Ground Source Heat Pumps

Building Research Establishment, Watford

Wednesday 21st June 2006 from 10.00 to 14.00

Heat pumps are a renewable energy source in that they concentrate the low grade heat stored in the ground, air or water and energy is only required to concentrate the heat not to produce the heat itself. Ground source heat pumps are the most efficient type of heat pump because the ground temperature at a depth of 0.9 metres is relatively independent of the air temperature.

The heat given out can be up to five times the energy input depending upon how the heating system is configured.

The technology is mature in that heat pumps have been installed in large numbers in some countries most notably Sweden since the 1970s. However recent advances in the design of the components and electronic control have led to new generations of systems which are more efficient and therefore more cost effective. With rising fossil fuel and electricity prices, renewable heating using heat pumps is becoming much more cost effective even in the UK.

Unlike a number of other countries the UK has been very slow to take up renewable energy technologies and apply directly to buildings. However the UK Government has become pro-active in the past few years to transform the market for such systems making grants available through various programmes like the Energy Efficiency Commitment and Clear Skies. In the recent budget, the Chancellor Gordon Brown announced a new incentive program totalling £80 million over the next three years for microgeneration.

The European Heat Pump Association together with the Ground Source Heat Pump Network would like to invite you to a half day workshop at which you will also be able to meet members of the Ground Reach Project, a consortium of 22 enterprises from 10 European countries, whose aim is to promote this technology in Europe. The Workshop will review recent experiences in Europe and also the market forces and overcoming of the barriers to enable the potential of this technology to be reached in the UK.

The workshop is being organised by Building Research Establishment and will be held at BRE's premises at Garston, Watford.

To register please go www.bre.co.uk.

The program is set out below.