UK homes need to warm to new sustainable heating technologies, says report

The Grantham Institute for Climate Change launches briefing paper about low carbon home heating – News

Monday 26 September 2011
by Colin Smith

UK homeowners need to be encouraged to replace gas boilers and adopt new low carbon sustainable heating systems in the future, if the country is to meet its CO₂reduction targets, according to a briefing paper released today.

The paper, published by the Grantham Institute for Climate Change at Imperial College London, explores the options already on the market for reducing carbon emissions to almost zero in homes. Wholesale adoption of these technologies such as heat pumps (effectively refrigerators working in reverse) is vital, say the authors, if the government is to meet its long-term commitment of reducing carbon emissions in the UK by 80% by 2050.

Dr Adam Hawkes, co-author of the paper, discusses highlights from the paper in the audio interview (right), including the impact of gas boilers on our climate, which accounts for 12.4 per cent of total UK greenhouse gas emissions. He then goes on to talk about the different types of low carbon residential heating systems available and how they can reduce our impact on the environment if we can find ways of integrating them more effectively into our infrastructure. He also highlights the need for further government support to help households make this transition a reality.

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Dr Hawkes, who is a visiting fellow from the Grantham Institute and the Energy Futures Lab - the College’s hub for energy research - will also be talking tonight at Imperial about energy use in buildings, along with Dr Mark Levine, Group Leader of the China Energy Group at the US Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. The lecture, organised by the Grantham Institute, aims to stimulate academics and policy makers to explore ways of making our built environment more sustainable in the future. To register your attendance click here.

Professor Sir Brian Hoskins, Director of the Grantham Institute for Climate Change, says:

“By issuing these briefing papers, we hope to inform policy and policy debate. I applaud Dr Hawkes for doing an audio interview, as it’s a really good way to get the ball rolling on this important topic. One of the clear messages from this work is that we already have the technology available to make home heating more sustainable. Looking ahead, we need to come up with a clear strategy for the full scale implementation of these technologies in homes, so that we can make a real dent in our CO2 emissions.”

The “Low Carbon Residential Heating” paper was also co-authored by Professor Goran Strbac, from the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, and Luis Munuera, postgraduate from the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. You can also download a copy of the paper here.

This is the sixth briefing paper issued by the Grantham Institute for Climate Change. Other topics include solar influences on the climate, carbon dioxide and storage, carbon capture technology, road transport technology and solar energy for heat and electricity. To download a copy of these papers click here.