Heat News

Tuesday 09 June 2009

Stiebel Eltron's water source heat pump extracts water from the Thames for heating and hot water

An energy heating system that converts energy from the River Thames into heat has been unveiled by a community river project, it was announced on Thursday.

The Hermitage River Project, a community programme located near Tower Bridge, has invested in a water source heat pump to provide heating and hot water to its dockside community buildings.

The project, which aims is to teach people about river life as well as provide living accommodation for river boats' owners, commissioned Horley-based ISO Energy to install an system from Stiebel Eltron.

The WPF10S heat pump, which has an energy output of up to 11kW cost around £10,000 to install and is expected to have a lifespan of 30 years.

ISO Energy's managing director Justin Broadbent said the heat pump, will save five tonnes of carbon emissions a year and run at a fifth of the cost of an electricity or immersion heating system.

Pump

"This heat pump is cutting edge technology and it is the future," he said. "It extracts heat out of the Thames from ambient water temperature. That is then compressed up to 10 times to provide underfloor heating and up to 20 times to generate hot water."

He added: "The only cost is the electricity to power the heat pump - the rest is free. Although this project is only small in scale the same method of transferring heat from water through a heat pump is being used to provide heat and hot water to the city of Stockholm."

German firm Stiebel Eltron's London specification manager Neil Jimpson said the project is "cast iron proof" of how going green can save money as well as carbon emissions.

"This water pump shows there is a cheaper green alternative form of heating. And the great thing is heat pumps can work by extracting heat from the ground or the air so they can work virtually anywhere."

Stiebel Eltron has recently launched a free green energy advice service for London. This includes offering to undertake a free energy efficiency survey of any residential or commercial premises.

Mr Jimpson said: "The report will examine the heat loss and heat demands of the building and detail a set of recommendations to slash energy bills and carbon emissions. It will also detail the financial incentives for going green."