What Are The Top Environmentally Friendly Heating Solutions?

If you’re looking for ways to make your business more environmentally friendly, you’ll no doubt be thinking about your energy use. If you’ve taken simple steps, like switching to LED light bulbs and making sure you’re not using unnecessary power, your heating system is the next logical area to seek improvements in.

Gas central heating is the norm for many UK homes and businesses, but there are other options on the market and embracing these could help your firm take a big stride towards boosting its green credentials.

An article for Heating, Ventilating and Plumbing (HVP) Magazine recently picked out two of the top environmentally friendly heating solutions to consider.

First up are air-source heat pumps. These are already used in some commercial buildings and are becoming an increasingly popular option among people looking for an alternative to traditional gas boilers.

The way they work is relatively simple – air source heat pumps take heat from the ambient air and supply it to the building. They’re like the opposite of an air conditioner.

According to the news provider, they can still work when outside temperatures are relatively low (as low as -15 degrees C), which means they’re suitable for use across the UK for the whole of the year.

The other main option is ground-source heat pumps. As their name suggests, these extract heat from the ground, where temperatures below the surface are typically warmer than the outside air.

Because groundwork is required to install a ground-source heat pump, however, it can make installation more costly. That said, the news provider pointed out that, once they’re up and running, some of these heating systems produce no carbon emissions.

From a business perspective, you can also expect to see a 12 per cent return on investment year-on-year. At present, you can also receive a cashback subsidy through the government’s Renewable Heat Incentive, during the first seven years that your ground-source heat pump is operational.

Speaking to Herald Scotland recently, Dave Pearson, a former chair of the European Commission’s Renewable Heating and Cooling Platform and current director of Star Renewable Energy, said that heat pumps are an obvious replacement for gas boilers in new-build homes.

He pointed out that any heat pumps – whether air or ground-source – that are installed today will still be operating well into 2045.

This makes them a cost-effective and viable solution in the new-build sector, Mr Pearson argued.

However, there are challenges to introducing such technology in cities, where a co-operative approach will be required to install such pumps on the scale required to provide heating to homes and businesses.

He suggested that one way for councils to get developers and building managers on board could be by introducing clean air legislation for buildings in a similar way that some cities have for transport, to provide an incentive to make the switch to technology like heat pumps.

If you’re keen to find out whether commercial heat pumps could be suitable for your business premises, get in touch with us today to find out more about the services we offer and for one of our team to assess your business needs and location.