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I am a Chartered Engineer BSc(Hons),CEng, MICE with over 30 years of design experience in municipal water, house building, house renovation, and then as a serial inventor.
I received my first patent for an energy saving device in 2012, I called this device the ShowerPowerBooster. Annual sales exceed £400,000 and it is the most acclaimed shower pump in the UK with an overall 5* score on Trust Pilot. My second energy saving device received a patent this year and it is a low cost device which can convert a simple storage tank into a heat store as effective as any existing expensive heat store.
My heat stores will store up to 50 KW Hrs of usable energy each so with 4 buffer tanks thats 200 KW Hrs – enough to run a central heating system for 20 hours.
At times when the wind blows and the sun shines WrightChoice heat stores will store energy to be used when the sun is not shining and the wind is not blowing. WrightChoice heat stores can store huge quantities of renewable energy at less than 10% of the cost of a traditional lithium battery and 1/3rd of the cost of traditional steel heat stores. On Tuesday 12 March 2024, the government committed to support the building of new gas power stations to maintain a safe and reliable energy source for days when the weather forecast doesn’t power up renewables.
The UK Government recognises the need to improve the way heat pumps are used and has allocated funding to help:-
“Reduce costs of heat pump manufacture; reduce disruption from installation and use; develop innovative business models to drive uptake; demonstrate in range of homes and at neighbourhood/district scale (Development TRLs 4-6 & Demonstration TRLs 6-9)”
Combining Air Source Heat Pumps with WrightChoice Buffer Tanks
Dealing with Extreme Low Temperatures
Heat pumps are highly efficient in the Spring and Autumn and for most of the winter in the UK when temperatures outside are above freezing. Below freezing the efficiency is lower and below -10 degrees centigrade they are very inefficient. There are heat pumps which are more efficient at cold temperatures but these are not the heat pumps used in the UK. Heat pumps are 100% reliant on electricity with no gas boiler in your home. England’s coldest temperature was a chilly -26.1°C, the record low temperature for Greater London is −16.1°C, and at those temperatures heat UK heat pumps will not work without stored energy.
Heat pumps remove the need for gas boilers in UK homes, but at night when there is no sun and there might be no wind, there needs to be standby gas power stations to provide electricity. Heat pumps do not eliminate the need for gas, they increase demand for electricity, and at times this can only be satisfied with gas power stations.
A WrightChoice hybrid heating system will:-
Store hot water at a temperature higher than the operating temperature of a heat pump central heating system and feed this hot water into the return to the heat pump at temperatures at or below the operating temperature of the heat pump.
Dealing with Average Winter Temperatures
Using surplus renewable energy to heat homes on days when there are strong winds and sunny days is an efficient way of heating as it is a great use of surplus energy. Heat pumps are very efficient on ‘average’ Spring, Autumn, and winter days. Heat pumps do however always put additional demand on the grid as they replace gas boilers in homes. Gas boilers in a home have very little demand for energy from the national grid.
Grid Stabilisation
Heat pumps create the same heating effect for less power input but they take that electricity at peak times in the morning and evenings when there is a shortage of energy. The sun is not powerful first thing in the morning and demand is always greater in the evening. The heat pump takes electricity from the grid when at times when there is less renewable energy available, and at times when there is the greatest demand on the grid for energy overall. Hybrid heat pumps combined with WrightChoice buffer tanks will allow heating from stored energy at the click of a switch at any time there is a power shortage.
Integrating Heat Pumps with WrightChoice buffer tanks.
Using existing valves and controls commonly used in plumbing it is very simple to integrate WrightChoice heat stores with heat pumps. If the temperature of the water in the heat store is greater than the operating temperature of the heat pump central heating system, the temperature from the tanks can be set to match the output temperature of the heat pump. If the temperature of the heat store is higher than the normal return but lower than the normal output temperature it can supplement the energy requirement of the home by increasing the return temperature.
Why use a WrightChoice Heat Store?
The stores use a standard electric immersion heaters which can store water up to 85 degrees centigrade in low cost tanks. My patented energy storage device allows you to heat an entire tank from top to bottom with a simple low cost solution. My micro pumps are rated to 20 bars and 100 degrees C
Whist the energy store can be easily heated to the normal operating system of a heat pump central heating system with a heat pump, a standard electric immersion heater is the ‘perfect’ choice to heat to much higher temperatures. This can more than double the energy storage potential for a like for like tank.
Validation of hybrid heat solutions
A full scale trial of a hybrid heat solution will be undertaken in Norwich.
The trial will integrate 4 heat tanks installed below ground and retrofitted into a 5 bedroom house built in 1990. The trial will integrate a gas boiler with WrightChoice heat stores.