BetaTalk - The Renewable Energy and Low Carbon Heating Podcast

Send us Fan Mail Nathan hosted a live podcast to discuss heat pumps at the industry's favourite show. On the guest panel were Heat Architects Steve Webster and Si Posket along with the podcasts expert guest on commercial refrigeration Lisa-Jayne Season 6 of BetaTalk is being sponsored by Farnell We also like to thank the European Heat Pump Association and Key Mark in helping to promote life l...

Send us Fan Mail Ofgem have been collecting performance data on heat pump installs and Nathan chats to Collin Meek from RB&M who has analysed the data. The report summary can be found here Learn what COP (coefficient of performance) SCOP and SPF (seasonal performance factor) all mean as well as their limitations. Are heat pumps in the UK performing well? Find out in this great episode. A big t...

Send us Fan Mail Can a home have no energy bills? Yes. We chat to Nigel from Ilke Homes who have just partnered with Octopus Energy for an exciting project where the occupant is expected to pay no energy bills. The homes will use heat pumps, lots of solar PV and batteries. Hear how they work on this episode.  This episode is accompanied by a special patron episode where we go more into the detail...

Send us Fan Mail Meet Nathan's guest Tom Lowe who heads up the Thermal Storage Association with founding members SunAmp, Caldera and Tepeo. Tom has had previous roles in OFGEM, British Gas and Buld Energy so there is lots of great discussion in this episode Use the  10% discount code BETATALK10 with Farnell purchases over £50 Support the show Learn more about heat pump heating by following Na...

Send us Fan Mail In this first episode of season 6 I chat with some of the people in the Carbon CoOp team You can hear what they are all about and how they have been helping people navigate through the cacophony of retrofit and renewable heating advice. They are one of my favourites out there and really understand the challenge. Matt is very much an enthusiast, like myself, in monitoring  building...

Send us Fan Mail Nathan speaks to his good friend and his control expert David Newton. David started his career in controls back in the 70s and has interesting stories. The conversation centres around the fact it is not a technical problem which needs solving but a human one.  Support the show Learn more about heat pump heating by following Nathan on Linkedin , Twitter and BlueSky

Send us Fan Mail In this episode Nathan talks to Thomas Nowak the Secretary General of the EHPA. Thomas has a wealth of knowledge in the European Heat Pump space and has  been disseminating good advice for quite some time. Take a listen We are currently the #1 energy podcast in the UK  here Support the show Learn more about heat pump heating by following Nathan on Linkedin , Twitter and BlueSky

Send us Fan Mail In this episode Nathan chats to retired physicists Michael de Podesta about his video on how to quickly get an idea of the heat loss of your home. You can follow him on Twitter at  @Protons4B and find his blog here Support the show Learn more about heat pump heating by following Nathan on Linkedin , Twitter and BlueSky

Send us Fan Mail One of my favourite conversations: Adam is a rare entity. He is a heating engineer but understands extremely well the tech world now entering the heating industry and will play an important part.  It is a frank conversation and we hope you enjoy and get something from it Support the show Learn more about heat pump heating by following Nathan on Linkedin , Twitter and BlueSky

Send us Fan Mail The Renewable Heat Incentive is about to finish and the Boiler Upgrade Scheme is about to start. Heat pump installation companies have found themselves in a state of limbo and an open letter has been drafted to put forward their concerns to BEIS and OFGEM This episode is in response to those concerns and features policy expert Richard Lowes, Dan Kelly & Jim McKenzie  from http...

Send us Fan Mail Nathan knows the good people at NESTA quite well and likes their pragmatism. In this episode Nathan has a chat with Madeleine Gabriel the sustainable mission director and Andrew Sissons, the deputy mission director. They discuss insulation and how you do not need deep retrofit for heat pumps to work, even efficiently.  Conversation also discusses the cost of heat pump installation...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode Nathan chats with regular guest host Ken Bone and Rachael Peterson an electronics and software engineer. Both guests are early adopters of battery technology for use within their own homes. They also have PV and Heat Pumps and a bonus episode exists on the patreon site where you can hear both guests talk about the integration of all these technologies Fasten your s...

Send us Fan Mail Nathan chats to Stephanie who was monitoring heat pump systems out in Canada. One of the things Nathan is passionate about is using monitoring and Smart HTC to measure real heat loss.  Monitoring can also be used to establish performance and highlight either faulty equipment or bad installation practice. In the Autumn of 2021 Nathan gave evidence to a policy commission involving m...

Send us Fan Mail Gas prices have risen. This is having a dramatic effect on the poor. Nathan discusses the sorry state of ECO, the Energy Companies Obligation and how boilers have been installed in such a way that the heating systems in the homes of the fuel poor are not as efficient as they should be. Is anyone to blame? Is anyone researching this? To listen to the bonus episodes, including one c...

Send us Fan Mail In an experimental podcast episode Nathan chats to his friend and world renowned Michael Liebreich who hosts the Cleaning Up podcast. It is a dual podcast and will go out on BetaTalk and Cleaning Up. You can even watch it here on YouTube Nathan and Michael discuss how we have the technology for low carbon heating but lack the skills to implement it. As an expert on finance Michael...

Send us Fan Mail Planning permission and planning allocation are complex topics and Nathan invited along his friend Rico Wojtulewicz, the head of housing and policy at the National Federation of Builders, for a chat about how the planning process hinders the uptake of low carbon heating technology such as heat pumps. A fantastic episode where Nathan learns new terms and concepts such as Open Space...

Send us Fan Mail Nathan was joined by a very special guest on the first episode of a new season sponsored by the Heat Geek Team. Nathan has been trying to help the heating industry realise there needs to be a paradigm shift in the way we train people. Many people are  now involved in the training and education discourse, but unfortunately they have little understanding around the science of learni...

Send us Fan Mail Corrosion is a big problem in wet central heating systems. The water within the heating system is the cheapest yet regarded as the most important component. Unfortunately, it's perhaps the least understood and often neglected. Many boiler breakdowns are caused by corrosion and in a transition to heat pumps we will need to be careful about water quality. Nathan chats to his go...

Send us Fan Mail Nathan chats to a good friend of the podcast, Guy Newey, about decarbonising our homes and heating Guy is Director of Strategy and Performance at the Energy Systems Catapult - (sponsor of season 3 of BetaTalk) He was the Energy Adviser to the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), Greg Clark and Special Advisor to former Energy Secretary Amber Rudd...

Send us Fan Mail Nathan has a conversation with industry veteran Bob Beattie about air to air heat pumps which have been heating and cooling us for many years outside of our homes. Bob and Nathan discuss mini splits, multi splits and variable refrigerant flow (VRF) systems (otherwise known as variable refrigerant volume VRV Often, discussions around heat pumps in the media only concentrate on air...

Send us Fan Mail Nathan speaks with his season 4 sponsors Sero and the Welsh Government Optimised Retrofit Programme Check out what the team all look like here https://youtu.be/vLsZNO9UPuA Call to action for installers and SME's https://www.optimised-retrofit.wales/partners-procurement-sme/ More info on Sero  https://sero.group/press-room/sero-sets-the-standard-for-delivering-zero-carbon-home...

Send us Fan Mail The long awaited strategy was out this week and Nathan had the chance to chat with Matthew who heads up the electrification team. BEIS have worked hard to pull this strategy together which is bound to please some and perplex others.  The boiler upgrade scheme is hot topic and "heat pumps" trended the day of the announcement.   Take a listen on the BetaTalk Podcast Suppor...

Send us Fan Mail We chat with Kim from the Heat Academy. Kim was asked to help train the supervisors of a large plumbing and heating company who install the heating on large developments (New Builds). He was shocked that in this case it seemed the boiler manufacturer had designers specifying heating systems that will not work very well with modern boilers.  Heating system design is critical in thi...

Send us Fan Mail You just have Nathan on this episode who wanted to help explain further what is going on with heat in a home e.g. how does heat move, how is heat measured, what is the relationship between energy (joules) and power (Watts) Sit back and enjoy. Please, please share this episode with others as it will help.  If you are a heating engineer, PAS assessor or coordinator please sign up to...

Send us Fan Mail Big heat pumps powering district heat networks is the topic of conversation. Nathan chats with a well known figure from the vapour compression industry Dave Pearson, the Group Sustainable Development Director from Star Renewable Energy. Star Renewable Energy, based in Glasgow, Scotland is responsible for the world’s largest 90°C natural heat pump for district heating based in Dram...