Why we all need to take a hot shower, with a quality heat pump

Heat pump hot water systems (HPHWS) are fundamental appliances to the clean energy transition. They must become ubiquitous in Australian homes if we are to meet our net zero targets by 2050.

Domestic hot water use is responsible for around a fifth of Australian residential greenhouse gas emissions and a quarter of household energy use.

If heat pump hot water systems are rolled out at scale in residential and small-scale commercial buildings, they could quickly offer substantial emissions reductions, save on energy bills, and support the efficient electrification of Australia’s built environment.

Recent research by Solar Victoria has found a growing interest in heat pumps from householders, and a groundswell of support. They’re doing 2000 installations a month and by far the majority of their customers – 89% - are installing a heat pump before their current hot water system fails.

However, as Alan Pears from RMIT pointed out recently in a SwitchedOn article, Why we need urgent action to solve the heat pump dilemma, Australia’s lack of up-to-date, comprehensive standards for heat pumps, that are easily understood by householders, threatens their roll-out and adoption.

We currently have no independent standards for heat pump hot water systems like we do for other electrical appliances like fridges, microwaves, washing machines, etc.

“Delays in standards development can lead to lower-quality appliances that can no longer be sold in Europe or North America being dumped into the Australian market,” says Jeremy Sung, Head of Policy at the Energy Efficiency Council. “Minimum energy performance standards (MEPS) are an important tool for ensuring products achieve a minimum level of energy performance.”

“For example, Australia’s standard for fridges alone reduces our electricity demand by over 360 MW, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, comparable to the output of a mid-sized gas fired power station.”

Without standards, financial incentives from governments to assist with the purchase of HPHWS could ironically exacerbate the risk of Australia being swamped by low-cost inferior appliances.

“If multiple incentives [from governments] reduce the cost of a heat pump hot water system by $2-3,000, this may allow an importer of a low-cost product to offer it at a very low, very attractive, price,” says Alan Pears. “In contrast, a supplier of a low sales volume ‘premium’ product may still have to charge thousands of dollars.”

Delays in developing a national standard may also leave a vacuum that State and Territory governments might try to fill by going it alone which Jeremy Sung says will create unnecessary complexity and increase costs.

Which is why the Energy Efficiency Council is developing a roadmap for heat pump hot water systems to help define an action plan that will enable Australia to scale up the rollout of HPHWS.

The roadmap will identify the standards and regulatory environment that are needed, the skill shortages that need to be filled to enable a roll out at scale, gaps in the knowledge of trades and consumers, along with other issues.  

“We hope the HPHWS roadmap can help to support a substantial scale up in the HPHWS market, which will make an important contribution to the rapid decarbonisation of Australia’s built environment,” says Sung.

The Energy Savings Industry Association (ESIA), the peak national body that represents businesses accredited to create and trade energy efficiency certificates, is just one of the organisations that will make a submission to the EEC's roadmap.

"Heat pumps are one of the most cost-effective ways to achieve emissions reduction targets, especially in residential markets," says Rod Woolley, ESIA's President.

"Leveraging and strengthening energy savings schemes in Victoria, NSW, SA and ACT and the federal Small-scale Renewable Energy Scheme (SRES) - which needs extending beyond 2030 - is a no-brainer as a major plank of the national roadmap in the absence of a national energy savings scheme," says Woolley.

Jeremy Sung from the EEC says the roadmap will need to ensure consumers can obtain products with appropriate warranties and that do what they’re supposed to do – provide hot water when they need it. It’s also important that they are energy efficient and last a decent amount of time.

The EEC is seeking comment on the heat pump hot water system roadmap before January 26, 2024. The roadmap will be released in June.