How has installation of our heat pump changed our energy consumption?

Brighton Girls, Thursday, 29 February 2024
20 Analyst KS3, KS4, KS5

What you did

Reduced electricity consumption
Despite relying on electricity to run, heat pumps are more energy efficient and therefore require less electricity to function effectively. This is because the quantity of heat delivered into your home is much greater than the amount of electricity used to power the system.

Activity description

Your school has recently had a heat pump installed. The purpose of installing the heat pump is to decarbonise your school’s energy. This means switching to a heating source creating less carbon dioxide. Most schools with a heat pump were previously heated with gas, a carbon based fuel, using a boiler.  Your heat pump is powered by electricity. 

Heat pumps are more efficient than gas boilers - delivering 3 or 4 times the amount of heat for the same amount of energy. In this way the amount of carbon emitted as a result of using a heat pump is lower than using a gas boiler. And the electricity grid is getting cleaner all the time, with a national target to completely decarbonise electricity generation by 2035. This means the carbon dioxide produced as a result of running a heat pump will reduce over time.

The heat pump will take over from the gas boiler in heating your school.  However this will mean a change in your electricity consumption.  The  attached worksheet will take you step by step through analysing your energy data to identify that change.

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