Government subsidies to replace oil or traditional electric warming with energy pumps ignore the global boiling impact of their HFCs, argues new analysis.
The UK's proposals for offering subsidies to homeowners including businesses to switch from gas, oil plus traditional electric warming to generated power pumps has been criticised for ignoring the impact of their HFCs.
generated power pumps act like refrigerators but in contrary, rather than flaming a propellant to generate heat they move generated power from a low-temperature heat source in addition to 'pump' it to a higher temperature where it can be used to provide central boiling or roasting water in the same way as a domestic heater.
The Energy Saving Trust (EST) has recently concluded the better ever united kingdom trial of generated power pumps, studying the performance of heat pumps at 83 sites (54 ground source as well as 29 air source). Although it found a wide variation in performance levels in the trial, it concluded that energy pump technologies would save 'significant amounts of CO2 in the UK, when replacing oil or traditional electric boiling.'
However, according to environmentally-safe analysts this fails to take account of the worldwide boiling brought about by the hydroflurocarbon (HFC) gases used together with emitted by energy pumps. HFCs are as much as 2,000 times more potent a greenhouse fuel than carbon dioxide.
Eric Johnson, director of Atlantic Consulting, which has conducted its own study into air-source energy pumps, said they had found that HFCs consistently add practically 20 per cent to the footprint induced by power-generation with emissions during the 15-18 year lifetime of the pump including after its scrapping.
'On a lifetime "per kWh of delivered heat" basis generated power pumps are practically as carbon-intensive as natural gas or LPG in heating,' he said. 'In countries with low-carbon electricity like Sweden heat-pumps tend to win over existing systems but in countries like the commonwealth of nations with relatively high-carbon power generation then it is no upgrade than a fuel stove.'
'So should you rip out your gas heater in addition to replace it? No,' said Johnson.
While acknowledging leakage during manufacture together with disposal, the Energy Saving Trust say that barring a technical fault there should be no HFCs released during the use of heat pumps. They said their generated power pump study did not explicitly aim to measure or comment upon the potential of in-situ heat pumps to contribute to HFC emissions through their everyday use.
Writing in the Ecologist, Johnson said his findings on HFCs were similar to auxiliary peer-reviewed studies that had been published by researchers at Delft University in addition to Chalmers University of Technology in the past two years.
He said the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) had also guessed at heat-pump leakage at 4-5 per cent ot its original fill of refridgerant per year in 2005.
The Energy Saving Trust said it was interested in the entire greenhouse gas footprint of energy pumps, together with would be 'interested to appear to be in more detail at the findings of the Atlantic Consulting study,' according to renewables development manager Jaryn Bradford.
Author Resource:-
This exposition was drafted by Bryani I. Holgy who is an professional in the field of Boiler Breakdown Cover and has years of practice in this field.
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