Insight Report: Domestic Heat Pumps
Overview
Changing electricity demand, the electrification of the transport and heating sectors, and the increase in distributed renewable energy sources all present challenges to distribution networks. The Customer-Led Network Revolution project aims to improve our understanding of current and future electricity use patterns of domestic and commercial customers. Data was collected from customers divided into different ‘test cells’ or samples, each with a particular combination of metering type, electricity tariff structure and/or low carbon technology.
Water & space heating make up a substantial proportion of domestic energy use, and therefore have a role to play in plans to increase energy security and reduce carbon emissions. Heat pumps could help achieve this due to the lower energy input required for the same amount of heating provided. Moreover by using electricity to provide heating, heat pumps provide an opportunity to facilitate the decarbonisation of heating. However the widespread electrification of heating via heat pumps would add significant pressure on electrical infrastructure, in particular an increase of peak demand at winter evening peak times when the network is usually under greatest stress.
To understand the potential impacts of heat pump deployment on grid operation, the Customer-Led Network Revolution project carried out a trial in Test Cell 3 (Enhanced profiling of domestic customers with air source heat pumps) and recruited 331 households, monitoring the heat pump electricity consumption for the one year period from May 2013 to April 2014. The research also involved interviews with participants.
