BetaTalk - The Renewable Energy and Low Carbon Heating Podcast

Send us Fan Mail In this very honest episode Nathan chat's to Martyn Bridges from Worcester Bosch about 100% hydrogen boilers and hydrogen ready boilers, also known as H2 ready boilers.  Worcester Bosch are a very well known boiler brand here in the UK who are also involved with renewable technology such as solar thermal, air to air heat pumps, air to water heat pumps and ground source heat p...

Send us Fan Mail What is the best boiler features on some consumer sites. Unfortunately, these consumer sites have very little knowledge around boilers so it is best to take their advice with a pinch of salt . In this episode Nathan chats to Si Posket who is going to be doing a lot more heat pump work with his friend Craig from https://cbrookesheating.co.uk/ We also chat to Damon from https://blak...

Send us Fan Mail Zoning heat pumps and heating systems is the topic of this episode. We chat with Adam Chapman AKA Heat Geek who is one of the BetaTalk Heat Architects about a recent video he published on youtube https://youtu.be/zpTVIeUh04E Adam runs the Heat Geek Hydronics course and you can find a discount code at Nathan's website https://www.betateach.co.uk/ We also get to chat with Jez C...

Send us Fan Mail John Cantor has been working with heat pumps since the late 70s and with refrigeration much earlier. He wrote his book along with Gavin DJ Harper (one of the BetaTalk guest battery experts) back in 2010 just before the renewable heat incentive came into play. He is joined by regular guests Ken and Steve who are big fans of John's pioneering work. It's a longer than usual...

Send us Fan Mail Decarbonising heat is a world wide challenge and Nathan had a conversation with Nate in Virginia USA to see what is going on over there. Season 4 has a short bulletin at the end of each episode where Nathan and the Welsh Government Optimised Retrofit team listen to coal face engineers to learn about any issues and barriers they think they may face with a transition to renewables....

Send us Fan Mail In this episode Nathan chats to his friend Colin King from Sero group who manage the Welsh Governments Optimised Retrofit programme and are season 4 sponsor of BetaTalk. Colin spent time at the BRE and is highly regarded voice within retrofit. He helped develop the PAS 2035 standards which came about from the Each Home Counts review.  Nathan is also joined by Isaac Occhipinti from...

Send us Fan Mail We have a great chat with regular guest Steve about a solar thermal hybrid system he has recently commissioned for a customer. In the bulletin at the end we speak with Paul, a past president at the CIPHE about any barriers into renewables and retrofit. Sign up to the email at   http://www.betateach.co.uk/  to learn more about Steve and other engineers designs Support the show Lear...

Send us Fan Mail Join James P and James C from Elite, a renewable and gas installation company based in Hull. We hear about their experience with the green homes grant and the renewable heat incentive and the uptake of heat pumps. James P comes from the PV industry and we learn how he teamed up with partner James from the gas boiler industry. We also chat with Lee Fischer who now works at Sero. Su...

Send us Fan Mail In this last episode of season 3 Nathan speaks with Evergreen Energy about how they will train their installers and engineers for the uptake of heat pumps. Gas engineer Ben was also on the show to discuss his training journey. Support the show Learn more about heat pump heating by following Nathan on Linkedin , Twitter and BlueSky

Send us Fan Mail In part 1 we heard Steve's common heat pump mistakes now we get to hear from another #betatalk heat architect Si Poskett. It's worth remembering heat pumps are just the heat source on a system, rather like a boiler is the heat source on a system. It is understanding the system as a whole which is the important part.  If you wish to learn about hydronic system design you...

Send us Fan Mail Heat Pumps are fantastic technology. They first trialed in homes in 1948. But they do have to be installed and used correctly.   In the first episode we listen to Steve, one of the BetaTalk Heat Architects. In the second episode we listen to Si Poskett another BetaTalk Heat Architect  Want to learn all about hydronics to help you in your profession? Whether you are an engineer, su...

Send us Fan Mail Nathan talks to Victor Hyman who is the executive director of climate care, a cooperative of around 30 HVAC contractors in Ontario Canada, and Robin Curtis who has been involved with ground and water source heat pumps for many moons.  This episode covers some history of GSHP as well as discussing what open loop and closed loop systems are both in water sources and vertical bore ho...

Send us Fan Mail Nathan discusses how he thinks LA's will need to know who the good engineers are and how the self employed may not want to become MCS. He also introduces us to BetaTeach, the methodology needed for effective training and how LA's, Manufacturers and Associations can all pledge their support. Support the show Learn more about heat pump heating by following Nathan on Linked...

Send us Fan Mail Local Area Energy Plans are something this seasons sponsors Energy Systems Catapult are keen to promote. Different parts of the country will require different stratagies to decarbonise heat, distribute power and organise transport. In the episode Nathan talks to community hero John Talylor who is involved with Greater South East Energy Hub, one of the five energy hubs  across the...

Send us Fan Mail Agile tariffs, wholesale electricity price, peak and off peak electricity are some of the themes being discussed here with Nathan's guests Helen and Karalos from https://www.evergreenenergy.co.uk/ and Leah from https://www.yourenergyyourway.co.uk/ Nathan is talking to Evergreen Energy about the Homely device, a thermostat which monitors electricity pricing and can switch your...

Send us Fan Mail In the first episode after betatalk won the British Renewable Energy Awards communication category Nathan is joined by two of his favourite engineers Steve and Steve. Along for the ride is Dominic representing the consumer perspective but who ls has vast experience regarding heat loss measurement and building fabric. Topics and themes discussed are do radiators need to bigger for...

Send us Fan Mail This episode was recorded mid 2020 Nathan discusses heat as a service  with Matthew Lipson, Dave Smith and Jayesh Kanbi. Matthew works at https://es.catapult.org.uk/ (energy systems catapult) and has experience working at the Dept of Energy & Climate Change (now the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy ) and the Climate Change Committee. He regularly engag...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode Nathan speaks with Adam Chapman from https://heatgeek.com/ about his experience with becoming MCS accredited. It's often heard how MCS is very complex for a heating engineer to undertake so Adam tries to help alleviate any of the mystery. Adam is finding the process enjoyable and hopefully we will see many more smaller companies and sole traders obtain MCS. Ho...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode Nathan speaks with Adam Chapman from Vito Energy and heat geek which is an excellent resource for consumers and engineers. This episode centres around what we can do right now to our heating systems to reduce carbon emissions.  Fabric First is inculcated and for obvious reasons. However, there is often something which can be done to the heating system at no cost (o...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode Nathan's guests myth bust heat pumps. He is joined by Bean from the Ground Source Heat Pump Association and Heat Pump Federation; Robin who is also from the GSHPA and Bill, a heat pump specialist. All 3 guests are engineers with a vast amount of knowledge with heat pump technology.  Heat pumps are a recognised technology for helping the UK decarbonise heat and...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode Nathan discusses with Evergreen Energy how consumers are able to get help with the upfront cost of renewable heating technology. Evergreen Energy are an OFGEM approved investor who are able to offer consumers the chance to assign the RHI (renewable heat incentive) payments over to them in order to have a heat pump system installed at a much cheaper rate than is oft...

Send us Fan Mail The first episode of season 3 discusses the green home energy grant with renewable heating engineers Leah and  Steve and also Kathryn from the University of Lancaster For more information around this grant from the government visit the SimpleEnergy Advice website. This episode highlights how hard it can be for consumers and find out why Steve and other engineers have opted not to...

Send us Fan Mail Graeme Fox Head of REFCOM - provider of F-Gas Schemes, James Baker, Renewable Heat Engineer (both land and sea) and Lisa-Jayne Cook  a refrigeration engineer and along with Graham a board member of IOR Institute of Refrigeration 01:00 Graham describes how REFCOM was set up to provide quality environmental standards. Very interesting how the recovery of refrigerant used to be volun...

Send us Fan Mail 00.40 Paul Hull's experience in Denmark where there are lots of heat networks. He was out there. to look at heat recovery systems. He talks about how heat is captured from FaceBook's servers  01.35 Flue recovery for capturing heat 02.40 Energy wastage in the UK and energy efficiency  03.30 Building Management Systems 04.40 District Heating systems being decommissioned, a...

Send us Fan Mail Guests: Ingo Leusbrock Head of department "Cities and Networks" at AEE Institute For Sustainable Technologie a Non-profit research institute in Gleisdorf, Austria https://www.aee-intec.at/index.php?lang=en Research and demonstration on renewable energy and energy and resource efficiency with strong focus on the thermal. This includes district heating and cooling, but als...