February 2021

ACCELERATING THE PATH TO NET ZERO

In November last year, the government published ‘The Ten Point Plan for a Green Industrial Revolution’ setting out their approach to accelerating the UKs path to achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2050.

Point seven of the plan, which could deliver a 16 per cent reduction in UK emissions, is focused on greener buildings – making our buildings more energy efficient and accelerating the decarbonisation of heating by moving away from fossil fuel boilers and towards lower carbon, more efficient alternatives. Heat pumps are, of course, top of the agenda with the UK government driving an increase in installation of electric heat pumps from 30,000 per year to 600,000 per year by 2028.

A MORE EFFICIENT ENERGY SOURCE

Heat pumps are a proven and commercially viable way to transform the way we heat our buildings. They extract energy from the air, ground, or water, concentrate it to a higher or lower temperature and deliver it elsewhere, for example to a central heating system. Heat pump systems are designed to extract a greater amount of energy from the surrounding environment than the energy they consume in doing so, so they can act as a more efficient source of heat than a conventional system, producing two to three times (or more for very efficient systems) as much useable energy output as they consume in electricity input.

Currently, fewer than one per cent of homes in England use a heat pump (1). But this is set to soar with the new government installation targets, with annual global heat pump sales expected to roughly double by 2030 (2).

RADIATORS THAT WORK WITH HEAT PUMPS

To function effectively, heat pumps must be paired with complementary radiators to form an efficient and cohesive system.

Traditional steel panel radiators are designed to work with gas and oil boilers operating at a typical 75ºC input temperature. When the heating system is changed to a heat pump operating at a typical 45/35ºC input, the same radiators cannot generate the same level of output. Therefore they have to be replaced with either much larger steel panel radiators, sometimes with additional rads installed to achieve the required output, or low water content radiators which are perfectly suited to work with heat pump flow temperatures.

LOW-H2O: LIGHTER, FASTER, MORE EFFICIENT

As well as operating at lower input temperatures, Jaga radiators contain 90 per cent less water than that of a steel panel radiator. This means they are faster to heat up and cool down, providing improved comfort with less energy consumption, no wasteful over-heating and reduced demand on the heating system itself. They use a compact aluminium and copper heat exchanger which rapidly heats any space – no heavy steel panels requiring pre-heating. Fewer materials mean they are far lighter to install and remain much lighter when fully filled during use.

DYNAMIC BOOST HYBRID: INCREASED OUTPUTS WITHOUT COMPROMISING ON SPACE

For even faster reaction times and increased outputs without increasing radiator size, Jaga has also developed Dynamic Boost Hybrid (DBH) technology. Acting as heat activators, small DBH electric fans can be installed inside the Jaga radiator. They monitor room and water temperature and activate air movement to dramatically improve output.

As an example, to produce 800W output using a 35/30/20ºC heat pump system, a traditional steel panel radiator would need to be sized at 700mm x 2000mm. Whereas a Jaga Low-H₂O radiator with fan assist DBH technology would be almost half the size.