Designing Residential Heat Pumps To Accelerate The Energy Transition

As the energy transition needs flexible, energy efficient and sustainable heating solutions, new research by Honeywell and Imperial College London’s Dr Danny Pudjianto demonstrates the potential impact of heat pumps, evaluating the possible cost benefits on the whole energy system and the energy efficiency impact of different refrigerant solutions.

A range of technologies will be required to achieve the ambitious targets set out in REpowerEU and to accelerate Europe’s journey to net zero.
Heating and cooling of buildings across the EU accounts for 40% of energy usage and 36% of carbon emissions.
Heat pumps are on average three times more efficient than traditional fossil fuel boilers – helping to reduce fossil fuel use, improve air quality and create millions of new jobs. In addition, heat pumps could help to save up to 30% to 40% on a household’s energy costs by 2030.
HFO refrigerants are a critical part of heat pump technology and offer practical, flexible solutions across most property types, in both indoor and outdoor applications. HFO heat pumps have higher energy efficiency, lower total cost and are safer for use, especially in densely urbanized areas or buildings.
If similar energy and cost savings from mass deployment of heat pumps to those modelled by Dr Pudjianto were realised across Europe, it could result in billions of euros in cost savings, enhancing Europe’s ability to reach its 2030 and ultimately 2050 decarbonisation targets.

Even relatively small Improvements in heat pump efficiency can reduce the annual and peak electricity demand resulting in less energy system infrastructure and operation costs.
The use of some HFO refrigerants in residential and commercial heat pump systems may require redesigns to achieve comparable performance to an R32 system.
Some redesign on the evaporator to compensate for the glide from the refrigerant can enhance the performance of HFO blends in heat pump applications.