Renewable Heat Premium Payment Scheme: Heat Pump Monitoring: Case Studies, 2015-2016

Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.The Renewable Heat Premium Payment (RHPP) scheme subsidised the installation of heat pumps and biomass boilers in domestic properties. The scheme ran from 2011 to 2014. BEIS, formerly DECC, funded a detailed monitoring campaign to collect data on the performance of just under 700 domestic heat pumps installed via the Scheme. The aim of this monitoring campaign was to asses the efficiencies of the heat pumps and to estimate the carbon and bill savings and amount of renewable heat generated. BEIS later on funded a detailed field study of 21 RHPP installations to complement and address a series of issues arising from the statistical analysis of the physical monitoring and metadata. In-depth interviews and site investigation were carried out between out between November 2015 and January 2016 with 7 social and 14 private householders. The overall aim of the case study project was to improve the understanding of performance and users’ satisfaction with domestic heat pumps by investigating the application of heat pumps in real world context. The aim was pursued through the following objectives: To collect and analyse information on the immediate physical context in which the heat pumps and physical monitoring systems operated; To investigate the quality of monitoring data and heating systems on a case-by-case basis; To analyse the physical and social data collected in each case and corroborate with the monitored data and metadata available; To carry out case analysis and cross-case comparison to support development of hypotheses to explain performance variation.Main Topics:The technical and social information collected cover the following areas: General household and dwelling characteristics and the decision making process for the installation of the heat pump; Detailed dwelling characteristics and the indoor environment (e.g. dwelling configuration, structure type, internal conditions, equipment installed and their operation); Thermal comfort and ventilation patterns; Detailed heat pump characteristics and controls; Users' satisfaction levels with different aspects of the heat pump system; Comparison of experiences with previous and current heating system; Energy use, bills and information on habits and lifestyle.