DESCRIPTION

You can reduce heating costs without feeling cold. Utilizing spot-price electricity control, the heating function of the heat pump can be managed to operate during hours with lower hourly electricity prices, thereby shifting consumption away from peak hours. Similar functionality could be applied to cooling as well. To fully leverage this feature, customers must also possess a valid spot-price electricity contract.

PROBLEM

Home HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning) systems, including heat pumps, air conditioners and water heaters, contribute to 10% of the world's electricity usage. Within the European Union, households primarily utilize energy for home heating, constituting 64.4% of the final energy consumption in the residential sector, with water heating following closely at 14.5%. Thus, there is a clear benefit in optimizing heating. However, the majority of HVAC systems have limited functionality, lacking the capability to adapt to fluctuating energy prices.

SOLUTION

Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) facilitate data exchange between users' heat pumps and management applications such as Ignitis EnergySmart app, eliminating the necessity for extra hardware. Heat pump APIs enable remote communication, monitoring, and control of heating, offering enhanced control and flexibility in managing energy consumption.

Ignitis is partnering with an energy tech company Enode, which offers the APIs that create the digital framework enabling all these capabilities. However, controllers must be installed for heating systems that lack the ability to adapt to fluctuating energy prices. This allows for the control and optimization of a heat pump. An example of such controller could be a smart thermostat.

How is the optimization of a heat pump carried out using spot electricity prices?

In practical terms, when electricity price increases, the set target temperature is slightly lowered, thereby reducing the heat pump’s energy consumption. Conversely, when electricity price decreases, the heat pump’s temperature is raised.

STATUS AND PROGRESS

We are currently conducting trials of heat pumps in collaboration with several customers to develop a smart heating solution. Optimizing the heat pump control based on the spot price of electricity is likely to lower customer’s electricity bill. The feedback we receive will help us determine if the solution demonstrates the anticipated results. This is expected to become an additional smart feature on Ignitis EnergySmart app.

Want to know more? Contact our Innovation expert Tautvydas Labeikis - [email protected]