The Sustainable Innovation in Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Technology’s (SIRAC) latest meeting took place on September 17th, 2008, at the University of Ulster. During the conference, Dr Guy Hundy, immediate past president of the Institute of Refrigeration, said that heat pumps had the potential to transform the country’s carbon footprint. “The problem, however, is that outside a small circle of specialists, few people understand what the technology can do and how it can be applied.” 

This was both a major problem and a tremendous opportunity, he said. The key was explaining heat pumps in a way that brought the technology to life and made it relevant to people. He challenged the industry to come up with a new and compelling slant that would transform people’s perception of heat pumps. “We need to be thinking more as marketeers rather than engineers,” he urged. There were, however, also some technical challenges to be overcome to enable heat pumps to be applied in a wider range of applications and replace conventional technology.  For example, this related to optimisation for use in the production of hot water, and the issue of response time in the case of comfort heating, since heat pumps operated differently to traditional heating systems.  More sophisticated controls were also needed, with better use of fuzzy logic in order to get the best out of what heat pump technology had to offer.

Prof Neil Hewitt highlighted developments in heat pump technology at the University of Ulster. The challenge, he said, was to develop systems that could be retrofitted to 25 million houses in the UK. [But] there is a question mark over the ability of the grid to handle the extra demands that this would put on it.” Meanwhile, a less conventional approach was described by Alister Simpson of Queen’s University Belfast, in the form of the air cycle aerochill system, and another alternative approach, evaporative cooling in conjunction with chilled ceilings, was highlighted by Donal Finn of University College Dublin. The theme of the next SIRAC meeting is building cooling technology, testing, research and funding. It will take place at the Building Research Establishment, Watford, on 5 December 2008, reveals the entity’s press release.