Dear all,
for our projects in germany its quite controvers to communicate towards the project teams, why electric heat pumps cannot contribute to the credit renwable energy.
According to DIN V 4701-10 the share of EE of a electric heat pump is roughly the provided heating/cooling energy minus the used electric power. The justification for this is that this energy difference is environmental energy and thus renewable energy.
This approach is used for the official energy consumption calculations according to the federal Building Energy Act (BEG).
What do you think about this approach, why is it not appropiate for LEED and do you see a way for the USGBC to accept it?
I am looking forward to your opinion!
Marcus Sheffer
LEED Fellow7group / Energy Opportunities
LEEDuser Expert
5907 thumbs up
August 17, 2022 - 10:00 am
I have never heard of a regular heat pump being considered renewable. For LEED groundsource heat pumps are not considered renewable for the simple reason that they are not an energy source, they are energy using equipment, very efficient energy using equipment but energy using equipment nonetheless. The USGBC EA TAG would have to change the definition of what qualifies as renewable energy in order for the reviewers to accept it as renewable.