Clade Engineering Services Ltd                            HRSC0014

Written evidence submitted by Clade Engineering Services Ltd

Call for evidence: Heat resilience and sustainable cooling

15 Aug. 23

Submitter: Tim Rook CEng MIMechE. Chief Markets Officer for Clade. Experienced engineer and business leader with over 16 years in the low carbon heating sector.

Organisation: Clade Engineering Services Ltd. UK based manufacturer of refrigeration, cooling and heating appliances including heat pumps. 39 years in the sector serving blue chip customers. Leading specialist in natural refrigerants with design, installation and servicing teams delivering end to end solutions. Recipient of multi-million investment by Groupe Atlantic.

• How can sustainable cooling solutions and adaptation strategies be implemented in such a way as to minimise overheating, reduce energy consumption and prevent overloading of the electricity grid during peak demand?

Thermal storage is an efficient way of storing either heat or cold which can be used to advance or delay the operation of cooling equipment. The most cost effective medium is water with glycol although other options such as phase change materials are available. Thermal storage is usually only included in a project at the minimum viable size (e.g. to smooth the operation of equipment) which means it is generally too small to meaningfully time shift use and generation. Greater provision should be made for 4-6 hours duration, this could be implemented through the building regulations, planning or energy performance certification.

Grid flexibility or time of use electricity tariffs can be used to incentivise cool generation out of peak hours. This goes hand in hand with thermal storage

• What role might reversible heat pumps (which can act as both heating and cooling systems) and other emerging technological solutions, such as the development of smart materials, play in meeting future cooling demands?

Reversible (either simultaneous or sequential generation) heat pumps are a space efficient appliance however the set up and control can be challenging. In particular rapid changes in demand or switching between heat & cool or a great imbalance in heat vs. cool load result in inefficient systems.

The use of underground heat reservoirs on an inter-seasonal basis has prove highly efficient and effective for large buildings. Winter cool is stored for use in the summer, summer heat for the winter. This raises the efficiency of heat pumps for heating and can provide nearly free cooling.

Generating cooling at higher temperatures leads to greater efficiencies of chillers. Typically cooling systems operate at 6 DegC which is very low compared to the required air temperatures. Changing the design parameters would lead to a reduction in electrical energy used because the chillers become more efficient.

Heat pumps embedded with in air-handling-units can provide both heat and cool, are space efficient and cheap to install. These use direct expansion technology (without an intermediary water circuit) but can only use certain refrigerants such as CO2 to prevent undue risk of poisoning or fire in the cooled space.

• How can cleaner refrigerants with low or zero global warming potentials support the UK’s cooling needs while contributing to the national emission reduction targets?

The use of natural refrigerants (largely CO2, hydrocarbon and ammonia) is wide spread in the refrigeration sector and is rapidly gaining ground in the heating sector too. Natural refrigerants offer very low climate impact (measured as Global Warming Potential, CO2 is 1GWP, r32 is 677GWP), have a more secure supply chain and are cheaper than most chemicals.

The refrigeration sector’s experience over the last 12 years has been that natural refrigerants perform better, are cheaper over the lifeftime and give clear environmental benefits which make them a no-regret choice.

The expected increase in cheap air-conditioning based on chemical refrigerants will result in a high carbon legacy for the UK. This must and can be avoided.

There is a great opportunity for the UK to lead the world in sustainable cooling using natural refrigerants and to reduce our carbon impact. The innovation is being lead by companies in the EU and UK, however the rest of the world is catching up quickly.

The f-gas regulations are currently using a quota based system to reduce the high impact refrigerants. The EU is very close to approving an acceleration of the phase out of nearly all chemical refrigerants having successfully passed several legislative stages. The UK could easily follow or take the lead by taking similar action.

• How effectively is the Government working across departments and with local authorities to ensure a coordinated approach is taken to heat resilience?z

DEFRA have the f-gas regulations, DESNZ have the decarbonisation and energy regulations and Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities have the building regulations. It is vital that these operate together and that this cooperation is visible to the commercial and public spheres. This would be an effective market signal of the direction of travel. We do not currently see this.

August 2023