A Smart Home Heating System can be coupled with Smart Home products to further reduce carbon emissions, providing a complete energy management solution

Environmental impact and fuel poverty are increasingly important considerations for developers and landlords, particularly where social housing is concerned. That is why Enviroheat has developed a patented HET® (Hydro, Electric, Thermic) technology specifically to help reduce carbon emissions from heating and reduce the amount of energy needed to heat the average home.

Smart Home Heating System

Our core range of expertly engineered Comfort Suite products – EconoRad, EconoCylinder, and Comfort Control System – can be coupled with exclusive Smart Home products to further reduce carbon emissions, providing a complete energy management solution for the home.

The Enviroheat Comfort Suite (Smart Home Heating System) comprises of:

● EconoRad

Everything a heater should be. Minimum energy, maximum output.

Designed to use minimal electrical energy to produce the same heat output as other electrical heating systems, EconoRad is a self-contained, water-filled radiator powered by our patented heating technology HET®.

● EconoCylinder

Dynamic and adaptive Hot Water whenever you require it.

A Hot Water Cylinder integrated with HET® technology, the EconoCylinder is the next leap forward in stored hot water efficiency. Whether used as a direct source of hot water, combined with Heat Pump systems or traditional Gas systems, the EconoCylinder uses 30% less energy on average than other cylinders.

● Comfort Control System

Wireless control, up to 60 heaters with one controller.

Quickly and easily set hourly, daily, and weekly schedules with our intuitive programmer. The system will automatically learn how each individual zone retains its heat, automatically adapting and engaging the EconoRad to maintain the desired temperature, always using the minimum amount of energy possible.

With Enviroheat, you will have an efficient heating & hot water system designed for:

1. Quick and Smooth Installation.
   Enviroheat systems are incredibly easy to install, heating and hot water replacements can be completed within a day, without decanting tenants. This includes the removal of old systems and replacing them with the new system. If the project is not retrofit, the solutions can be installed even quicker.
2.  Simple, Intuitive Control
   With no complicated displays or buttons and voice control, compatible with Amazon Alexa, Apple Siri and the Google Home Assistant, Enviroheat’s systems are designed for ease of use, even for the most vulnerable and visually impaired.
3. Greater Energy Efficiency and Smaller Fuel Bills
   Thanks to the integrated HET®, each EconoRad regulates its own internal temperature and will always use the minimum amount of energy possible to keep the ambient temperature stable and comfortable, and energy bills down, ensuring you are helping your residents to manage energy costs.Enviroheat’s EconoRad electric radiators offer zonal control throughout the property – the heaters adapt individually to changing temperatures in each room automatically, maintaining a comfortable climate in each individual room while minimising energy wastage

   Our EconoCylinder (Hot Water Cylinder) regulates its own internal temperature and will always use the minimum amount of energy possible to keep the water at a consistent temperature. The energy reduction measures help keep residents’ fuel bills down while maintaining warm homes.

4. Produce lower carbon emissions
   Enviroheat’s solutions, when tested, are more efficient than traditional heating systems and can help reduce your heating CO2 emissions, on average, by 50.24%*. Our revolutionary HET technology was specifically designed to reduce energy demand in homes. HET Technology produces THE SAME heat from LESS electrical energy, reducing the amount of energy required to maintain a comfortably warm home climate.
5. Reporting and monitoring
   The Enviroheat system can be managed via a smartphone app or via a management console that delivers additional business intelligence for Landlords or Housing Associations. The data delivers the ability to identify fuel poverty issues prompting an intervention or can identify potential damp/mould problems saving on future maintenance.
6. Machine learning
   The Comfort Control system learning “early start” function is constantly figuring out how long it takes a particular room/zone to reach its target temperature and is able to factor in external weather conditions to be able to turn on the heating panels and have the room ready at the desired temperature at the set time.This minimises wasted energy and can deliver cost savings for users by not having to guess how long heating takes to warm up a room and have the heating on longer than is necessary especially as seasons/weather patterns change.

*Source: University of Salford Technical Report June 2015. CO2e carbon factors adjusted to the latest
published figures from BRE.

Government Net-Zero Targets

In June 2019, parliament passed legislation requiring the government to reduce the UK’s net emissions of greenhouse gasses by 100% relative to 1990 levels by 2050.

What Does Net-Zero Mean?

Net Zero refers to the balance between the amount of greenhouse gas* going into the atmosphere and the amount taken out of the atmosphere. We reach net zero when the amount we add is no more than the amount taken away.

*Greenhouse gasses are gasses in Earth’s atmosphere that trap heat. They let sunlight pass through the atmosphere, but they prevent the heat that the sunlight brings from leaving the atmosphere.

Why Is Net-Zero Important?

Under the 2015 Paris Agreement, nearly 200 countries pledged to keeping global temperatures “well below” 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, and “pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase even further to 1.5 degrees Celsius”

But the world has already heated up by about 1.1C and is currently on track for warming of at least 3C this century as emissions continue to rise. Scientists say that would “bring ever-worsening extreme weather and potentially catastrophic sea-level rise, making some parts of the planet uninhabitable and fuelling hunger and migration.”

What Needs To Change In Order To Reach Net Zero?

To reach net-zero, emissions from homes, transport, agriculture, and industry will need to be slashed by reducing the amount of carbon they put into the atmosphere.

The tables below show you how much we all need to reduce emissions, in different areas, to reach net-zero by 2050.

How Can Housing Providers Respond To The Net Zero Challenge?

Heating is one of the most complex environmental challenges facing us, representing up to 30% of the UK’s carbon emissions and one where, together, we can make a real difference.

The journey to net-zero isn’t just about renewable energy, it’s also about changing the way we use that energy in our homes. Reducing the volume of gas households use to power heating and hot water will go a long way to helping us create a more sustainable environment for our planet.

To help in the race to Net Zero, Housing Providers – Local Councils, Housing Associations, Private Landlords, Developers and Builders – will have to start looking at alternative energy sources and innovative domestic heating systems. With the Government’s plan to ban the sale of gas boilers by 2025 less than 3 years away, alternatives such as electric heating and expensive ground and air-source heat pumps will need to be considered and implemented.

In a typical residential household, heating and hot water account for up to 78.4% of the total energy used.

*Source: Eurostat: Energy, transport and environment statistics — 2020 edition

How Enviroheat can help you in your journey to net-zero

Fortunately, help is at hand. Enviroheat has developed a revolutionary technology, HET® (Hydro, Electric, Thermic) with the specific aim of reducing carbon emissions by reducing energy demand in homes. This patented technology, developed by former CERN engineers, uses LESS electricity to produce THE SAME
heat requirement, reducing energy usage and carbon emissions and cutting energy costs for householders to help combat fuel poverty.

By using HET® technology to continue to produce lower-energy heating solutions for the home, Enviroheat can help you in your journey to net-zero with our range of heating, hot water and Smart Home solutions designed to help you heat your homes without heating the planet.

Enviroheat’s Comfort Control Suite, not only allows householders complete control of their heating energy usage – monitoring temperature, humidity, energy consumption and running cost – it also provides invaluable compliance data for Landlords.

Enviroheat’s core range of exceptional products, powered by revolutionary HET technology, to warm your homes sustainably and provide a complete energy management solution for the home. In addition, when tested, our solutions, are more efficient than traditional heating systems, and can help reduce your heating CO2 emissions, on average, by 50.24%.**

With Enviroheat, you will have an innovative and efficient heating & hot water system designed to:

• Be installed quickly and smoothly.
• Reduce fuel bills for residents.
• Produce lower carbon emissions, by more than 50% on average.
• Offer increased control – thanks to data and monitoring reports via the app. Reports can be generated for temperature, energy consumption, humidity and more, allowing householders exceptional control over energy usage and costs.

**Source: University of Salford Technical Report June 2015. CO2e carbon factors adjusted to the latest published figures from BRE.

Why Electric Heating is a Viable Alternative to Heat Pumps

Government plans to ban gas boilers means that builders, property owners and landlords are under increasing pressure to upgrade existing gas central heating systems to more environmentally friendly systems, using sustainable energy. Under the government’s current plans, the first phase of the gas boiler ban will apply to all newly built homes; from 2025, new homes will not be able to connect to a gas network, instead, they will have to install low carbon heating measures. The second phase is a ban on gas boilers being sold after 2035.

Heat pumps have been championed by the Government as the answer to this expensive problem, with grants available for the installation of heat pumps. While Government-backed grants are available for heat pump installation, many properties will need to be properly insulated to reap the benefits of heat pumps. At a typical cost of c. £1,000 to fully insulate a home, and 4.4 million social houses in the UK, this poses an enormous financial headache for the social housing sector. So, what are the alternatives to heat pumps? Is there a quicker, more cost-efficient way to replace outmoded gas boilers in social housing?

Why do we need a gas boiler ban?

Put simply, gas and oil boilers are being phased out because they are bad for the environment. Burning either gas or oil releases amongst other pollutants, carbon dioxide, which is a greenhouse gas, and releasing it into the atmosphere drives climate change.

A report from the National Housing Federation stated that England’s homes produce more carbon emissions every year than is produced by all the country’s cars. The research calculates for the first time that England’s 25 million homes – which produce 58.5 million tonnes of CO2 every year – are emitting the equivalent of the average annual use of 28 million cars. There are 27 million cars in use in England, emitting 56 million tonnes of CO2 annually.

This means the average family or household in England is currently producing more CO2 every year just by living in their home than they are by driving.

Slashing these greenhouse gas emissions, and any remaining emissions offset, would dramatically slow the impact of climate change, but according to the Climate Change Committee (CCC), only 3.6% of homes in the UK use low carbon heating systems.

What are the gas boiler alternatives?

As the government ramps up its net-zero plans for 2050, and the 2025 ban looms closer, you might have noticed there has been a lot of talk about heat pumps – the Government’s seemingly preferred low-carbon heating system to replace natural gas boilers.

But little is being said about electric heating as another low-carbon option. The preference for heat pumps appears to be driven by the way heat pumps operate, utilising external sources of energy such as the heat energy from the air, or the earth to reduce the electrical energy needed. Revolutionary new technology, produced by Enviroheat, means that the same effect – same heat with less electricity – can now be achieved by Enviroheat’s electric heating systems, making electric heating a viable environmentally friendly alternative to heat pumps.

Enviroheat’s HET technology utilises the same low-temperature heating principles as heat pumps with maximum surface temperatures of 55 degrees from the heaters allowing us to use less electrical energy than traditional electric heaters and electric boilers. The uplift in AD L triggering SAP 10.2, now recognises that electric heating is less carbon-intensive than Gas due to the incredible efforts of the national grid to decarbonise. Now installing electric heating will not harm SAP ratings.

Comparing heat pumps and electric boilers

Cost:

Energy Saving Trust estimates that the typical cost of installing a domestic air source heat pump is £7,000 – £13,000. Ground source pumps are more expensive, typically £10,000 – £18,000.

Heat pumps are ideally paired with well-insulated, airtight homes, meaning many households and landlords will also have to factor in the cost of properly insulating their homes. To insulate a loft in a three-bedroom semi-detached home can cost around £300 to £350. To add cavity wall insulation, the same home could expect to pay between £450 and £500. External insulation and render can cost between £8,500 to £15,000 for a three-bedroom semi, and for internal insulation and plaster, a home can typically pay between £5,000 and £7,000. Assuming a typical cost of c.£1,000 to insulate a home, with 4.4million social houses in the UK, this could create a huge cost for the social housing sector.

By comparison, Of course, all this retrofitting eats into budgets, which is where electric heating systems come into their own. With less in the budget, heat pumps can become an unaffordable luxury, adding £7,000 – £18,000 onto an already sizeable insulation bill. Whereas, Enviroheat can typically install an electric heating system, including fitting, dynamic hot water cylinder, electric radiators, and control system, for c.£5,500 including fitting. More than this, electric heating systems can be installed to work efficiently without the need for additional insulation works, further cutting the upfront capital expenditure.

Space:

Heat pump systems require outdoor space for the heat pump, so are not suitable for homes without the additional outdoor space to spare, these can be terraced houses, apartments and mid- high rise blocks. Heat Pumps can also be noisy, so finding a convenient place to situate the pump that will minimise noise pollution can be tricky, especially in smaller properties.

Enviroheat systems don’t have large central unit feeding radiators running pipework throughout the property, saving space and eliminating leak possibilities/burst pipes. Electric heaters are also quiet, or even noiseless so can be installed anywhere in the home without causing noise disruption.

Installation:

Typically, it would take 3 – 5 days to plumb in a domestic air-source heat pump in each property. Plus, an additional 1-3 days for an electrician to complete the wiring and set the system to work. The system then needs to be commissioned, so the total install time is approximately two weeks, during which there will be a period of downtime for hot water. At two weeks per home, it would take most social housing providers years to replace old gas central heating systems with domestic heat pumps.

Ground source heat pumps take even longer to plan and install. For retrofit projects, groundworks and plant installation can run concurrently, but for new-builds, the groundworks would generally need to start 6 to 9 months before plant room installation.

Electric heating systems are much quicker to install. Enviroheat heating and hot water systems can be installed in a family-sized property in a day, with minimal disruption to the availability of hot water and heating.

Conclusions – heat pumps vs. electric boilers

Heat pumps are expensive to install and maintain, electric heating is not. Given the high initial costs and the limited heating output of a heat pump, electric heating can prove to be cheaper and to a certain extent more efficient for householders. As a long-term solution, electric heating systems are cheaper and easier to install than heat pumps and can also be less expensive to maintain.

Heat pumps utilise pipework running throughout the home, and are located outside, leading to energy loss and leak potential through indoor and outdoor pipework. Electrical heating is contained completely inside the home, with no pipework losses/leak potential. Electric hot water cylinders only feed the hot water outlets minimising pipework runs.

While electric heating systems may have higher energy costs for some householders, dependent upon the cost of electricity at any given time, Enviroheat has addressed this issue with the development of revolutionary HET technology, which helps save energy and reduce fuel bills for residents. Tests show Enviroheat’s solutions to be more efficient than traditional heating systems and can reduce your heating CO2 emissions, on average, by 50.24%, according to an independent test report produced by the University of Salford.

Both heat pumps and Enviroheat’s electric heating systems employ lower temperature heating, which works better with the fabric first agenda, no longer overheating rooms and maintaining warm, comfortable homes.

However, heat pumps are less efficient when radiators are controlled zonally by smart thermostats and trv’s. Turning heat pump demand off and on frequently causes the compressor to short cycle and therefore uses more energy, lowering the COP factor and increasing bills.

Enviroheat systems are more efficient when zonally controlling Because each room has its own climate, and energy isn’t being wasted in unoccupied rooms, as it is when heat pumps are used.

When a heat pump fails, the whole property fails. With an Enviroheat system, each room is heated by a single unit, so any failure affects only one room, providing a level of protection for householders that heat pumps simply can’t match.

Enviroheat’s revolutionary electric heating systems have been specifically designed to fit the fabric first agenda, by reducing the amount of energy required to heat each property, providing a complete solution for environmentally friendly and affordable heating for social housing.

Enviroheat’s heating system is the only viable direct electric system to be powered directly by domestic solar power due to the low energy consumption, and the hot water system can also utilise renewable power, ensuring the property gets the most out of the free energy as possible.

For more information on affordable, environmentally-friendly electric heating technology, contact:

Luke Cronshaw
+44(0)161 439 8265
info@enviroheathet.co.uk

Warm homes fit for the future are just a phone call away

Do you really know how heating central heating works?

Everyone has a heating system in their home, but not everyone knows what system they have or how their heating system works.

Heating has changed dramatically over the past few thousand years. We got the hang of fire a long time ago, but do you know how heating works? Do you know how to program it to suit your needs, or do you turn the thermostat up to 30 so the boiler kicks in when it’s a little chilly? 

Now in our glorious modern technological era, there are many ways to heat homes and buildings. Think electric heating, heat pump heating, infra-red heating, biomass heating, gas heating, hydrogen heating, geothermal heating… the list goes on.

Regardless of which route you take with heating, or which system you’ve inherited, one thing that is so important to get to grips with, is how to control your heating. 

In recent years, controls and programmers have improved the way we set our comfort levels, minimise energy wastage and choose which areas of the property we want to be warm in.

If you want to save the pennies and the planet, understanding the following basic components of a heating system will set you on the right path to becoming a heating hero.

Like a good football squad, it’s a team effort and everyone needs to do their job well to get the result the fans want. Heating is no different, except it’s a small squad of 

4 players… It’s more like the officials of the match instead? Metaphor aside, the components and their roles are as follows;

Thermostats—the first component part off the line. A thermostat is a sensor that does 2 important things; first, they detect the temperature of the room and second, they tell the heater relay whether to fire up the heat or turn it off. 

Those numbers between 5 and 35 on the thermostat are Degrees Celsius and the target for the heating system to reach. Most thermostats in new systems are digital, making it easier for customers to see what the temperature is now, and figure out what’s comfortable. For most people, comfortable is between 18-21 degrees. Remember, the higher the set temperature, the harder the heating system has to work. 

Once the target temperature is set, the thermostat comes up with a game plan. 

• Step one, what’s my target temperature? 20 degrees. 
• Step two, what is the temperature now? 16.5 degrees. 
• Step three, tell the heater relay to fire up the heater.

Now comes the middleman, the Heater Relay. The Heater Relay has one job, tell the heater to come on or off. Simply does what it’s told. Heater relays come in many shapes and sizes and can be located inside the heater or outside. Most people will recognise these as the square boxes near the boiler which click off and on to fire the boiler up or turn it off. But in electric heaters, these are internal components.

Then the heater itself, the star player. The heater pushes heat energy out into the rooms to achieve the target temperature working as efficiently as possible. The thermostat then lets the relay know that the temperature has been reached, the relay tells the heater good job, time to stop heating. 

Governing from the sidelines is the Programmer. The programmer tells every component what to do and when to do it. The programmer allows you to set up a daily/weekly schedule for heating, making it comfortable when you get in from work, and not unnecessarily heating the home whilst you’re out.

Now you know the components and how they interact together, you’re better placed to make decisions about how to heat efficiently in the property. 

More sophisticated than lighting a match!

Call Enviroheat on 0161 439 8265 or email info@enviroheathet.com to discuss your upcoming projects. You can also view our website for more information at www.enviroheatHET.com