heater. Now as Baxi as part of the BDR Thermea group, we have access to a far larger portfolio.” This means that alongside the ‘standard’ commercial heat pumps, the UK has access to large-scale heat pumps from Italy, along with rooftop units that include air handling and cooling alongside the heating. “When you talk about sites like shopping mall, ventilation is a key component. So we have more of those products in our portfolio.”

Also in that larger portfolio is Baxi’s range of packaged plant solutions, which it offers for both commercial and residential applications: “It allows construction to take place to a defined standard independent of anything else happening on site,” Jan says, “You can guarantee the quality whilst making it easier to install in the right moment in the house…And in commercial we already see it a lot, building complete systems in plant-room-like pods that we just bring into the schools at the right moment.”

But there is another radical application that the company is currently exploring for the packaged plant approach – improving the aesthetics of the heat pump outdoor unit: “Personally I believe it can play a big role in renovation…One of the things there we are talking about is: ‘Why don’t we make a little portal in front of the front door that can contain all the necessary equipment inside or a pod on the roof or in the back of your garden? That way, we are not always trying to force everything inside the home – we are testing to see if customers are interested in a pod like that, with a nice internal housing,”

The key priorities

Jan ends by emphasising two key priority areas to accelerate the journey to net zero. The first is, unsurprisingly, getting that spark gap arrested. The second is to focus more firepower on decarbonising social housing. He believes it will be a timely focus for a clutch of reasons:

“Firstly, I think it fits the new government’s strategy in that the investment comes to the lower income families; Secondly, it helps getting people and installers acquainted with installing and using the heat pump technology, to create a critical mass of installations to provide the knowledge for both users and the installers; And thirdly, if we want to be energy neutral in social housing by 2050, we probably need to make 200,000 houses energy neutral per year. So this would help create that market for people that can actually benefit from it.”