SPONSORED ROUNDTABLE | COMMERCIAL HEAT PUMPS The roundtable is sponsored by Heat pumps have constraints and people are now realising that theres a heat pump for each situation. Its not one size fits all all Wayne Early THE DEFAULT SOLUTION While heat pumps are becoming more common in many building sectors, there are still issues to overcome before they become mainstream in the UK. Amanda Birch reports on CIBSE Journals latest roundtable, which considers the benefits and barriers of widescale adoption of heat pumps in commercial buildings T he main message from participants at CIBSE Journals latest roundtable was that better education and skills, as well as early collaboration, are crucial if a more efficient integration of heat pumps into commercial buildings is to be achieved. The event, which focused on what motivates commercial landlords to invest in heat pumps, was sponsored by Ideal Heating Commercial and held at the Building Centre in London. While heat pumps are becoming mainstream in new commercial office projects, and in some refurbishment schemes, it was agreed that there are issues around the technology that still need to be resolved. The roundtable debated the challenges of moving from gas to heat pumps, while issues such as refrigerant leakage, whole life-cycle carbon, acoustics, storage, and the difficulties of installing heat pump systems in office refurbishments were also discussed. Scott Crease, director and partner at Max Fordham, said heat pumps are now the default solution for their new commercial projects. Yet, compared with boilers, he added, heat pumps are more refined and therefore more challenging to get right for a building. Wayne Early, director at Buro Happold agreed, and said that moving from gas and combined heat and power to heat pumps has been a major re-education for engineers. Heat pumps have constraints and people are now realising that theres a heat pump for each situation, Early said. Its not one size fits all; different refrigerants operate at different temperatures, and there are different solutions that need to be considered. The system performance, how that performance is met, and what 36 December 2022 www.cibsejournal.com CIBSE Dec 22 pp36-39 Roundtable v2.indd 36 25/11/2022 16:05