The transition to entirely clean and renewable electricity is well underway in Britain. Heating is more of a challenge. Most homes are heated with gas and the shift to alternatives has so far been slow and tentative. Heat pumps are the obvious solution for many homes, and we’re working towards one on our own house in the near future.
However, heat pumps are best when built into new homes that are designed for them. They can be successfully retrofitted into older homes, but it’s more complicated. Radiators might need to be upgraded. Insulation might need to be improved. It can be disruptive, and then there are new habits to adopt around the different technology.
The media, owned by people who often have investments in fossil fuels, has worked against the transition. Heat pump horror stories are common and popular, leading people to conclude that they’re an inappropriate technology – despite their wide adoption across Europe. If we can get past these unhelpful perceptions, then heat pumps will likely be the main route for decarbonising heating. But there is still a role for alternatives.
Flats, for example, might not have anywhere to put a heat pump. Homes with no gardens or limited inside space will struggle to accomodate all the various components.
Tepeo are a start-up with a useful alternative. Their zero emission boiler, or ZEB, is an electric boiler with an insulated core that stores heat. It is designed to charge up overnight when electricity is cheaper, store the warmth and release it when needed. It’s about the size of a washing machine and can be plugged into an existing central heating system. Future editions will also be able to charge off surplus solar power and work in tandem with domestic solar systems.
It’s early days for Tepeo, but there’s a clear need for this kind of product, making it easier and cheaper to move past gas boilers. Homes are all different, and there’s no one size fits all technology for renewable heat.
Tepeo were the winners of the energy innovation award at the Ashden Awards recently, and here’s the video that was made for the event:
The Earthbound Report 
I live in a 1960s converted bungalow and what concerns me is the distance from the combi boiler to the kitchen sink. Because of this I have to either boil a kettle of water or run 6 litre plus before I get hot water. I wonder if the old fashion geyser of the sixties would now be a better choice?
Do you mean the giant kettle over the sink? Sounds good to me.
In discussions of heat pumps there is often an underlying assumption that people live in houses with gardens – irritating and leads me to feel that the conversation is dominated by the comfortably-off. Anyway I’m not convinced by this new boiler. In my small but quite normal 2-bed flat (45 m2) there wouldn’t be room for something the size of a washing machine – there’s barely room for a washing machine! I’ve always assumed that the best thing, when my gas boiler goes, would be storage heaters which similarly work on cheap overnight electricity. Would modern storage heaters be less efficient than this new boiler?