After ten years in development, Flow Energy is ready to take on the market with a micro-CHP unit it claims will revolutionise energy in the home. Lois Vallely reports.

Boilers are invaluable. They keep us warm in the winter, heat our water and dry our clothes. However, as much as 20 per cent of heat from a conventional boiler is lost through the flue. This not only loses customers’ money, it also seems detrimental to the UK’s ambitious decarbonisation targets. The energy industry needs a solution.

Start-up company Flow Group has stepped up to the plate, coming up with an innovative micro-combined heat and power (micro-CHP) boiler. It is designed to convert heat from combustion into electricity, which can then be used in the home or fed into the grid. By generating power at the point-of-use while using the heat, the Flow boiler significantly reduces the carbon intensity of that power and contributes to the decarbonisation of the UK’s electricity supply.

The Flow boiler is a condensing boiler which uses a single gas-fired burner to provide heat, drive the organic Rankine cycle circuit which converts heat from burning gas into electricity.

Energy consultancy EA Technology describes micro-CHP as “representing a potentially disruptive force in the evolving European power markets”. The advantages of the technology are abundant, with higher efficiency resulting in cost savings and major energy savings, and giving rise to a considerably lower carbon footprint.

Flow’s research and development centre, located in Capenhurst near Chester, is where the company spent ten years and £60 million developing its unique, patented, Flow boiler.

The British market for boilers is strong and, over the past 12 months, the number of boilers being replaced has risen by 15 per cent, to more than 1.7 million every year.

Flow says its micro-CHP boiler could reduce the annual carbon emissions from a typical home by 20 per cent (1,000kg of CO2) – “the equivalent of driving 4,000 miles less in your car”. On top of that, it could save the average household £80 a month on its energy bill.

Furthermore, the boiler has been installed under the Flow Finance package, it can deliver a fixed reduction in energy bills of £4,800 over five years, meaning, according to the company’s sales pitch, that it “practically pays for itself”.

With initial units due to be installed in customers’ homes this month, Flow may be about to trigger a micro-CHP revolution in boiler efficiency, going some way towards helping the energy sector reach its carbon reduction goals.

The benefits of micro-CHP

There are four types of micro-CHP technology: the Stirling engine; the internal combustion engine; fuel cell technology and the organic Rankine cycle engine, which is the type that the Flow boiler uses.

All four claim the same headline benefits over conventional boilers.

• Excess heat used to generate electricity – meaning transmission losses are dramatically reduced.

• Lower carbon emissions – the Flow boiler operates at 92 per cent efficiency.

• Lower costs – by converting otherwise wasted heat into electricity, a household will have to take less from the grid, meaning a reduction in its electricity bill.

• Easy installation – a micro-CHP boiler such as the Flow boiler can be easily installed in place of a regular boiler.

• Low operation and maintenance costs

Is a Flow boiler really affordable?

Flow Energy has two payment options for its domestic boiler which aim to make it affordable for people in a range of financial circumstances.

Flow Freedom: the customer pays for the boiler upfront (£3,675). If they switch their home energy and assign the feed-in tariff to Flow for five years, they will receive a total reduction in their home energy bill of £4,800 over the five-year period.

The value of the electricity generated and the feed-in tariff pays off the cost of the boiler over the first five years. After this five-year period the Flow boiler belongs to the customer, generating a potential return of around £500 a year.

Flow Finance: Instead of paying for the boiler upfront, a customer can finance the cost through a loan agreement with peer-to-peer lending service Zopa (at 8.9 per cent APR). The total cost of the loan agreement is £4529.89, excluding installation.

Why we need to change the way we heat our homes

Heating is carbon-intensive, with more than 80 per cent of residential users relying on gas heating for warmth. With UK gas resources in decline, imports have increased to almost 50 per cent, leaving the country increasingly exposed to volatility. In order to address the energy trilemma, the government must encourage UK consumers to radically change the way they use heat in their homes. At least according to Flow Energy.

Flow’s business development director, Geoff Barker, says Flow’s micro-CHP could contribute considerably to the reduction in gas consumption otherwise used in centralised power stations. The installation of 500,000 micro-CHP boilers would produce approximately 650GWh a year.

Barker believes the government needs an approach that “puts buildings at the heart of things” by making them more energy efficient, producing locally generated low-carbon or renewable power can go a long way to addressing the three energy goals of affordability, energy security and sustainable low-carbon energy.

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