Heat pumps are widely seen as being crucial to the fight against climate change but incentivising their use is proving difficult.
They have been described as the “central technology in the global transition to secure and sustainable heating” by the International Energy Agency, with a heat pump being able to cut carbon emissions by as much as four fifths when compared to a gas boiler and by one fifth when electricity is generated using fossil fuels, the agency's figures indicate.
Heating buildings is responsible for about four gigatonnes of CO2 emissions each year – about 10 per cent of all emissions – so heat pumps will, by 2030, have to account for about 20 per cent of indoor heating, often replacing gas boilers, if national governments want to hit their emission targets, the IEA states.
Policymakers need to make sure they have a level playing field where gas is not artificially low
Martin Lewerth,
CEO of Aira
Yet, heat pump sales are falling in Europe. Sales dropped by five per cent, from 2.77 million in 2022 to 2.64 million in 2023, across 14 European countries for which the European Heat Pump Association published data.
It was a similar story in the US, where 3.62 million heat pumps were sold last year, according to Air-Conditioning, Heating and Refrigeration Institute figures covering about 90 per cent of the market, about a 17 per cent decline on 2022's total of 4.33 million. The fall came after what MIT Technology Review described as “nearly a decade of constant growth”.
Work to do
In both Europe and the US, high-interest rates and inflation have been blamed for a slowdown in the installation of new heating systems. In the US, although heat pump sales fell, the devices secured a slightly higher market share, as gas boiler numbers declined at a quicker rate.
According to Martin Lewerth, chief executive of Aira, a Swedish company that supplies heat pumps in Germany, Italy and the UK and has plans to launch in other European countries, it is important that governments “bring clarity”.
“Policymakers need to make sure they have a level playing field where gas is not artificially low [in] price,” he said.
In the UK, gas costs around £0.075 (Dh0.35) per kilowatt-hour (kWh), whereas electricity averages about £0.28 (Dh1.32) per kWh, almost four times the price.
Nesta, a UK innovation agency formerly known as the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts, states that several factors account for the difference, including that carbon taxes are applied to electricity but not to gas. Also, Nesta states that it is typically electricity bills, but not gas bills, that have to cover the cost of programmes to promote renewable energy or tackle fuel poverty.
A significant block to the roll-out of heat pumps is that they are typically more expensive to buy and install than gas boilers, often requiring radiators to be replaced and other upgrades such as improved insulation.
“There’s always a gas boiler you can throw in and that will do the job,” Prof Bob Critoph, head of the sustainable thermal energy technologies group at the University of Warwick in the UK, said.
“You can’t just throw a [heat pump] machine in and turn it on. It needs a bit more thought. You’ve got to get things right when you install your heat pump.”
An air source heat pump installation may cost the equivalent of about $10,000 to $19,000 (Dh36,729 to Dh69,785) in the UK, for example, which could be several times as much as a gas boiler.
While government grants can help reduce the cost, the outlay is likely to be greater than that needed for a like-for-like gas boiler replacement.
Once installed, however, heat pumps have a big advantage over gas boilers: they are three to five times more efficient, which cuts energy bills.
“There’s a phenomenal opportunity for European households to save large amounts on their energy consumption,” Mr Lewerth said.
His company offers long-term financing so consumers are not faced with a big upfront bill for a new heat pump.
Heat pump use varies widely between European countries, with their usage as high as 60 per cent in Norway but just one per cent in the UK.
In the UK, heat pumps have often been subject to unflattering press coverage, with major newspapers having published articles with titles such as, “Why heat pumps will never work in Britain,” and, “Six reasons not to buy a heat pump”.
“There’s a lot of misconceptions spread around, a lot of myths,” Mr Lewerth said. “We have to educate the market.”
While last year saw a dip, heat pump sales in the US are expected to accelerate as government-funded incentives, worth up to $8,000 (Dh29,383) for many households, come on stream from late this year, while the EU's delayed Heat Pump Action Plan could ramp up sales in the 27-member bloc.
The technology
Although sometimes depicted as a solution for the future, heat pumps are not a new invention, with the first developed in the middle of the 19th century, when an Austrian minerals industry engineer, Peter von Rittinger, used the energy in water vapour to dry salty water.
Today, a domestic heat pump may be a ground-source device that uses a network of underground water pipes to absorb heat from the ground before transferring it, through a heat exchanger, to a heat pump.
The other main type, air-source heat pumps, extract heat from the outside air and (in the case of air-to-water heat pumps) transfer it to the central heating system.
Temperatures reached are typically lower than with a heating system powered by a gas boiler, so larger radiators are often needed.
Heat pumps can create cooling too, which could make them especially useful because, according to the energy agency, by 2050 there will be 2.6 billion people living in parts of the world that require heating in winter and cooling in summer.
In countries such as the UAE, where cooling is the primary need, air conditioners are likely to remain the preferred option.
However, companies such as Ariston have been promoting heat pumps in the UAE to heat water, saying that their energy consumption can be 70 or 80 per cent less than that of a boiler.
Industrial scale
Heat pumps also find application in industry, although here the temperatures required may be higher than with domestic uses.
“The paper, food and chemicals industries have the largest near‐term opportunities. About 30 per cent of their combined heating needs to be addressed by heat pumps,” the agency stated in The Future of Heat Pumps – a report published in 2022.
Food manufacturers may use heat pumps to generate hot water or to provide heating for highly energy-intensive spray dryers used to produce milk powder.
Nestle is one of the industrial companies to make significant use of heat pumps for these purposes. The company, which aims to reach net zero by 2050, has been pushing heat pump manufacturers to speed the development of devices able to produce hotter steam.
According to reports, the firm would like electricity-powered heat pumps for uses that require temperatures as high as 200°C. Many heat pumps currently used for very high-temperature applications run on oil and so generate carbon emissions.
“A lot of the power used industrially today could be replaced by heat pumps because they can deliver up to 150°C,” Prof Brian Elmegaard, who researches heat pumps at the Technical University of Denmark, said.
“The technology is being improved with respect to temperature.”
A Japanese manufacturer, Mayekawa, is reportedly developing a heat pump capable of producing temperatures as high as 200°C.
Those used in industry may extract heat from the air or the ground, although some make use of heat from rivers, the sea or even industrial compounds such as chemical plants or data centres, the engineering firm Siemens said.
As with domestic applications, the high cost of the initial investment may limit the roll-out of heat pumps, Prof Elmegaard indicated, with a 1-megawatt unit likely to cost up to €1m (Dh4m).
He predicted that heat pumps will be used ever more widely in industry in years to come.
“Governments worldwide have taken decisions about decarbonising and companies themselves have decarbonising strategies, so they will have to use something other than fossil fuels,” he said.
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'Tell the Machine Goodnight' by Katie Williams
Penguin Randomhouse
Company Profile
Company name: OneOrder
Started: October 2021
Founders: Tamer Amer and Karim Maurice
Based: Cairo, Egypt
Industry: technology, logistics
Investors: A15 and self-funded
Wicked: For Good
Director: Jon M Chu
Starring: Ariana Grande, Cynthia Erivo, Jonathan Bailey, Jeff Goldblum, Michelle Yeoh, Ethan Slater
Rating: 4/5
Tightening the screw on rogue recruiters
The UAE overhauled the procedure to recruit housemaids and domestic workers with a law in 2017 to protect low-income labour from being exploited.
Only recruitment companies authorised by the government are permitted as part of Tadbeer, a network of labour ministry-regulated centres.
A contract must be drawn up for domestic workers, the wages and job offer clearly stating the nature of work.
The contract stating the wages, work entailed and accommodation must be sent to the employee in their home country before they depart for the UAE.
The contract will be signed by the employer and employee when the domestic worker arrives in the UAE.
Only recruitment agencies registered with the ministry can undertake recruitment and employment applications for domestic workers.
Penalties for illegal recruitment in the UAE include fines of up to Dh100,000 and imprisonment
But agents not authorised by the government sidestep the law by illegally getting women into the country on visit visas.
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ICC Awards for 2021
MEN
Cricketer of the Year – Shaheen Afridi (Pakistan)
T20 Cricketer of the Year – Mohammad Rizwan (Pakistan)
ODI Cricketer of the Year – Babar Azam (Pakistan)
Test Cricketer of the Year – Joe Root (England)
WOMEN
Cricketer of the Year – Smriti Mandhana (India)
ODI Cricketer of the Year – Lizelle Lee (South Africa)
T20 Cricketer of the Year – Tammy Beaumont (England)
THE BIO
BIO:
Born in RAK on December 9, 1983
Lives in Abu Dhabi with her family
She graduated from Emirates University in 2007 with a BA in architectural engineering
Her motto in life is her grandmother’s saying “That who created you will not have you get lost”
Her ambition is to spread UAE’s culture of love and acceptance through serving coffee, the country’s traditional coffee in particular.
Genesis G80 2020 5.0-litre Royal Specs
Engine: 5-litre V8
Gearbox: eight-speed automatic
Power: 420hp
Torque: 505Nm
Fuel economy, combined: 12.4L/100km
Price: Dh260,500
The biog
Simon Nadim has completed 7,000 dives.
The hardest dive in the UAE is the German U-boat 110m down off the Fujairah coast.
As a child, he loved the documentaries of Jacques Cousteau
He also led a team that discovered the long-lost portion of the Ines oil tanker.
If you are interested in diving, he runs the XR Hub Dive Centre in Fujairah
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Famous left-handers
- Marie Curie
- Jimi Hendrix
- Leonardo Di Vinci
- David Bowie
- Paul McCartney
- Albert Einstein
- Jack the Ripper
- Barack Obama
- Helen Keller
- Joan of Arc
MORE ON TURKEY'S SYRIA OFFENCE
'My Son'
Director: Christian Carion
Starring: James McAvoy, Claire Foy, Tom Cullen, Gary Lewis
Rating: 2/5
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
More from Rashmee Roshan Lall
KILLING OF QASSEM SULEIMANI
Gulf rugby
Who’s won what so far in 2018/19
Western Clubs Champions League: Bahrain
Dubai Rugby Sevens: Dubai Hurricanes
West Asia Premiership: Bahrain
What’s left
UAE Conference
March 22, play-offs:
Dubai Hurricanes II v Al Ain Amblers, Jebel Ali Dragons II v Dubai Tigers
March 29, final
UAE Premiership
March 22, play-offs:
Dubai Exiles v Jebel Ali Dragons, Abu Dhabi Harlequins v Dubai Hurricanes
March 29, final
MOUNTAINHEAD REVIEW
Starring: Ramy Youssef, Steve Carell, Jason Schwartzman
Director: Jesse Armstrong
Rating: 3.5/5
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Brief scores:
Toss: India, opted to field
Australia 158-4 (17 ov)
Maxwell 46, Lynn 37; Kuldeep 2-24
India 169-7 (17 ov)
Dhawan 76, Karthik 30; Zampa 2-22
Result: Australia won by 4 runs by D/L method
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Other ways to buy used products in the UAE
UAE insurance firm Al Wathba National Insurance Company (AWNIC) last year launched an e-commerce website with a facility enabling users to buy car wrecks.
Bidders and potential buyers register on the online salvage car auction portal to view vehicles, review condition reports, or arrange physical surveys, and then start bidding for motors they plan to restore or harvest for parts.
Physical salvage car auctions are a common method for insurers around the world to move on heavily damaged vehicles, but AWNIC is one of the few UAE insurers to offer such services online.
For cars and less sizeable items such as bicycles and furniture, Dubizzle is arguably the best-known marketplace for pre-loved.
Founded in 2005, in recent years it has been joined by a plethora of Facebook community pages for shifting used goods, including Abu Dhabi Marketplace, Flea Market UAE and Arabian Ranches Souq Market while sites such as The Luxury Closet and Riot deal largely in second-hand fashion.
At the high-end of the pre-used spectrum, resellers such as Timepiece360.ae, WatchBox Middle East and Watches Market Dubai deal in authenticated second-hand luxury timepieces from brands such as Rolex, Hublot and Tag Heuer, with a warranty.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
FA Cup semi-finals
Saturday: Manchester United v Tottenham Hotspur, 8.15pm (UAE)
Sunday: Chelsea v Southampton, 6pm (UAE)
Matches on Bein Sports
Our family matters legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
Leap of Faith
Michael J Mazarr
Public Affairs
Dh67
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The specs
Engine: 4.0-litre V8 twin-turbocharged and three electric motors
Power: Combined output 920hp
Torque: 730Nm at 4,000-7,000rpm
Transmission: 8-speed dual-clutch automatic
Fuel consumption: 11.2L/100km
On sale: Now, deliveries expected later in 2025
Price: expected to start at Dh1,432,000
How to apply for a drone permit
- Individuals must register on UAE Drone app or website using their UAE Pass
- Add all their personal details, including name, nationality, passport number, Emiratis ID, email and phone number
- Upload the training certificate from a centre accredited by the GCAA
- Submit their request
What are the regulations?
- Fly it within visual line of sight
- Never over populated areas
- Ensure maximum flying height of 400 feet (122 metres) above ground level is not crossed
- Users must avoid flying over restricted areas listed on the UAE Drone app
- Only fly the drone during the day, and never at night
- Should have a live feed of the drone flight
- Drones must weigh 5 kg or less
Red flags
- Promises of high, fixed or 'guaranteed' returns.
- Unregulated structured products or complex investments often used to bypass traditional safeguards.
- Lack of clear information, vague language, no access to audited financials.
- Overseas companies targeting investors in other jurisdictions - this can make legal recovery difficult.
- Hard-selling tactics - creating urgency, offering 'exclusive' deals.
Courtesy: Carol Glynn, founder of Conscious Finance Coaching
Fixtures
Sunday, December 8, Sharjah Cricket Stadium – UAE v USA
Monday, December 9, Sharjah Cricket Stadium – USA v Scotland
Wednesday, December 11, Sharjah Cricket Stadium – UAE v Scotland
Thursday, December 12, ICC Academy, Dubai – UAE v USA
Saturday, December 14, ICC Academy, Dubai – USA v Scotland
Sunday, December 15, ICC Academy, Dubai – UAE v Scotland
Note: All matches start at 10am, admission is free
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Some of Darwish's last words
"They see their tomorrows slipping out of their reach. And though it seems to them that everything outside this reality is heaven, yet they do not want to go to that heaven. They stay, because they are afflicted with hope." - Mahmoud Darwish, to attendees of the Palestine Festival of Literature, 2008
His life in brief: Born in a village near Galilee, he lived in exile for most of his life and started writing poetry after high school. He was arrested several times by Israel for what were deemed to be inciteful poems. Most of his work focused on the love and yearning for his homeland, and he was regarded the Palestinian poet of resistance. Over the course of his life, he published more than 30 poetry collections and books of prose, with his work translated into more than 20 languages. Many of his poems were set to music by Arab composers, most significantly Marcel Khalife. Darwish died on August 9, 2008 after undergoing heart surgery in the United States. He was later buried in Ramallah where a shrine was erected in his honour.
Ms Yang's top tips for parents new to the UAE
- Join parent networks
- Look beyond school fees
- Keep an open mind
A Long Way Home by Peter Carey
Faber & Faber
What can victims do?
Always use only regulated platforms
Stop all transactions and communication on suspicion
Save all evidence (screenshots, chat logs, transaction IDs)
Report to local authorities
Warn others to prevent further harm
Courtesy: Crystal Intelligence
The specs
Engine: Direct injection 4-cylinder 1.4-litre
Power: 150hp
Torque: 250Nm
Price: From Dh139,000
On sale: Now
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Need to know
The flights: Flydubai flies from Dubai to Kilimanjaro airport via Dar es Salaam from Dh1,619 return including taxes. The trip takes 8 hours.
The trek: Make sure that whatever tour company you select to climb Kilimanjaro, that it is a reputable one. The way to climb successfully would be with experienced guides and porters, from a company committed to quality, safety and an ethical approach to the mountain and its staff. Sonia Nazareth booked a VIP package through Safari Africa. The tour works out to $4,775 (Dh17,538) per person, based on a 4-person booking scheme, for 9 nights on the mountain (including one night before and after the trek at Arusha). The price includes all meals, a head guide, an assistant guide for every 2 trekkers, porters to carry the luggage, a cook and kitchen staff, a dining and mess tent, a sleeping tent set up for 2 persons, a chemical toilet and park entrance fees. The tiny ration of heated water provided for our bath in our makeshift private bathroom stall was the greatest luxury. A standard package, also based on a 4-person booking, works out to $3,050 (Dh11,202) per person.
When to go: You can climb Kili at any time of year, but the best months to ascend are January-February and September-October. Also good are July and August, if you’re tolerant of the colder weather that winter brings.
Do not underestimate the importance of kit. Even if you’re travelling at a relatively pleasant time, be geared up for the cold and the rain.
Jetour T1 specs
Engine: 2-litre turbocharged
Power: 254hp
Torque: 390Nm
Price: From Dh126,000
Available: Now
