In EU households, heating and hot water alone account for 79% of total final energy use (192.5 Mtoe). This is 15% of the global energy consumption almost as much as the electricity global consumption (20%). 84% of heating and cooling is still generated from fossil fuels while only 16% is generated from renewable energy (mainly biofuels). In order to fulfill the EU’s climate and energy goals, the heating and cooling sector must sharply reduce its energy consumption and cut its use of fossil fuels.
The building sector in the EU is the largest single energy consumer in Europe, with a total floor area of 28 billion m2, almost equal to the land area of Belgium, absorbing 40% of final energy: however about 75% of buildings are energy inefficient, and, depending on the Member State, only 0.4-1.2% of the stock is renovated each year. An essential part of Europe's clean energy transition is the changing role of buildings from energy consumers to actively controlling and optimizing indoor environment while contributing to energy system flexibility.
According to the International Energy Agency, energy efficiency measures have the potential to deliver two-thirds of the energy-related CO2 emissions reductions needed to achieve climate protection. Cutting the energy consumed by heating in buildings can be achieved through scaling up the use of advanced construction and design techniques and high-performance insulation materials when renovating buildings. Energy can also be saved by upgrading heating and cooling equipment such as boilers to the latest, most efficient technologies. Other renewable heating and cooling technologies such as biomass boilers and solar heating systems cut the use of fossil fuels. Energy use can also be cut by providing better information and control of energy use with intelligent thermostats.
CALORIC operation is based on the fact that Hydronic heating systems, transfer the majority of their heat by thermal radiation reducing air temperature stratification, and thus reduce heat loss through ceilings. Comfort can often be maintained at lower air temperatures and most importantly with lower radiator temperature when space is radiantly heated. This leads to increased energy savings while the heating comfort remains in high levels.
CALORIC characteristics are its simplicity with minimum user intervention, the ability to adjust the Heating power to the exact heating need, The clear indication of the consumption in hours of heating usage and the ability to detect problems in the heating system.
Based on the market as well as the technical findings we can conclude that CALORIC offers the best solution to reduce the Heating consumption with the smallest investment, the easiest and fastest installation. Considering that 90% of the buildings in Europe are equipped with Hydronic heating systems (with hot water radiators) the impact of the use of CALORIC in increasing the efficiency and reduce the use of fossil fuels in heating, could be comparable to the impact of all the photovoltaics and wind turbines installations combined, in electricity demand.
CALORIC’s main goals throughout the project (Feasibility Study) are the following:
• On the technical side, based on the prototype (TRL 6) advance to TRL 8.
• On the commercial and financial side, we developed a business strategy aiming at supporting both the sustainability and the market replication of CALORIC, to be further accomplished in Phase 2 of the SME Instrument. In Phase 1, the best suppliers of raw materials, the market size, the competitive background and the threats/opportunities for entering the market were analyzed. It leads to a specific definition of the market penetration strategy and CALORIC’s business model. CALORIC also addressed the following objectives: identification of the regulatory requirements of the product and setup of a strategy for intellectual property management.
