The potential role of hot water cylinders in balancing grid demand
On Tuesday, 5th December, members of the Hot Water Association (HWA) and Energy and Utilities Alliance (EUA) met at the Houses of Parliament with Pauline Latham MP to unveil and discuss the HWA’s new publication on Connected Homes.
The Connected Homes report outlines the importance and potential role of stored hot water cylinders in the decarbonisation of the grid and the adoption of renewable energy within the home.
Connecting smart hot water cylinders allows:
- Cheap, scalable, flexible load for using excess renewable energy generated on the National Grid. This is achievable because each hot water cylinder has a 3kW immersion that can be powered on quickly and easily.
- Storage of energy from different energy sources, including heat pumps, solar PV, and solar thermal.
- Households can take advantage of dynamically priced tariffs, i.e. heat their water when cheapest to do so
- By storing more locally generated solar energy (from rooftop PV), there is less strain on the local networks that our DNOs operate.
And much, much more!
The HWA members discussed with Pauline the challenges faced by our industry and the opportunities being unlocked.
We were really proud to be able to attend this event and share our vision and capability in the decarbonisation challenges and how Mixergy plays a key role in this with our award-winning smart hot water technology.
The team outlined and discussed:
- Current lack of any funding for stored hot water storage from any live scheme (ECO4, BUS – mostly heat pump and fabric first approach)
- Disparity in how different technologies are treated, e.g. 0% VAT for ‘energy saving technologies‘, but not including technologies such as Mixergy smart hot water cylinders that are tested and accredited by other Government departments such as BRE, treating smart hot water cylinders under SAP Appendix Q.
- The proactive approach manufacturers are taking to provide training and support to installers to help close the knowledge and skills gap for the current installer workforce.
- The wide-ranging applications of hot water cylinders and the ease of application in the UK market.
- The importance of hot water cylinders in the Future Homes Standard specifications in the heat pump centric and all-electric home designs.
Mixergy are pioneers of the smart connected hot water storage market, launching the first grid-connected hot water cylinder to the UK market in 2019 and have been developing flexible and connected solutions for hot water cylinders since our inception.
We are on a complex but vital journey to decarbonisation and are excited to be part of it.
Learn more about how hot water cylinders are the hidden lifeline for energy storage on the Hot Water Association website.
