Residential Heat Pump Study

Project overview

Lead Organisation
Climate-KIC Australia
Location
Blacktown, New South Wales
ARENA Program
Advancing Renewables Program
Start Date
November 2018
Status
Current
Project Partners
Presync, Frasers, New South Wales Office of Environment and Heritage, University of Technology Sydney, Curtin University, Wattwatchers Pty Ltd, Green Building Council of Australia

Summary

The Residential Heat Pump Study is a three-year study on the commercial-scale demonstration of renewable (thermal energy) ground source heat pumps (GSHPs). Based in the Fairwater master-planned residential community in Western Sydney, the project seeks to establish the business case for industry-wide adoption of using GSHPs to provide residential heating and cooling in greenfield developments.

How the project works

The Residential Heat Pump Study by Climate-KIC recognises that heating and cooling forms the largest component of energy consumption in the average Australian home. Unfortunately, many developers and builders are incentivised to build a property that is as large as possible for the least cost with minimal consideration of operational efficiency or cost of living. Therefore, purchasers end up with homes that are expensive to run and dependent on energy-intensive heating and cooling systems to maintain a comfortable home environment. As land and energy costs increase, the impact of these inefficient systems become more apparent.

Area of innovation

Geothermal ground source heat pump systems are being installed for each unit in the entire greenfield residential development. This heating and cooling technology will be coupled with real time energy consumption monitoring and, in some instances, residential rooftop solar and eventually batteries.

Benefit

This Residential Heat Pump Study will collect real-time household energy consumption data to determine whether building energy efficient homes with advanced technology involves a substantial increase in price, while offering the occupants a more comfortable and less expensive place to call home.

The energy and carbon efficiency of the ground source heat pumps will also be tested. The network impact will be examined to quantify the effect on peak demand and overall electricity demand on local distribution infrastructure.

Climate-KIC Australia website