Net Zero

In the UK, the 2008 Planning and Energy Act enabled local authorities to require developers of new commercial and residential projects, to generate at least 10% of their energy needs from on-site renewable energy sources. However, authorities soon realised that monitoring compliance with this legislation, known as the ‘Merton Rule’, was difficult.

In 2013, Ealing Borough Council, near London, added a legal condition, since called ‘The Ealing Condition’, that also required automatic remote monitoring of renewable energy production. This is where Energence, Future Focus Energy and HMS Networks come in.

Heat pumps have rapidly established themselves as the most efficient and environmentally friendly way of heating premises.

Steve Harris, Head of Technical and Policy at Energence, explains the data collection challenge involved: It’s very easy to meter a photovoltaic array, but it’s a bit more complicated to meter a heat pump, and really complicated—in this case—to meter an air-to-air heat pump. That’s why they have been excluded from many heat pump field trials. Although there is still no way to meter the output of air-to-air heat pumps to a certifiable quality, we needed a working monitoring solution that would enable developers to start making use of this developing and promising technology and satisfy the Ealing Condition, so we turned to HMS Networks & Future Focus Energy Ltd for help in making this possible.

HMS Networks & Future Focus Energy helped us develop a monitoring system to enable greater use of air-to-air heat pumps, something developers are very keen to do. Individual air to water pumps tend to be too powerful for modern apartments but smaller, individual air-to-air (tank top) heat pumps can be more appropriate. It can also be more cost-effective to install air to air systems than communal heating loops, and they are much easier to manage, says Steve Harris.

The key criteria was that the Netbiter gateway could be pre-configured and programmed before it went to site, easily installed by a competent electrician, explains Paul Friday, Managing Director at Future Focus Energy Limited. Upon power up, the data will start pushing to the cloud. We had to have a facility for a SIM-card without relying on any third-party network services.

Connecting the energy meters and sensors posed no technical problems. Davor Toncic, Business Development Manager at HMS Networks, explains: The difficulty lies mainly in understanding how to perform the Coefficient of Performance (COP) value based on the data collected that Steve required. Now, we’re only using a small fraction of the data available. If more data proves necessary in the future, we’ll be able to use it.

Also involved in this project was Nilan England & Wales, the heat pump distributor who also gained additional information of their heat pump performance.