Innovate or die: energy and low carbon heating
January 2023
Innovation. The competitive landscape relies on it to continue moving forwards.
Defined as the introduction of new ideas, methods, or things, whether it be a product, service, business model, or strategy, innovation should be both novel and useful. It doesn’t have to be a major technological breakthrough; it can simply be a feature upgrade to an existing product or an enhancement to a service offering.
‘Innovate or Die’ is the title of our CEO, Jan Kriekels’, book. He believes that we must continuously innovate to survive. Innovation is how Jaga started back in 1962. Founded by central heating installers Jan Kriekels (late father of our current CEO of the same name), and his brother Gaston, the pair were dissatisfied with the existing radiators on the market, so they started developing their own. Jaga has since been focussed on breaking through traditional ways of thinking and coming up with new concepts, both technical and aesthetic.
With this in mind, at Jaga UK, we’ve introduced our internal Jan Kriekels Innovation Challenge event where our sales and marketing team present their own ideas for inventions – be it a new product, service, social movement or business model. Our kick off competition last month saw a host of creative and thought-provoking ideas, from solar powered iPhones, to scented radiator inserts, and even bee hives for local schools and communities. But our winning idea of the year was a simple radiator-related accessory that changes colour based on radiator temperature. A fun and useful widget that we hope to rollout in some form this year.
Innovation for the planet
As Jan writes in his book, life on our planet is changing dramatically, “Innovation today should serve just one goal: the quest for a universal survival model…. Innovation is no longer a choice but an absolute necessity”.
And this is being realised. Innovation is now in overdrive to reduce the impacts of climate change and maintain a healthy home for future generations.
Innovation in energy and HVAC
Heating is the largest form of energy utilisation globally, accounting for over 50% of global energy consumption [1]. And demand for space cooling is growing rapidly worldwide. Currently, much of the energy demand for heating and cooling is met by burning fossil fuels, making the sector a significant contributor to greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution.
But it can be and is being decarbonised, primarily through the rollout of renewable energy technologies and additional energy efficiency measures in buildings.
Governments are spending more and more on energy R&D and investment in clean energy start-ups reached an all-time high in 2021. However, according to the IEA, innovation in clean energy technologies needs to be further accelerated to get on track with the Net Zero Emissions by 2050 Scenario [2].
This is particularly crucial in home heating. With 78% of UK homes currently heated by gas boilers [3], decarbonising home heating is a huge challenge for accomplishing our net zero target. It’s not just a product innovation challenge as much of the technology, such as heat pumps, already exists. It’s a challenge that requires innovation in integration and rollout to improve the appeal for consumers and simplify their journey to decarbonisation.
Recent home heating innovations
As well as Jaga’s Dynamic Boost Hybrid technology, which boosts radiator output by up to 300% without increasing radiator size and turns static radiators into Hybrid heating and cooling units, there are a whole host of cool developments in the home heating world.
But the challenges of cost and disruption anticipated by consumers are major barriers to mass heat pump take up which require further rapid innovation to overcome. These challenges need innovation in the customer journey, not the technology.
This is already starting to happen. For example, one energy provider has been been trialling integrating heat pumps with innovative smart tariffs to get even cheaper running costs. But it needs to happen faster and at larger scale. Ancillary products like radiators, which often need updating when switching to a low temperature system, could be part of this mix too, combining all components of the upgrade into one bundle and simplifying the experience for the consumer.
Low cost renewables and energy storage
Despite the energy crisis we see today, there is evidence that the cost of renewable energy is falling significantly and forecasting shows that renewable energy in the future might be much, much cheaper, even in the face of growing demand, which is estimated to increase by nearly 90% by 2050.
A report from the International Renewable Energy Agency [4] showed that, between 2010 and 2021, the global average cost of new solar power had declined by 88% while onshore wind had gone down by 68%, concentrating solar power (CSP) by 67% and offshore wind by 60%.
These cost reductions are in part down to improvements in efficiency thanks to innovation, as we can now generate more energy with less hardware. However, the drawback is that renewable energy is intermittent as sun and wind are not constant so this is where energy storage solutions come in. Innovation in this area is rocketing as we look to harness renewable energy on our path to net zero.
Community energy and heating
Innovation is not just evident in product development, it’s in business models and the way we do things. It can be seen in the way we generate and use energy and heat. We’re moving away from a reliance on individual boilers and heating systems, towards communal solutions. These new community models could make a big impact on our efforts to decarbonise homes at scale and reduce energy bills.
As Nesta highlighted in a recent article [5], last year saw a 38% increase in the delivery of community-led energy efficiency and energy-saving services such as:
peer-to-peer trading models (where households with energy generation capabilities can club together and exchange local, clean energy for an agreed price)
group purchasing schemes (that reduce the cost of renewable energy to the individual through leveraging economies of scale)
community energy generation (where a community owns or controls the means to produce renewable energy locally)
Although there has been minimal government support in the UK for community and home energy generation, the government is investing in innovative heat networks through the Heat Network Transformation Programme (HNTP), with over half a billion pounds in funds and programmes to develop new heat networks and improve existing ones so this is an area that will see even more growth over the coming years.
Heat networks distribute heat or cooling from a central source or sources, and deliver it to a variety of different buildings, both residential and commercial. Uniquely, they can use local sources of low carbon heat, e.g. from factories, the ground or even from rivers, which would otherwise go to waste.
Summary
Our future on this planet is reliant on innovation in technology and business models. Our success in our decarbonisation journey to is requiring us to innovate not just across the energy, buildings and HVAC sectors we’ve talked about, but across transport and infrastructure, food and agriculture, forestry and land use, and waste.
As Jaga Climate Designers, our research and development is not just focussed on products. We’re continually looking for new ways of doing things, improving every aspect of the product life cycle to ensure we’re maintaining a healthy climate indoors and outdoors.
Get in touch
For more information about Jaga’s innovations over the last 60 years, check out our history timeline. Or if you have a heating/and or cooling project you need help with, please get in touch with our expert team.