BetaTalk - The Renewable Energy and Low Carbon Heating Podcast

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Energy and sustainable policy is the topic of this episode. Nathan travels to meet with Richard Lowes, a wonderful gentleman well known in area of heat policy within the UK. Richard has worked on policy regarding the future of the gas grid and started a PhD in 2014 which looked at the development of policy within the heating industry: how it started and how different interests lobby. A main question being asked by academics is: " do industries in the market help drive change or hinder it?"

Not only was it interesting to discuss Policy with Richard we also Ken Bone and I also discussed his new heat pump install, which is a NIBE air source installed under the Nu - Heat umbrella MCS scheme. Richard is Cleary happy with it but discusses with us how he felt "to many cooks can spoil the broth" You can listen to discover what he means.

You can also hear Ken discuss weather compensation curves and low temperature heating. 

There's also discussion about the risks manufactures pose to industry.

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Bristol heating engineers Ben, Simon and Craig chat with Nathan about renewables and the gas heating industry. They discuss the importance of heating system design and how it is vital to obtain efficiency.

In this episode you will hear about the types of renewable heating these engineers have worked with and how social housing would benefit from renewables and boilers set up efficiently.

This seasons podcast is sponsored by https://mcscertified.com

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Once again Nathan speaks to Brandon and Richard for this podcast on heatpumps. This time we have Brandon's nephew with us who is an apprentice. So a little training theme within this episode. Accountability is a main theme e.g. what happens if heat pumps are installed incorrectly. Other topics include:

Data Efficiency
IoT and its use within the heating industry
Competence
Heat Pump System Design

Please enjoy and if you have any questions about heat pumps or want to reach out to any of the engineers Nathan uses in these episodes you can contact him at
[email protected]

Thanks to season 2 sponsors: MCS
You can visit their website here: https://mcscertified.com

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Solar Thermal (Solarheat) heating is very misunderstood. It is not only clean it is free and maybe this is why it's not in many of the discourses around decarbonisation.

While there are many concerned individuals and organisations engendering discussions around decarbonisation a lot of the time they are misinformed.

Take a listen to engineers who work at the coal face of renewable heating technology, it is they who install, maintain and know these systems so well.

They don't have an agenda, e.g. they are not trying to sell energy they are trying to solve the problems we face and create efficiency.

This episode has the following topics:

Solar thermal systems which work in winter
Buffers, accumulators and thermal stores
Low temperature heating systems
How to reduce energy bills
Evacuated solar thermal tubes
Are European countries beating the UK regarding this renewable technology?
Should housing developers look at renewable energy more closely?

You will hear how Brandon knows someone who produces so much solarheat  they sell it to the next door neighbour - as the heat moves through the wall

Thanks for listening
This season is sponsored by MCS https://mcscertified.com

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Renewable heat is a hot topic, pardon the pun, and to kick start a new season of BetaTalk Nathan visits expert engineers Brandon from https://www.btseheating.com/ Ken from https://www.renewable-heat.co.uk/ and Richard from https://theintergasshop.co.uk/

In this episode Nathan introduces MCS who will sponsor this season's episodes. They will all have a renewable heat theme and in this first episode Nathan discusses with his guests different types of renewable technology.

Ken and Brandon have been on the show before and they and Nathan get to meet controls expert Richard who is a wonderful gentleman based in Mid Wales. 

Topics include:
Smart Controls and Weather Compensation
Heat Calculations
The future of heat pumps
Open Therm
Cost of heat pumps
Biomass
Solar Thermal
Batteries  

Disclaimer: This episode is a conversation between engineers who have fun as well as discuss serious topics. No language or figurative speech is to be taken literally 

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Retrofitting heat pumps or installing heat pumps in new builds is a hot topic. Here Nathan chats with Ken Bone from https://www.renewable-heat.co.uk, Paul from Highland Plumbing & Heating Ltd ( https://t.co/aBzV2fwgCR?amp=1) and father and son team James and Ashley from http://h2o-plumbingandheating.co.uk.

All have some experience with heat pumps and the episode is to give listeners a general idea of what they are and how they work. More episodes will be coming soon.

Nathan, who is a speaker and workshop host at https://lowcarbonhomes.uk engages often with the Heat Pump Association and the Ground Source Heat Pump Association who also are actively involved with Low Carbon Homes.

Heat Pumps are an exciting technology but as Nathan inculcates: it does not matter how efficient a heat source is (whether it is a methane, hydrogen or oil boiler - or even a heat pump) the heating system has to be efficient - otherwise there is no efficiency. Unfortunately in the UK many systems are not efficient and experience corrosion problems as well as incorrectly sized pipework. 

Nathan recently spoke about the poor state of our heating systems at the Low Carbon Homes event in Manchester where the local authority have written into law their net zero target of 2038.

One of the topics discussed is how training within the heating industry could be better. Nathan is one of the leading experts in the UK heating industry reguarding andragogy - adult learning - and as he inculcates the training is currently inadequate. 

A lot of training modules are summative assessment only with no formative assessment provision. Nathan works closely with industry and manufactures to help them develop better methods and calls it the BetaTeach method. Simply put Nathan hopes to inspire manufactures to place quality training as their number one PR/marketing device.

It's envisaged that manufactures will compete to provide the best training provision and resources. This perpetual system can then start to produce better engineers who are able to constantly learn - in turn, benefiting customers and the environment

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Diploma Plumbing Students make up the majority of students on plumbing courses.
Contrary to popular belief, not all school leavers go onto uni to for A levels. Hundreds of thousands enrol each year onto college construction and building services course. Most will never enter industry as the apprenticeship opportunities simple are not out there for these young people, or even the mature students who undertake the diploma course.

Here, Nathan visits Guilford College to chat to George, Nicole and Jack and discuss how they are getting on at the start of their Level 2 BPEC plumbing Course.

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Heating system design is back in vogue (it never should have gone out of fashion as it's extremely vital). Here, Nathan travels to Northampton to visit Kim where he trains heating engineers in system design.

It should always be noted that the heat source whether it's a boiler or heat pump requires an efficient heating system otherwise there is no real efficiency. IMI Hydronic Engineering, Heat-Engineer.com and The Heating Academy understand how important heating system design is and are doing there best along with BetaTeach to get that message out. 

In this episode you'll hear Kim explain how his time in the army training people to operate a new complex weapons system was perhaps when he first realised the rewarding aspects of teaching people.

Topics covered are:
Low Loss Headers (LLH)
Close Couple Tees (CCT)
Heating System Design

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In this conversation Nathan chats to Luke, Scott and Alex and discusses how they got into industry. They had all just attended the IMI Hydronic training so we get to listen to their views on what they just learned. 

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IMI Hydronic training was taking place at the Guilford gas centre being set up by Tony Rees. It gave me the opportunity to speak with some of the plumbing and heating apprentices and diploma students who attend the college there. 
This is a 3 parter as I was able to talk to ten students in total. Here are the first three.
Fantastic episode this. Learn what our next generation get up to.

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