{"id":24754,"date":"2016-06-29T13:21:15","date_gmt":"2016-06-29T13:21:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/planningandbuildingcontroltoday.co.uk\/?p=24754"},"modified":"2016-09-20T13:01:59","modified_gmt":"2016-09-20T13:01:59","slug":"shining-light-dark-corner-district-heating-systems","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/energy-news\/shining-light-dark-corner-district-heating-systems\/24754\/","title":{"rendered":"Shining a light in a dark corner: district heating systems"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bill Watts,\u00a0Senior Partner at\u00a0Max Fordham discusses district heating systems in new-build developments<\/h2>\n

I\u2019ve been on record for some time questioning the wisdom of the almost-mandated installation of District Heating systems in new-build housing developments in London.<\/p>\n

Primary amongst my concerns is the lack of data to support claims of their benefit, and hence a lack of evidence to justify their mandated installation.<\/p>\n

Last month, smart-payment and energy-efficiency technology company Guru Systems launched their \u2018Pinpoint\u2019 heating data analytics package at the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS). The data it measures and collects will help us shine a light into this murky, complex and expensive technology and enrich our understanding of District Heating efficiency.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not writing as a shill for Guru Systems, but the accurate, real-time collection of meaningful data of functioning domestic District Heating is a welcome development.<\/p>\n

They have already captured data from scores of legacy systems currently operating. That data has revealed unprecedented information on these complex systems. Although the presenters from Guru Systems would not be drawn on exactly how inefficient the systems were, it\u2019s clear that as a rule they are operating very poorly.<\/p>\n

Tim Rotheray from the Association of Decentralised Energy [ADE] spoke to the RICS audience towards the end of the afternoon, pleading for the government to trust them and not regulate. Self-regulation of any industry doesn\u2019t have a famous history. It relies heavily on a good deal of trust. The District Heating industry has presided over, and promoted, the installation of a range of poorly performing systems for a long time. Investing further trust at this point makes me very nervous.<\/p>\n

Is the ADE to blame for this? Perhaps not. Businesses will not do something that is expensive \u2013 such as a good job – unless there is some compunction or some market force at work. When it comes to District Heating there is no market force at work. One can charge whatever one likes for heat in this anti-competitive environment. What\u2019s more there is no accountability on carbon standards in use. As we have seen with construction standards in buildings, it was only the threat of a simple airtightness test that brought the industry to take this seriously. To its credit, it did. Standards improved, even if the performance gap remains embarrassingly high.<\/p>\n

Does anyone actually want District Heating? The government mandates developers to put it in with a view to providing inexpensive and low-carbon heat to meet the nation\u2019s CO2<\/sub> emission standards.\u00a0 Without reasonable system efficiency, this will not be achieved. To date, there has been scant concern about the performance of any of the systems. Guru Pinpoint, and technology like it, provides a platform to improve performance of these systems to a reasonable standard. However, without some compunction to achieve these standards, I don\u2019t see the industry rushing to adopt them. Presenting alongside Tim Rothersay was Phil Jones, the Chair of the CIBSE Energy Performance group and a professional champion of these systems. He stated that achieving a improvements in the industry was a 10 year project. \u00a0This is an extraordinarily relaxed rate of progress. Given that district heat has been all but mandated for a decade, this would be 20 years too late. Much damage has already been done and much money has been wasted. If the government is forcing us to spend billions on installing these systems, they should at least attempt to control the quality.<\/p>\n

My understanding is that members of our government know the current District Heating model is terrible, but that it is worth it in the \u201clong run\u201d. When is that, exactly? It would be interesting to see the model to identify how long it will take to pay off the additional CO2<\/sub> we are releasing now with the notional savings from the technologies in the future. \u00a0Any future scenarios need to take into account the likely losses of these systems.<\/p>\n

The government\u2019s chosen tool to direct energy-efficient design is the SAP calculation, which sets ambitiously low limits for the energy related CO2<\/sub> emissions from a new building.\u00a0 The tool currently directs designers to more or less ignore the losses from district heating systems when calculating their building\u2019s performance. This is a gift to the industry, whose installations could double the heating energy consumption and CO2<\/sub> emissions. If the SAP calculations were amended to require designers to be as careful with these systems as they might be with, say, making sure it\u2019s warm enough in winter, that would be a great advance in getting a true picture of installation performance. \u00a0I understand that the SAP calculation is up for review. \u00a0However, even if the SAP calculations were 100% accurate \u2013 even if they do generate better designs – it will not build or run the building. That will be done by humans with many different motivations and pressures. Without adequate enforcement or market pressure, the performance of the systems installed will remain expensive and wasteful.<\/p>\n

Bill Watts<\/strong><\/p>\n

Senior Partner<\/p>\n

Max Fordham<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.maxfordham.com<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/MaxFordhamLLP<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bill Watts,\u00a0Senior Partner at\u00a0Max Fordham discusses district heating systems in new-build developments I\u2019ve been on record for some time questioning the wisdom of the almost-mandated installation of District Heating systems in new-build housing developments in London. Primary amongst my concerns is the lack of data to support claims of their benefit, and hence a lack […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[307],"tags":[],"stakeholder_rel_tag":[],"contributor_rel_tag":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-24754","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-energy-news"},"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nShining a light in a dark corner: district heating systems | Planning, Building & Construction Today<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Bill Watts, Senior Partner at Max Fordham discusses district heating systems in new-build developments...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, 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