A new report by the UK Energy Research Council shows that new heat storage systems could help householders save big on their heating bills.

One of the biggest single energy costs for home owners is heating and as winter arrives in the UK it is many people’s top priority. One way of reducing your bill is by using off peak energy to generate the heat and storing it for later use. The UK Energy Research Council (UKERC) has put together a report on some of the technologies that could help individuals, and group schemes, to do this cheaply and efficiently.

A team at Loughborough University ran simulations to determine the best mix of technologies for heating a family home. Based on the typical British house it demonstrated that the use of novel heat storage materials could drastically improve heat storage, reducing costs and ultimately help the UK meet its greenhouse gas emissions targets.

“Our research matters because nearly 50% of the UK’s entire energy consumption goes on some form of heating,” explains Professor Philip Eames, the project’s lead researcher, ”so there’s got to be a win here if we are to get even close to our nationwide targets on cutting energy consumption.”

Crucial to these system are Phase Change Materials (PCM) substances that can reliably store and release energy. The team’s work used a theoretical ‘perfect’ PCM in conjunction with heat pumps to show how UK homes’ heating systems could be run more effectively.

The report was not solely about domestic use but includes an in depth study of the UK’s energy use for heating as a whole. This includes industrial uses and the potential for deployment of new technologies not only in single dwellings but also as part of a group scheme.

The report The Future Role of Thermal Energy Storage in the UK Energy System: An assessment of the Technical Feasibility and Factors Influencing Adoption (PDF) is available from the UKERC website.