NEWS | DIGEST IN BRIEF Heat pump owners happy with their buy A big majority of owners are satisfied with their heat pump, but less confident than boiler users about controlling their devices, according to a new survey. A poll of nearly 3,500 boiler and heat pump users across Britain, carried out by Eunomia Research and Consulting for innovation agency Nesta, found that home owners who use heat pumps are highly satisfied that they are safe, reliable, quiet heat sources that are effective for space heating and producing hot water. More heat pump owners (67%) than gas boiler owners (59%) were satisfied with running costs, and heat pump satisfaction is just as high in older properties, which are often seen as hard to retrofit. However, heat pump owners were less happy about use and control of their heating. More than a fifth (22%) felt not very or not at all confident about controlling their heating compared with 6% using a gas boiler. Vegetable oil boilers offer cost benefits Converting kerosene boilers to run on vegetable oil is cheaper than installing heat pumps, a trial in an off-grid Cornish village has shown. Boilers in 17 homes, a church and school buildings in Kehelland were converted to use hydrotreated vegetable oil fuel over 18 months. Oil heating trade bodies UKIFDA and OFTEC, which ran the trial, said the average cost of converting the boilers was 500 per property, and the trial resulted in an 88% drop in emissions. Engineers must lead on net zero, says CIBSE President New incumbent launches key initiatives during his presidential address Engineers have never been more needed to provide creative solutions to the challenges presented by climate change and building safety, according to CIBSEs new president Adrian Catchpole. In his presidential address at the CIBSE AGM, Adrian Catchpole, left, and Kevin Mitchell Blending hydrogen is wrong approach A new briefing paper by the E3G think-tank has warned that blending hydrogen into the UKs gas grid is the wrong approach and could increase household gas bills by up to 20%. In March, the governments hydrogen champion Jane Toogood urged ministers to make a strategic decision by the end of this year to allow hydrogen to be blended into the gas transmission network so it can be used in home heating. However, E3Gs briefing warns that blending risks locking in hydrogen for inefficient uses such as domestic heating at the expense of other sectors, such as heavy industry and storage for power generation, where it is the primary decarbonisation option. It also risks delaying strategic choices, such as slowing down the decommissioning of the gas network infrastructure, the paper warns. The briefing repeats earlier warnings by E3G that the lower energy density per unit volume of hydrogen compared with gas means consumer bills could increase by between 7% and 20% because of difficulties metering a mix of the two. This also means a 20% blend could lead to only a 7% reduction in emissions and only if the hydrogen is produced from renewable electricity. AirMaster classrooms consume 4.5 times less energy than other leading solutions Mechanical Heat Recovery Ventilation - www.sav-systems.com 8 July 2023 www.cibsejournal.com Catchpole highlighted the need to deliver an urgent response to the challenges. He told his audience at the Royal Society: We must help move the built environment from being a significant contributor to global emissions to being an exemplar of how to reduce them. Each one of us needs to step out of our comfort zone and commit to taking a lead. Catchpole, who succeeds Kevin Mitchell as CIBSE President, announced initiatives aimed at attracting young people to the industry, improving engineers competencies, and increasing collaboration across industry. He launched a STEM Ambassador Scheme to match engineers with secondary schools and a new CIBSE Chartered Organisation Programme that will enable organisations to demonstrate competence. Catchpole also highlighted CIBSEs lead role in developing the UK Net Zero Carbon Buildings Standard. Read an interview with Catchpole on page 18.