BetaTalk - The Renewable Energy and Low Carbon Heating Podcast

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In the first episode of a new season Nathan chats to James Macnaghten, CEO of Caldera.

Caldera manufacture and supply thermal storage solutions for industrial heat processes.

Get early access to their investment opportunity here

Thank you to season sponsors Grundfos 

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This was a recorded live show at Installer 2023 and featured Ian Rippin from MCS along with Ken Bone and Leah Robinson from Your Energy Your Way.

Ian discusses the consultation and the new changes coming.

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Econic is a new venture from Nathan's friend Christophe Grossbaier.

Its aim is to make the transition from gas boilers to heat pumps smoother for both customers and installers and uses a hybrid heat pump business model to achieve this.

With an engineering background and Masters from Cambridge University, Christophe appreciates heat pumps can heat almost any building but understands customers still have their concerns and worries.

This business model is designed to take away the anxiety a customer may have and at the same time offer them a cheaper alternative - both in upfront and running costs.

Econic will be working with local community groups as well as Local Authorities. To find out more contact the team here  

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Nathan dives into the history of heating systems and looks at why chemical inhibitors were introduced to prevent corrosion.

He also points out that manufactures are possibly misinterpreting the building regulations e.g. they are getting confused with a requirement within the building regs  and the guidance contained in an approved document.

It also takes a look at the Benchmark system and questions if it is fit for purpose. Is it biased towards maintaining growth of the chemical inhibitor companies?

The episode also looks at how a 1960s home could be heated from single panel radiators with just a flow of approx. 53°C... 

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In this episode Nathan interviews Faye Wade, his favourite academic researching the heating industry. This is because Faye understands that the most vital component of the industry is the engineer and that we need to really listen to them.

Joining Faye are Nathan's friends Leah, Sovay and Rhiannon who are all involved in installing and maintaining heating systems.

This is a fab episode with lot's of discussion around the transition to heat pumps and things like certification bodies, awarding bodies and MCS etc etc

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Alongside usual episodes from the BetaTalk Podcast, Nathan will be helping the Carbon Trust and the Department of Energy Security and Net Zero disseminate knowledge around the learnings from the Heat Pump Ready Programme with around 10 extra podcast episodes. This is episode 1 of these special Heat Pump Ready bulletins.  

The Heat Pump Ready Programme is part of the The Net Zero Innovation Portfolio, which  is a £1 billion fund, announced in the Prime Minister’s ten point plan for a green industrial revolution, to accelerate the commercialisation of low-carbon technologies, systems and business models in power, buildings, and industry.

Nathan speaks to Nicola Lazenby who is the Energy Innovation Programme Manager, leading on the £60m Net Zero Innovation Portfolio Heat Pump Ready Programme at the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero. Nicola has nearly a decade of experience leading innovation and technical research projects to support Government net zero policies. Nicola's passion for innovation and research stems from her academic background in civil engineering, where her PhD focused on pile foundation heat exchangers. Previous programmes which Nicola has led includes the Energy Entrepreneurs Fund, Building for 2050 and the Energy Catalyst programme, in addition to her role in developing acceleration support services for the entrepreneurs supported by such funds. 

As an advocate for diversity in the heat pump sector, Nicola is the founding member of the Women in Heat Pump Network.

Nathan also chats with Will Rivers from the Carbon Trust who leads Stream 3 of the Heat Pump Ready Programme and is Technical lead for the Green Homes Finance Accelerator. He also works on net zero strategies for social landlords. 

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In this conversation Nathan chats with Jonny Hancock, product manager at NIBE about some of the products and solutions they have on offer including their new exhaust air heat pump being launched at the InstallerShow 2023


You can find the links discussed on the show below
NIBE Training
University of West London PVT case study

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*Update: in this episode Damon and host Nathan realised after editing there was a mistake. An easy one to make as engineers like Damon have so many numbers running around in their head. He mentions he sizes radiators to 50°C when in fact Damon is one of the engineers who designs to a lower flow temp of 40-45*C for a radiator heating circuit.

In this episode we speak to the fabulous engineers Damon from Blakemore Plumbing and Heating and Barry from Renewable Heat about quotations. It's a hot topic so sit back and enjoy.

We also discuss the Glowmarkt website being developed by consortium partners within the Heat Pump Ready programme which Nathan, the host of the show, is part of. 

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I really enjoyed this episode chatting with Andrew Middleton, Managing Director at British Gas Zero and Steve Petrie, regional manager at British Gas Zero who also is a former British Gas engineer.

I brought along for the ride my friend Adam Gilhespy from Carno to help me host the conversation as he also is a former British Gas engineer and like Andrew  understands strategy and processes. 

For anyone who knows my podcast I started it so on the ground engineers could have a more amplified voice. Unfortunately, in the energy discourses I'm privileged to be a part of these days the coal face engineers are not always being listened too.

It is why it was refreshing when Andrew reached out and asked if he could come chat with us on the podcast. Andrew is one of my listeners and openly admits he has found it extremely useful to listen and learn from the engineers I have had on the show. 

Enjoy the show

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Recycled refrigerant and Energy Performance Declarations are discussed in this episode alongside the wider discussion around whole life carbon and the UK Net Zero Carbon Buildings Standard.

Nathan's guests are:

Ryan Philp, the Business Development Manager at Daikin 
Ellie Burkill, Energy Sustainability Consultant at XCO2
Sara Godinho, Associate at XCO2

To hear what Daikin are doing with recycled refrigerant skip to 1 hour 2 mins... a link is provided in the chapters tab

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