Innovative low carbon residential water heating solutions

Water heating contributes to approximately 30% of a typical household’s operational carbon and energy use. This project identified several innovative low-carbon residential water heating technologies that showed promise to greatly reduce the carbon, energy and lifetime costs of more traditional systems and considered that, if used more widely, there was considerable potential for these lower-carbon replacement technologies to benefit consumers, lines companies and the environment. This project sought to compare these new water heating systems to the best-case technologies (air-source heat pumps) for the New Zealand context. <br><br>Specific issues were investigated, including lifetime carbon impacts, system flexibility and control, energy balance, lifetime costs and sensitivity of household behaviour. This project had implications for New Zealand’s upcoming carbon commitments (international obligations), infrastructure costs due to peak loading (lines, retailers and generators) and fuel poverty (national equity). It also had consequences for New Zealand’s national energy security due to our reliance on non-renewable energy sources. The aim of this project was to help improve decision making for consumers, suppliers and specifiers wanting to reduce their energy and carbon footprint by choosing the best low-carbon water heating options available.