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Ever wondered how heat pump systems differ between the UK and the US? In this episode, Nathan chats with Shreyas Sudhakar, a leading heat pump installer and educator from California, to explore the contrasting approaches. Nathan, who has fond memories of his time in America, and his apprenticeship on a US airbase in the UK, emphasises the strong connection he feels to the country. He and Shreyas engage in a fun discussion, highlighting the strengths of both systems and gently suggesting areas where US installations might benefit from UK insights. They both strongly believe that sharing knowledge and best practices is key to maximising heat pump efficiency and sustainability. Join us for a conversation that celebrates innovation and the potential for transatlantic collaboration!

This season is sponsored by Primary Pro a professional outdoor pipe insulation system used by top engineers in the UK

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Damon Blackmore is a massive favourite among other competent heat pump installation engineers. 

He uses social media to help other heating engineers become interested in heat pump systems and has some of the highest performing heat pumps in the country.

Unfortunately, the voices of good engineers are being drowned out by the comms pieces from much larger entities involved in the sector. 

Take a listen to someone actually at the coal face of industry...day in day out.  

This episode is sponsored by Primary Pro a professional pipe insulation system used by Damon and other great engineers.

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Nathan chats to Adam Bell, Director of Policy at Stonehaven about:

• Ofgem and the recent findings from Citizens Advice
• The CfD (Contracts for Difference) consultation 
• the report from the National Infrastructure Commission's - Electricity Distribution Networks: Creating capacity for the future  
• Pylons
• MCS

You can find Adam on Linkedin and his blog site Unbalancing Mechanism 

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Heat pump owners around the UK have joined the Nesta scheme whereby they allow visitors to come visit them and ask questions about their heating system. 

Nathan chats to Codrina Cretu and Andy Marsden about the benefits of this free scheme to people thinking of having a heat pump as well as the benefits to installation engineers who can use it as a marketing tool.

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Episode 3 of the Heat Pump Ready programme.

Nathan chats to

Ian Rose arPassiv UK,

Casey Cole at Guru,

and Mark Lufkin at Wondrwall

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Nathan talks with Katrina from Energy Systems Catapult and Trysten Lee from Open Energy Monitor about a key question surrounding the Electrification of Heat (EoH) trial: why did the heat pumps perform so poorly? The trial, involving aprox. 740 heat pumps, showed an average Seasonal Performance Factor (SPF) of just 2.81 for air source.

This contrasts sharply with the performance of heat pumps monitored by Trysten at HeatPumpMonitor.org (HPM). Interestingly, many of the installers whose systems are tracked on HPM are relatively new to the field, some with only a few years of heat pump experience. Yet, they consistently achieve high-performing heat pump installations, a stark difference from the results of the large-scale trials. This success likely stems from their adherence to the two BetaTeach principles, their approach to self-directed learning, and their use of peer-to-peer learning. They also tend to pursue different training paths, rather than relying solely on the standard 3-day BPEC and LCL Award courses.

The trial, conducted in partnership with Warmworks, OVO, and E-ON, involved 19 MCS contractors installing approximately 750 free heat pump systems.  Beyond heat pump performance, the trial has provided valuable insights that are informing policy development in areas such as planning permission and Distribution Network Operator (DNO) applications. 

Trystan and his team have managed to visualise the data captured from the trial at eoh.heatpumpmonitor.org


For information on the Air to Air trial and to see if you can have a free A2A heat pump system click here

This season is sponsored by PrimaryPro

Primary Pro, a pipe insulation system developed by Dave Smith, is gaining popularity among engineers for use in heat pump installations.

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Mechanical Ventilation Heat Recovery systems are discussed with Nathan's guests Duncan and Barry Sharp.

Regular listeners will know Barry from previous episodes of BetaTalk and is one of Nathan's favourite heat pump engineers based in Scotland.

Duncan is Barry's dad and has been specialising in MVHR systems since around 2010.

The discussion looks at how effective MVHR is and the problems with design, installation and commissioning. 

Duncan spends a lot of his time helping others understand MVHR and is involved in surveying the systems in social housing as well as designing and installing systems.


 

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Nathan interviews Mick Wall, a self-proclaimed 'heating nerd,' about his experiences with a heat pump expertly installed by Damon Blackmore, a renowned engineer. Mick's story, like those of Trystan and Glyn featured on episode 10 of BetaTalk's 10th season (who run heatpumpmonitor.org), exemplifies a fascinating shift: the rise of informed heat pump consumers. Their deep understanding around the "science of heat" surpasses that of many professionals in the industry's marketing, media, and PR sectors.

Mick's heat pump heating system is being monitored here

Mick also runs Energy Stats which tracks agile electricity prices and can be found here

Mick runs a blog and can be found on these social media sites:

https://twitter.com/Zarch1972
https://bsky.app/profile/zarch1972.bsky.social

This is a great episode and start to a new season being sponsored by
Primary Pro

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Nathan talks to Steph Willis and Joseph Saxby, founders of Spruce.

Lot's of topics covered in this exciting conversation such as heat loss, heat pump sizing and EPCs 

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Nathan chats to Iain from Edinburg Heating about his journey into heat pumps.

Iain has been using Barry at Renewable Heat (and a BetaTalk regular guest) as a mentor.

Training course are discussed as well the barriers micro-businesses face in transitioning from boilers to heat pump heating systems.

SEASON TEN IS SPONSORED BY
Ultimate Renewable Supplies

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