Damon Hart-Davis

This model explores the interaction between wet/hydronic central heating systems typical of the UK, and that will generally have to be retrofitted from gas-fired to heat pump by 2050, and TRVs (Thermostatic Radiator Valves) in those systems to micro-zone for comfort and efficiency. Heat-pump designers/installers have been concerned that while TRVs and zoning can lower heat demand, they may raise electricity demand (and thus carbon footprint) for the heating system. This model looks at various plausible UK scenarios at up to 1h resolution over 10 years, and indicates that the problem can indeed exist with very 'tight' temperature regulation, eg using "load compensation". But this "bad setback effect" goes away with pure "weather compensation", at the cost of looser temperature regulation.

Domestic heating systems across northern Europe are responsible for a substantial fraction of their countries' carbon footprints. In the UK, the vast majority of home space heating is via natural gas boilers with 'wet' hydronic radiator systems. Most of those use TRVs (thermostatic radiator valves) for micro-zoning, to avoid overheating, improve comfort and save energy. To meet Net Zero targets, 20 million such UK gas systems may be retrofitted with heat pumps. Heat pump system designers and installers are cautious about retaining TRVs in such systems in part because of worries that TRV temperature setbacks that lower heat demand may raise heat pump electricity demand in a "bad setback effect", thus wasting energy. This paper presents a new view of heat pump control and provides the first exploration of this issue through the development of a simple physics-based model. The model tests an installation industry claim about the negative effect of TRVs, and finds that though real it should not apply to typical UK retrofits with weather compensation. The energy efficiency benefits of TRVs for older and partly occupied homes, and to keep bedrooms cooler, remain valid. Comfort-seeking householders and installers should know that setting 'stiff' temperature regulation may invoke the bad setback effect and cost dearly in energy and carbon footprint.

General public bibliography for EOU (Earth.Org.UK) and related research, mainly focussed on fixing climate change through decarbonising UK home heating.

Snapshot of public data file set from EOU including energy and IoT data. NOTE: there are some third-party data and other files present which may not be covered by CC0: these should be called out in local README files and similar.

Work on improving overall RSS bandwidth, CPU and thus carbon efficiency,especially between aggregators / catalogues (iTunes, Amazon Music) andstatic backend servers. See: https://www.earth.org.uk/RSS-efficiency.html Note the data and code archive:  * Manifest dataCodeArchive.manifest.txt  * Archive dataCodeArchive.zip See the statsHouse sonification project:  * https://github.com/DamonHD/statsHouse This data (and code) is made available undera CC0 licence (Creative Commons Zero v1.0 Universal).

When do UK Twitter users (2017 to 2022) turn their central heating fully off, by month? This informal periodic survey on social media suggests that a substantial fraction of respondents (up to 10\%) leave their central heating on year-round, which may lead to unnecessary energy consumption and carbon emissions.

A system for controlling a radiator valve by using a sensor to obtain a current temperature measurement, and then operating a motor to change a valve position based on the temperature measured. If the temperature is within a first range of a target temperature, the valve is maintained in the current position and if the temperature is outside the first range but within a second range greater than the first then the valve position is adjusted by a first amount or at a first speed. The system may obtain measurements of light intensity in the environment or detect if the environment is occupied or not and change the first and second ranges based on these factors. A method where the system also can determine if the temperature is outside the first and second ranges but within a third, even greater range to adjust the valve position by a third amount or speed that is greater than the second amount or speed.