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What often comes to mind when discussing climate change are the immediate effects rising temperatures has on nature and biodiversity. But what if we zoom in and focus on buildings and people – what becomes then the centre of discussion? Fabio Polo, Head of Strategic Product Management within our cooling business, reflects on a few known facts and offer recommendations going forward.
The European Environment Agency states in one of their briefings that temperatures across Europe are rising, the population grows older and urbanisation is a fact. Together, these factors increase the population’s exposure and vulnerability to heat. According to the same source, heatwaves between the years of 1980 and 2020 caused about 100 000 lives in the 32 EEA member countries together, that accounts for about 90% of all fatalities related to extreme climate events. The number includes the record-breaking summer of 2003 but excludes the summer of 2022 when long-lasting heatwaves led to more than 60 000 deaths.
Throughout Europe, people spend approximately 90% of their lives indoors, which is why buildings play a crucial role in offering protection against extreme weather. But in order to serve as a good protection and to support comfort and well-being, buildings must be designed, constructed, renovated and maintained in an appropriate manner considering the building’s intended purpose.
Buildings that are not adequately built or maintained, are more likely to also rely on inefficient cooling systems, which risk to further impact climate change negatively. At the same time, in parts of Europe, heating is the most energy consuming activity in buildings. As a result new-builds and renovation projects are more often enhanced with extra thermal insulation to reduce heating demands. However, in the warmer months, these buildings risk overheating as the heat and mass transfer between the indoors and the outdoors is limited.
Cooling concerns
Currently, cooling accounts for a smaller portion of buildings’ total energy demand in the EU, but with the apparent trends, it is expected to grow in only a few years’ time. Aside from the core issue of an increased cooling demand, the increased use of energy, there are a few other concerns: electricity peak loads and greenhouse gas emissions from the use of refrigerants.
Electricity peak loads are primarily a matter of capacity, but a power outage in the midst of a heatwave is all of a sudden also a concern in terms of health and well-being of the people inside. The greenhouse gas emissions related to the use of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), widely used in traditional cooling systems, are thousands of times more potent than CO2. Even modest increases in their use can lead to a substantial impact on the environment.
Actions from the EU
As a response, the European Union has introduced a number of initiatives, including the Renovation wave and ‘Fit for 55’, both aim to ensure sustainable indoor climate solutions, social justice and greater resilience. Among their priorities are energy efficiency renovations to address future energy demands. The EU is also investing in decarbonised energy production and has been following an aggressive plan for HFC phase-down since 2015.
Where is the cooling industry in all this?
In some aspects it seems that the industry has been slow to align with these emerging needs and has not really caught on, as if the chain of events and “must do’s” is not really clear – find out more in the blog post, What were the trends at the world’s largest HVAC exhibition?. At Swegon, we understand the challenges ahead, definitely from an overall perspective but particularly in very good detail in the area of heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC). We have taken a proactive approach.
Our analysis shows the following:
- The cooling requirement will increase notably in the coming years, and not only throughout the Mediterranean countries, but also in traditionally colder regions such as Scandinavia.
- The increase in cooling demands will arise across nearly all building applications.
- The policy landscape in Europe shows that the union sticks to the plan of phasing-out HFC refrigerants before 2050.
In the context of cooling demands and the need to ensure a safe indoor environment when the heatwaves strike, the idea of heat pumps may seem somewhat odd. However, most of the heat pumps in the market today are reversible units, products that can provide either heating or cooling.
First of all, a reversible heat pump is two in one. A building that uses a boiler for heating may soon require an additional air conditioning solution to ensure that the building can protect the people inside during summer extremes.
From a sustainability standpoint, a single reversible unit will typically hold less embedded carbon than two, and going from a fossil fueled operation to an alternative that can operate on decarbonised energy is a true win.
ZETA Zero from Swegon
Meet ZETA Zero, a reversable heat pump that efficiently satisfies the existing heating demand, and, with its precise operation, can meet both current and projected cooling requirements. It is a two in one unit. Additionally, ZETA can balance the energy demand between the cooling and heating seasons and thus assist in demanding more comparable loads across the year. Learn more in our previous blog post, Unlocking smarter heat pump operations. And last but not least, ZETA Zero operates with propane as refrigerant, completely excluding the greenhouse gas potent HFC variants.
Get familiar with ZETA Zero and find the blogs mentioned here: What were the trends at the world’s larges HVAC exhibition and Unlocking smarter heat pump operations.
