Efforts to improve energy efficiency and reduce carbon emissions are driving substantial change across most parts of the economy. One major part of this shift is the move away from fossil gas which, in Victoria, is responsible for around 17% of the state’s greenhouse emissions.
A significant component of gas demand comes from water heating. Domestic hot water is responsible for about 30% of residential energy use along with a large proportion of energy used in commercial and industrial operations.
A rapidly growing cohort of households is looking to play their part in this – while saving money – by shifting their water heating from gas to electricity. In many cases, this means switching to a heat pump water heater.
It is likely no surprise to readers of this blog that heat pump water heaters use the same technology as your refrigerator or air-conditioner, applying a thermodynamic ‘trick’ to produce more heat – typically about 3 or 400% more – than the energy fed into them.
While they can be fantastically efficient, recent criticisms have noted a range of risks, challenges and conflicting debates about the quality, reliability and durability of the products that are being installed.
Governments have an important role to play here: their usual responsibilities for consumer protection are compounded by policy interventions urging more, and more rapid, uptake of heat pump technologies.
Again in Victoria, one of those policy interventions is the Victorian Energy Upgrades (VEU) scheme. The VEU rules refer to various Australian Standards and set minimum quality and performance benchmarks for products to be included in the scheme. Products are required to meet Standards for design and construction1 which specify a range of performance-based requirements, and are required undergo laboratory testing to determine the energy performance of some components2,3 along with modelling to determine the overall performance of the product under various loads in different environments4.
However, policymakers have been concerned that the existing Standards and requirements may not be sufficient to ensure that products offered under the program are of sufficiently high quality to provide the durability and longevity that consumers expect. Incentivising poor-quality products would present a risk to the reputation of the technology, a lowering of consumer confidence, reputational risks to the VEU scheme, and could delay the electrification of Victorian households or present additional challenges to Victoria meeting its emissions reduction targets.
For these reasons the Victorian Government Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action (DEECA) has engaged Exemplary Energy to review evidence and better quantify the extent of challenges to the VEU scheme relating to heat pump water heater quality in order to inform recommendations about future changes to the VEU rules. We have assembled an expert team which includes our Directors Trevor Lee and Dave Ferrari, Staff Coordinator Jean Tan, Ken Guthrie (the former Chair of the International Energy Agency’s Solar Heating and Cooling Program and ISO Standards Committee on Solar Energy), and Graham Morrison (Emeritus Professor of Engineering at UNSW).
The project will involve undertaking an international review of requirements in other jurisdictions and engaging with product manufacturers to understand best practices in the market. With this in hand, we will review the current VEU scheme requirements and seek to identify any gaps.
Our insights will help to better quantify the threats and challenges in this part of the energy transition, producing better outcomes for manufacturers, policymakers and consumers alike.
Notes
1. AS/NZS 2712 Solar and heat pump water heaters — Design and construction
2. AS/NZS 5125 Heat pump water heaters — Performance assessment
3. AS/NZS 4692 Electric water heaters, Part 1: Energy consumption, performance and general requirements
4. AS/NZS 4234 Heated water systems — Calculation of energy consumption
If you could push for lab testing of heat pumps (instead of just modelling) to create a trusted ratings framework, that would be tremendous!
Thanks David! While our work is focused on the durability and longevity of these products, this is a good opportunity to highlight a common misconception about the lack of lab performance testing in Australia: While the headline energy savings/consumption (consequently, the STC/white certificate eligibility) comes from the result of TRNSYS modelling, heat pump products are absolutely required to undergo performance testing in a laboratory to AS/NZS 5125. This allows us to build a performance curve which calculates Power and COP at any combination of ambient and water temperatures across the operating range. The curve is needed for the TRNSYS model.
That said, this level of engineering detail is opaque to the average consumer (or even the technology enthusiast). Marketing claims that a heat pump product operates at a COP of “X” are not helping anyone – “X” might be 5 or 6 at 25°C ambient and 50°C water temperature but as low as 2 at 0°C ambient / 60°C water (numbers plucked from the air – don’t quote me!).
There is enormous potential for improvements including the development of meaningful and trusted ratings to inform consumers. Watch this space!