Tuesday 21st September saw Optimised Retrofit hold another Decarb Army virtual event, the second in a series held in partnership with Sell2Wales and Business Wales.

These events provide an opportunity to update the Decarb Army – SMEs and tradespeople interested in all things retrofit – on the OR project’s progress. They are also a chance for a guest to provide an in-depth briefing on a particular sustainable innovation. This week it was smart hot water cylinders.

Firstly, Alun Watkins and Lee Fisher of Sero introduced the work we do at Optimised Retrofit, whilst providing an update on the Decarb Army itself, which continues to steadily grow as more and more tradespeople become aware of the opportunities retrofit and green solutions offers.

Our guest speaker was James Hoople, Head of Research and Operations at Mixergy Ltd, who delivered a fascinating presentation on their smart hot water cylinders, an innovative sustainable product designed to optimise energy consumption, improve utilisation of renewable energies and enable intelligent control over water usage.

James explained how Mixergy’s smart tanks differ from conventional tanks, which are slow to heat up, wasteful in the fact they heat all water regardless of need, and dumb, with limited and archaic control systems. In comparison, smart cylinders can heat up to 5 times faster whilst only heating water which will be used. Their ‘Internet of Tanks’ offer DSR support and provide data-driven insights into household requirements and usage – which is where the ‘smart’ comes in.

As well as being economical and enabling greater savings on gas bills, Smart Hot Water cylinders will enable households to reduce their impact on the environment. One cylinder can typically reduce the amount of gas used to provide hot water by 12%, and all cylinders are ‘heat pump ready’, meaning those who want to make the switch to the sustainable alternative to gas boilers can do so by simply adding a ‘Heat Pump Kit’.

Mixergy installed more than 1,000 tanks in UK homes over 2020 and expect to install over 3,500 more by the end of 2021. They are developing an ever-expanding digital network of hot water tanks which provide flexibility to the grid and supports the clean energy transition.

We would like to thank James for his excellent briefing and would advise any SMEs and tradespeople across Britain to sign up for updates from Optimised Retrofit’s Decarb Army.

Our next event with focus on our Intelligent Energy System (IES) and is not to be missed. It will be held on Tuesday 19th October, 09:00 – 09:45.

To sign up to the Decarb Army, please follow this link – www.optimised-retrofit.wales/partners-procurement-sme

For more information on the work Mixergy do, please follow this link – www.mixergy.co.uk