Richard Briggs: Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority GM of Delivery and Partnerships on heat pumps saving gas, cutting bills

More heat pumps in households could cut energy bills by a total of $1.5 billion a year. 

A report by the New Zealand Green Building Council has found replacing gas and electric heaters with heat pumps could save 40% of gas produced, each year. 

It's also revealed this could protect thousands of  jobs, with three mills closing in the last year due to soaring energy prices. 

Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority’s Richard Briggs told Ryan Bridge heat pumps are about 3.5 times more efficient than a resistive heater. 

He says the upfront cost is quite expensive, but they are significantly cheaper to run. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Could we be better using our electricity? Well, how do
we get better use I should say out of electricity
in our homes? Heat pumps could ease some of our
energy woes. A report from the Green Building Council shows
KIWIS could save up to one and a half billion
bucks off our annual energy bills if we moved to
full heat pump adoption. It would also help out with
gas supplayers. As Richard Briggs is with EKE, the Energy

(00:22):
Efficiency Authority and joins me. Now, Richard, good morning.

Speaker 2 (00:26):
Good morning, Ryan, you very good, thank you.

Speaker 1 (00:28):
So what is how much would we save? You know,
give us a per household, your average household. What are
we saving.

Speaker 2 (00:37):
On a heat pump? So you know, the way the
heat pump works is that it's basically moved ambient heat
and compresses it rather than using electrical resistance to generate it.
So typically they're about three and a half times more
efficient than a resistive heater. So when you look put

(01:00):
it on a national level, that's a significant amount of
energy efficiency. About sixty percent of homes use a heater today.
They cost around four thousand dollars to buy, so they're
not cheap. They're quite expensive. But very very cheap to run,
significantly cheaper than a resistance heater, So probably savings in

(01:24):
the order of about one hundred and eighty dollars a
year per household.

Speaker 1 (01:29):
So it's it's significant. But the problem is the upfront cost, right,
That's why people that's why people haven't switched.

Speaker 2 (01:36):
Yes, you know, what you've got to look at when
you look at these appliances is if you're in the
position to be able to do so, is to look
at the total life cost of those. You know, typically
appliances that are more energy efficient are higher upfront cost,
but the operating costs are so much lower that when
you look at it over a period of time that

(01:58):
significant savings can be made.

Speaker 1 (02:02):
And in terms of the increased demand for electricity, I mean,
if everyone switched to a heat pump, would be using
more electricity, presumably would that push the price up?

Speaker 2 (02:14):
Well, you've got to look at the If everyone uses
more electricity, of course the price goes up. But the
conversations we're seeing that the market at the moment is
all about more supply. We just need more supply, and
you know, by increasing supply does come at a cost,
and that cost ends up with the bill payer. But
our role is the government lead agency on energy use.

(02:37):
We're focusing on the demand side, and so we need
to ensure that the energy we do have available now
is used efficiently, and heat pumps is a good example
of that. But every killer what hour you don't use
is a killer what hour that doesn't need to be
generated and distributed. So there's the savings to be made.

(03:00):
And so you know, we've identified through modeling that right
now is up to twenty percent of what we consume
today across homes and businesses can be reduced. And that's
a combination of more efficient appliances. I mean, everyone eats
their home today and if they transferred to a heat
fun there'd be that savings, yeah, which is a significant

(03:25):
amount of reduction. You know, when you look at new generation,
you're probably looking at a cost of around sixty to
seventy dollars a mega whateur, whereas energy efficiency measures would
cost New Zealand probably the magnitude of fifteen to fifty
dollars a mega what air. So it's actually better to
use energy more efficiently than just to seek to generate

(03:46):
more and use it inefficiently.

Speaker 1 (03:49):
Richard, appreciate your time This morning interesting stuff Richard Briggs
with the Energy Efficiency and Conservational Authority ECAP.

Speaker 2 (03:56):
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