DAUK                            HRSC0068

Supplementary written evidence submitted by DAUK

Heat Resilience and Sustainable Cooling Consultation

DAUK further comments

16.10.2023

In terms of addition points – I have the following comments

Q55

The point I was going to make in answer to Barry Gardiners question was that where an Air conditioning units was required for someone who was vulnerable then we have an opportunity to decarbonise at the same time. As well as installing the unit also make sure that the Gas supply is disconnected or panel Heaters removed. As I mentioned an AC unit can heat and cool as it is an Air to Air Heat Pump so it can provide Heating in the Winter as well as cooling in the Summer. In this way you resolve the issue of comfort as well as decarbonising the property. Often these properties are 1-2 bedroom flats so this approach is perfect , also you can easily only switch on the unit for the room you are occupying. Air to Air Heat Pumps are also available combined with a small ~120 litre Hot water tank which is perfect for these smaller property sizes.

Q64

This questions was about making sure that the decarbonisation solution did not mean people got lazy and forgot about the passiv measures. The important part of Air to Air Heating and Cooling is that the windows are closed and people are in the room. There are controls systems that link remotely to window sensors as well as motion detectors to make sure energy is not wasted if no one is in the room or windows are open. In this way if a window is left open then the unit set point will increase [in cooling] and stop the unit. Also with motion detectors they will stop the unit if no motion is detected. These detectors are much more sophisticated than the used to be and can detect small movements ; for example one detector on a Daikin unit has a 64 square grid. If a home owner has purchased Air conditioning and is looking to use it when they have inadvertently left on the Heating [from the gas Boiler], then we also have sensors that connect to the radiators that lock out the Air Con if the Heating is on.

I think this is a really good area for further work; exploring total house decarbonisation where home owners are looking to buy Air Conditioning to cover a ‘hot Summer period’.

Q68

One of the ‘new’ so called natural refrigerants is R290 which is an extremely flammable A3 gas. This is ok so long as the Heat Pump is manufactured to the correct standard [no reason why this should not be the case], and that it is installed correctly. To ensure the latter we would advocate a skills card , as a sign of competence, for Heat Pump installers. This could be something like the gas-safe scheme where they attained certain categories ; handling HFC’s could be one area [F-Gases] and handling other such as A3 flammable gases another. This sort of approach would get a lot of support and make it really clear what was needed for safe and quality installations. – an areas of recommendation for the group

October 2023