Elenor Hiscock, MENG(HONS)
Consulting Engineer, FairHeat
ellie.hiscock@fairheat.com

Abstract

The decarbonisation of the UK grid will see heat pumps displace gas CHP as the low carbon heat generation source on heat networks. A study was undertaken to assess the role of thermal storage in optimising the heat pump size whilst achieving a high annual heat demand fraction.
An hourly load model was built and adjusted to match load profiles from operational heat networks. The model was used to determine annual heat fractions for a given heat pump and thermal store size, heat pump SCOP, running costs and carbon emissions.

The model showed that heat fractions of 90-99% are achievable with heat pumps sized at 30-45% of the peak load with a thermal store sized at 50-75 l/kW.