The industry needs to invest in renewable systems training to be in the best position to take advantage of future growth opportunities in this sector, warns Stephen Andrews.
The market for heat pumps is set to grow significantly as the Government seeks to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels and increase the take-up of renewables from the current 1 per cent level to 12 per cent by 2020. In nine years' time, the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) should be supporting around 13,000 renewable heat installations in industry and 110,000 installations in the commercial and public sectors.

This represents a huge opportunity for contractors that install heat pumps and now is the time for those with relevant, transferable skills to take advantage of this.

Engineers and installers can put themselves in a strong position in the heat pump market by extending their skills in renewable technologies. Many choose to partner with heat pump manufacturers that have firsthand experience of installation and can offer not just specific training courses, but also the technical support and assistance with system design that is often required to help them win new business in the renewable sector.

Although there are many transferable skills between installers of more conventional systems and those required for fitting heat pumps, working with renewables does involve a different approach to system design from, for example, gas boilers or solid fuel.

As they are not reliant on a combustible fuel, it is important to plan a long-term strategy for the heat pump over the year. This includes studying the requirements for heating and hot water at certain times of the year and working out what the base load requirements will be.

We recommend that heat pumps are cascaded to avoid over-reliance on any single unit. With a master and slave arrangement, heat pumps can be sized to meet the requirements of the project. In the unlikely event that the master stops working, the other heat pumps are unaffected and the system can continue with another heat pump reconfigured as the master.

The key to designing a heat pump system is to keep it simple. Part of the training we offer involves a module on system design and this is an area where we provide support for engineers, especially in the early stages of working with heat pump technology.

Some clients require automatic monitoring of the heat pump to demonstrate the energy savings being made over the year. This is possible with monitoring systems that can be supplied with the heat pump. They can analyse what performance it is achieving and this is also a good opportunity for the engineer to spot any preventative maintenance work that may be required before it becomes an issue. The systems can even be monitored remotely via an internet link.

There is a misconception that heat pumps cannot provide both space heating and hot water in large installations. However, a typical heat pump can deliver water temperatures of 50-55 deg C and, if higher temperatures are required for specific industries, then these can be accommodated by using a de-superheater in the refrigerant circuit.

For anyone who wants to get a taste of heat pump installation, my own company offers the option of an e-learning facility, which will give people an insight and overview into heat pumps, while testing their knowledge and understanding along the way. This is available via downloads from our website.

The most important factors with renewables are to ensure that they are easy to use and that they don't cause post-installation problems. That is why we encourage installers to follow a structured training programme.

• Stephen Andrews is technical manager at Danfoss Heat Pumps