Feasible and affordable, on the way to natural gas-free
An important milestone was reached on Wednesday 3 February in making the social housing sector more sustainable. With a simple replacement of the central heating boiler, a standard 1960s social rental home has been reduced to 30% of the gas without loss of comfort. A certain saving on energy consumption without any renovation of the house.
To this end, Cooll has installed a model of the gas-fired adsorption heat pump for the first time in a home in Uden. Area housing association provided a house for this demonstration. Area is part of ‘Lente’, eight collaborating housing associations in Brabant that see a great opportunity in our gas-fired adsorption heat pump as a replacement for the traditional condensing boiler.
The gas-fired adsorption heat pump is a heat-driven technology that can save 30 to 50% in energy and associated CO2 emissions. The technology uses the combustion heat of fossil or renewable fuels in a smarter way than traditional heating appliances. In the future, the same technology can be powered by biofuels or (green) hydrogen, which will enable sustainable heating via the gas network and allow us to phase out the use of natural gas. As a result, the ambition to get rid of gas is feasible and affordable.
The installed model in Uden is equipped with a large number of sensors and measuring equipment, so that the performance of the model can be properly monitored, even remotely from Enschede. This practical test examines how the heat pump functions in a residential home and where improvements can still be made. In addition, we were able to gain experience with the placement and installation of the device.
Toon van den Brand, Area project manager: “The Cooll gas-fired adsorption heat pump is the successor to existing central heating boilers. Lower energy costs for our residents with the same comfort. And an enormous saving on gas consumption and reduction of CO2. We believe that Lente, the eight collaborating housing associations, is a good result of De WarmteWissel (see www.warmtewissel.nl). We are proud of our collaboration with the pioneers of Cooll.”
Throughout 2021, the Cooll team will be working on updating the functional model, with the main objective of realising a wall-mounted appliance of limited size. A mockup of this version can already be admired in Area’s home.
The results of this demonstration make an important contribution to the further development of the gas-fired absorption heat pump. After the next demonstration in the winter of 2021-2022, the final model will be designed and prepared for production so that we can conquer the market from the year 2023 onwards.