###Quantifying barriers to the adoption of heat pumps to decarbonise heating
Project ID: 2228bd1158 (You will need this ID for your application)
Research Theme: Energy and Decarbonisation
UCL Lead department: Bartlett School of Environment, Energy and Resources
Lead Supervisor: Paul Dodds
Project Summary:
Heat decarbonisation scenario studies for residential and non-residential buildings tend to focus on cost and carbon savings. Yet a range of other factors are important, for example the size, performance, reliability and noise of the heating system, and also the building size and the quality of the fabric. This PhD will focus on improving assumptions relating to heat pumps, which are forecast to have a substantial role providing heat in the UK.
The project will analyse energy consumption, energy performance and other information collected by the Smart Energy Research Lab (SERL) and the Energy Demand Observatory and Laboratory (EDOL) to estimate heat pump sizing and performance for a range of residential housing archetypes. There is also an opportunity to link this information to housing stock information from the 3-D Stock Lab to further understand the building fabric. This information will then be combined with an expert elicitation with industry professionals to quantify the relative importance of non-cost barriers in the UK for heat pumps. Finally, the insights will be used to estimate the extent to which heat pumps can be deployed in each UK housing archetype. This evidence will help to inform the UK Government’s decision on whether to repurpose the UK gas networks, which they expect to make in 2026.
Background: SERL is a £6m EPSRC investment to enable researchers to use high-resolution data from UK smart meters. It has collected data from 13,000 households, including some with heat pumps, and has Energy Performance Certificates that provide building fabric, floor area and other useful information. EDOL is a new £7m investment, also led by UCL, that is monitoring the use of individual appliances in homes. The 3-D Stock Lab is producing a digital twin of the entire British housing stock, accounting for buildings with multiple uses on different floors.