Q-zeta news: Q-zeta Secures Funding to Pilot Innovative Domestic Heat Store

Q-zeta has been awarded a SMART:Scotland grant from Scottish Enterprise to drive the development and qualification work for their innovative space and water heating solution. The Q-zeta unit will be built and demonstrated at The Salter Centre for Cleantech Innovation who will be an end user for the technology. 

Q-zeta is a new class of domestic heat pump, integrating a compact air source heat pump with a novel high-capacity thermal store, engineered as a direct replacement for a gas combi boiler with minimal in property changes and work required. The thermal store allows charging to be fully decoupled from heat demand, allowing it to charge up when electricity is cheap. It will also help the whole energy system to accept more variable renewables generation.

Compared to a conventional ASHP, the system offers the potential to halve installation time and cost, and to halve the cost of heat delivered to the consumer. The Q-zeta system aims to make low-carbon heating practical and affordable for the millions of UK homes currently heated by a combi boiler.  

The SMART:Scotland grant allows us to build and rigorously test the integrated system in a real-world application as part of the heating infrastructure at The Salter Centre. Located in Loanhead, Scotland, The Salter Centre is an innovative cleantech hub providing a base for engineering companies working on solutions that contribute to climate change reduction.

Simon Gage, Managing Director, The Salter Centre for cleantech innovation, said:

"Reversing global warming will need many types of new technology that enable us to decarbonise all that we do. Q-zeta is an imaginative leap toward clean, affordable heat and we are delighted the first one will be keeping a large space within our R&D buildings warm." 

Richard Yemm, Director at Q-zeta, commented:

“Decarbonisation of domestic heating is one of the biggest challenges to Net Zero. The Q-zeta heat pump system is designed to be a direct replacement for the gas combi boilers installed in over 70% of UK homes, and to directly address the key barriers preventing consumers switching to low carbon heating. 

The integrated thermal store also provides a large, long-duration energy store allowing the same technical solution and investment to also bring flexibility and balancing benefits to the wider energy system. The grant awarded by Scottish Enterprise and support from the Salter Centre will allow us to build, demonstrate, and qualify a Q-zeta unit, and expand our team as we continue our journey to commercialisation.”

Read this article on the Q-zeta website.