Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Richard Briggs: Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority GM of Delivery and Partnerships on heat pumps saving gas, cutting bills

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Richard Briggs: Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority GM of Delivery and Partnerships on heat pumps saving gas, cutting bills · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Could we be better using our electricity? Well, how do
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: we get better use I should say out of electricity
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: in our homes? Heat pumps could ease some of our
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: energy woes. A report from the Green Building Council shows
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: KIWIS could save up to one and a half billion
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: bucks off our annual energy bills if we moved to
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: full heat pump adoption. It would also help out with
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: gas supplayers. As Richard Briggs is with EKE, the Energy
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: Efficiency Authority and joins me. Now, Richard, good morning.
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: Good morning, Ryan, you very good, thank you.
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: So what is how much would we save? You know,
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: give us a per household, your average household. What are
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: we saving.
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: On a heat pump? So you know, the way the
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: heat pump works is that it's basically moved ambient heat
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: and compresses it rather than using electrical resistance to generate it.
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: So typically they're about three and a half times more
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: efficient than a resistive heater. So when you look put
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: it on a national level, that's a significant amount of
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: energy efficiency. About sixty percent of homes use a heater today.
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: They cost around four thousand dollars to buy, so they're
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: not cheap. They're quite expensive. But very very cheap to run,
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: significantly cheaper than a resistance heater, So probably savings in
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: the order of about one hundred and eighty dollars a
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: year per household.
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: So it's it's significant. But the problem is the upfront cost, right,
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: That's why people that's why people haven't switched.
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: Yes, you know, what you've got to look at when
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: you look at these appliances is if you're in the
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: position to be able to do so, is to look
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: at the total life cost of those. You know, typically
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: appliances that are more energy efficient are higher upfront cost,
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: but the operating costs are so much lower that when
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: you look at it over a period of time that
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: significant savings can be made.
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: And in terms of the increased demand for electricity, I mean,
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: if everyone switched to a heat pump, would be using
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: more electricity, presumably would that push the price up?
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: Well, you've got to look at the If everyone uses
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: more electricity, of course the price goes up. But the
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: conversations we're seeing that the market at the moment is
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: all about more supply. We just need more supply, and
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: you know, by increasing supply does come at a cost,
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: and that cost ends up with the bill payer. But
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: our role is the government lead agency on energy use.
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: We're focusing on the demand side, and so we need
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: to ensure that the energy we do have available now
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: is used efficiently, and heat pumps is a good example
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: of that. But every killer what hour you don't use
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: is a killer what hour that doesn't need to be
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: generated and distributed. So there's the savings to be made.
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: And so you know, we've identified through modeling that right
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: now is up to twenty percent of what we consume
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: today across homes and businesses can be reduced. And that's
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: a combination of more efficient appliances. I mean, everyone eats
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: their home today and if they transferred to a heat
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  Speaker 2: fun there'd be that savings, yeah, which is a significant
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: amount of reduction. You know, when you look at new generation,
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: you're probably looking at a cost of around sixty to
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: seventy dollars a mega whateur, whereas energy efficiency measures would
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: cost New Zealand probably the magnitude of fifteen to fifty
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: dollars a mega what air. So it's actually better to
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: use energy more efficiently than just to seek to generate
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: more and use it inefficiently.
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: Richard, appreciate your time This morning interesting stuff Richard Briggs
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: with the Energy Efficiency and Conservational Authority ECAP.
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: For more familiar edition with Ryan Bridge. Listen live to
• 3:59
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• 4:02
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