BERG's Frontier Zero houses are designed with Heat Pump HVAC systems in mind. We believe these systems will be key to next-generation energy-efficient and Net-Zero homes. But is the HVAC industry equipped to work with these new systems? A new scholarly paper (from the UK) says large-scale retraining is needed. Here's an excerpt:
Meeting European emissions targets is reliant on innovative renewable technologies, particularly ‘renewable heat’ from heat pumps. Heat pump performance is driven by Carnot efficiency and optimum performance requires the lowest possible space heating flow temperatures leading to greater sensitivity to poor design, installation and operation. Does sufficient training and installer capacity exist for this technology? This paper situates the results of heat pump field trial performance in a socio-technical context, identifying how far installer competence requirements are met within the current vocational education and training (VET) system and considers possible futures. Few UK installers have formal heat pump qualifications...