Abstract
Buildings are great contributors to global GHG emissions, because they are responsible for direct and indirect emissions. In light of increased renewable energy share in the electricity mix, it is crucial to boost residential electrification for building decarbonization. Consequently, building regulation ought to send the proper signals to the market to encourage electrification and avoid establishing new fossil fuel-based infrastructure, which may lock in future interventions and seriously compromise climate change mitigation. This paper studies short-term residential electrification with electric water tanks in Spain using a parametric analysis considering several water heater configurations with various sizes and management strategies, using different draw-off profiles, actual time-dependent electricity prices, and CO2 factors. The results demonstrate significant GHG savings when substituting fossil fuel boilers for any water heater configuration. However, current electricity prices are such that technology change is only cost effective for low hot water demands (1–2 people) and the provided fossil fuel supply is completely removed from dwellings. The exploitation of implicit demand response increases cost-effectiveness. The analysis of Spanish regulation shows that some elements of current policies on energy efficiency in buildings hamper residential electrification, consequently policy changes are proposed.
Highlights
Anthropogenic climate change has been knocking at our door for a long time, and it stands as the greatest menace humanity must face in the XXI century, even above the COVID-19 pandemic
The purpose was to study whether electric heaters can substitute natural gas boilers for domestic hot water (DHW) production, and if so which configuration of water heater provided the greatest economic profit benefiting from implicit demand response
Each output parameter is presented in a heat map with the X-axis representing the different water heater configurations, and on the Y-axis the management strategies depending on the demand response used and the DHW profile
Summary
Anthropogenic climate change has been knocking at our door for a long time, and it stands as the greatest menace humanity must face in the XXI century, even above the COVID-19 pandemic. The Clean Energy for all Europeans Package [7] previewed the revisions of key legislative instruments affecting all sectors of the economy and mandated through a governance regulation [8] for each member state (MS) to develop a National Energy and Climate Plan 2021. Such a plan constitutes the strategic roadmap towards meeting the national decarbonization targets, adapted to each regional context and they must be updated each five years and are subject to biannual progress reports
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
