The average heating pump in the UK is one of the highest consumers of electricity in the home

(11/04/2008)

Energy saving and reducing emissions are still the hottest topics in the domestic heating sector and seem set to stay that way for the foreseeable future. Whilst renewable technologies are key to the future, the humble boiler – condensing or otherwise - will still be the prime provider of heating and hot water in the UK for the next fifteen to twenty years at least.

Solar, heat pumps and individual CHP may be exciting, but without significant Government incentives to invest in them, they will be peripheral for many years – until they become cheaper to install, either because they get very much less expensive in themselves or because there are meaningful grants to help pay for them and reduce their pay back time, or because the psyche here in the UK changes to accept them as mainstream options, which will take time and investment by the suppliers.

Building Regulations Part L has pretty much addressed the issues relating to boiler efficiency in new boiler installations. They can’t get much more efficient than SEDBUK Band A. However, in the same way that there are still huge numbers of elderly boilers operating across the UK at anything from a meagre 40% efficiency upwards – and probably will be for years to come, as the trend towards repairing rather than replacing boilers, that the Government was warned about, seems to be manifesting itself - there are massive numbers of elderly, energy guzzling, uncontrolled domestic pumps and circulators operating on heating systems – using far more electricity than is really necessary in this day and age.

So exactly how much energy does a pump really use, what can be done about the worst ones and what alternatives are there to replace them? And before you say ‘but a heating pump doesn’t use that much energy anyway’ – lets take a closer look at some of the facts and figures.

The average heating pump in the UK is one of the highest consumers of electricity in the home along with the main culprits – dishwashers, tumble dryers, washing machines and perhaps surprisingly stand-by losses – the little red lights that stay ‘on’, on all electrical appliances around the house when you think you’ve turned them off.

There are about 87 million small circulator pumps installed on heating systems across mainly Northern Europe, using 41,000 GWh of electricity per year – in total, they need the combined output of four nuclear power stations just to drive them alone! So that would suggest that there is room for massive improvement and energy reduction in the area of pumps and pumping systems. Reducing it by just 25% would mean one power station’s output saved – and that’s not insignificant.

Of course whilst reducing the energy need from pumps is good for energy conservation and a reduction in harmful emissions, it’s also good for consumers’ pockets. Despite increasing awareness of global warming and a realisation that everyone has a role to play in addressing the problems, lower energy bills are still the best incentive to most people to reduce their energy use.

Wilo has recognised its responsibilities in this area and for many years has been developing ever more efficient pump technology. Wilo developed the first ever ‘A’ rated pump and has gone on to develop its EC (electronic commutated) motor technology and permanent magnet rotors, and these have been incorporated into its Stratos-Eco pump series which offers in the region of 80% energy consumption reduction over standard uncontrolled pumps. These are available now in the UK. How energy efficient are they? The new Wilo Eco-Stratos uses just 6W of input – amazingly that’s less than a TV or DVD standby mechanism, that uses around 8W.

The Wilo-Stratos ECO high-efficiency pump has recently been given an “excellent” rating by the leading German consumer’s association Stiftung Warentest. It came top in tests as the best in energy efficiency and in price/performance ratio, compared to all other small circulator heating pumps. The full results can be read in the recent issue (No. 9/2007) of the magazine “Test”.

The tests carried out by “Stiftung Warentest” suggest that over a period of 20 years, in a typical single-family house application scenario, the product incurs electricity costs of only 238 Euros – or around £150 – just £7-50 a year. This suggests that the long-term electricity costs of the Stratos ECO are an impressive 23 per cent below the costs of the pump which made it into second place in the tests. Compared to the model that came last in the tests, Stratos Eco delivered 80 per cent saving in electricity costs. Compared to all the small circulator heating pumps tested, the Wilo-Stratos ECO, with its purchase and operating costs of less than 600 Euros (£375) , is the most economical product over a 20 year life cycle.

The reference value table contained in “Test” is especially helpful: it compares the old energy-guzzling pumps, which see electricity costs amounting to 100 to 150 Euros per year (£60-£90 per year) in a three-person household consuming 520-800 KWh, with the new high-efficiency pumps, which add costs to an average household budget of only 11 to 29 Euros annually (£7-£18 per year) with a consumption of 60-150 KWh.

Related categories:  Energy Conservation   Hot water generation and supply   Residential applications 

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