Leading heat pump manufacturer LG has welcomed the new found enthusiasm of the UK Government for heat pump technology, albeit at the eleventh hour.
It is one of the companies dedicated to stepping up to the plate when it comes to taking huge strides towards the decarbonisation of the UK heating and hot water sector, utilising technology that has been delivering for more than two decades in countries around the world with far more demanding weather than we experience in the UK.
With COP26 coming and going and no one seemingly able to define what Net Zero looks like, it’s a tough ask for anyone to define it as regards home heating and hot water solutions in the UK marketplace.
Nobody seems to have a firm view of what Net Zero or what it means to get there – looks like – or how we get there with any degree of certainty.
There are a number of solutions vying for the role of taking us towards that holy grail, even hydrogen for which there is no viable provider for the quantity of this green gas in the UK. But nobody seems to have a firm view of what Net Zero or what it means to get there – looks like – or how we get there with any degree of certainty.
We have very defined targets to hit, but little or no guidance on how to hit them. There are a number of potential contributors – many of which – like hydrogen – are little more than optimistic technologies, in the early stages of development – with no real ideas of how to meet the requirements of twenty five million households, so it surely makes sense to look first and foremost at existing, tried and tested renewable technologies that we know work and we know will make a huge contribution to getting towards Net Zero – heat pumps.
Until recently, when the Government suggested contributing to the increase in heat pump installations by making £5,000 grants available from April 2022, there was little targeted support for heat pumps in the UK. The Renewable Heat Incentive offered some encouragement, but was a blunt instrument in a marketplace that needed subtle influence, broad support and a helping hand towards training installers, to take off in a big way.
The support now offered will help 90,000 installations, but the same Government is asking for 600,000 installations a year by 2028. And we currently have around 1,200 installers qualified to install heat pumps in the UK. Even those not so hot at maths will see there are some issues here.
But as more than one influencer has said in recent times, “we are, where we are”. LG has been offering it’s popular Therma V air to water heat pumps in the UK for many years and has been developing the technology, until it now has a sector leading option that is beginning to take the home building sector by storm. Its new Monobloc version is easy to understand, simple to install and hugely energy efficient.
The new LG R32 Monobloc unit is compact, meeting permitted planning permission guidelines, and has an energy rating label of A+++.
It utilises the low global warming potential (GWP) refrigerant R32, but as a monobloc requires no installer to handle refrigerant – it simply requires the installation of the external unit, the installation of the indoor unit and a water pipe connection between the two. The installation of a hot water tank indoors completes the package, with connections to radiators and or underfloor heating systems – voila – heating and hot water.
The new LG R32 Monobloc unit is compact, meeting permitted planning permission guidelines, and has an energy rating label of A+++. It incorporates a new Scroll Type Compressor developed by LG. Unlike many heat pump manufacturers and new entrants to the heat pump sector, LG invests millions in R&D and offers sector leading compressor and controls technology others can only dream of.
LG units offer quicker response times for the provision of heating and cooling, by sensing not only the temperature but also pressure – a pressure control sensor provides a faster and more accurate response, reducing the time delay for implementing heating or cooling commands significantly. The addition of pressure control enables the Therma V R32 Monobloc to take less time to reach the desired temperatures, with up to 44% quicker response in heating.
To those without an axe to grind, heat pumps would seem to offer by far the most sensible and proven way for us to make strides towards Net Zero. It will be interesting to see whether that proves to be the case.
Head for www.lg.com/uk/heating-awhp for more information.
