Heat-pumps are a key component of zero carbon energy systems making it possible to provide heating efficiently from renewable energy, they are featured in many zero carbon energy scenarios such as ZeroCarbonBritain developed by the Centre for Alternative Technology and are also highlighted in David MacKay's book Sustainable Energy without the hot air.
By monitoring a heat-pump its possible to see how well it is working, diagnose problems and get a better understanding of how a key potentially zero carbon heating solution works, data gathered and shared from well performing systems could help de-mystify heat-pump operation and help improve performance by diagnosing any problems early.
This is an initiative to develop a web-connected open source hardware heat-pump monitor that can measure heat-pump electrical input, heat output and system temperatures. Alongside web software for heat-pump data visualisation, analysis and sharing of open heat-pump data.
This initiative is collaboration between OpenEnergyMonitor.org and John Cantor of heatpumps.co.uk.