Europe is in a severe crisis with the shutdown of Russia’s Nord Stream1 pipeline intensifying the energy squeeze on European economies ahead of winter, and yet there are 500 million radiators wasting energy all over Europe.
The Regional President of North Europe at Danfoss is calling on Europe to utilize one of the lowest-cost solutions to stop wasting energy, which is to replace outdated and inefficient thermostats, a proven solution that has been widely used and effective in the Nordic countries for many years.
low-cost solutions
Kjell Stroem, Regional President, North Europe Region, Danfoss says, “Energy prices are exploding, and energy is scarce. Even the simplest solutions can have a massive impact."
"The radiator thermostat was invented more than 80 years ago and yet more than 500 million radiators in the EU need to be updated. If we replaced all of them, Europeans could save 12 billion euros and 130 TWh of energy per year."
Cost and energy savings
The return on investment is typically very short and the payback time can be as little as months"
"The return on investment is typically very short and, with the current energy prices, the payback time can be as little as months. This relatively simple change would save billions in energy bills for European citizens. It would make our economies more resilient.”
“And that’s just one of many examples of simple ways we can save energy quickly. We don’t need to await new technology or hope for miracles. We just need to start implementing the existing technology that we already know works,” adds Stroem.
model-predictive control systems
“In Europe, buildings are responsible for 40% of the EU’s energy consumption,” says Stroem. “And yet if we use our energy smarter, we can break the curve on energy demand,” he says.
Beyond the thermostat, Stroem explains that by using model-predictive control systems that combine artificial intelligence and building, weather, and user data to adjust temperatures, it’s also possible to reduce heating consumption in an apartment building, by an additional 11%.
Excess heat
In the US, 65% of all the energy produced is squandered in the form of waste heat"
Furthermore, he reveals the tremendous potential in reusing heat that would otherwise be wasted, also known as “excess heat”.
He says, “Energy is being wasted everywhere. In the US, 65% of all the energy produced is squandered in the form of waste heat. That is an enormous waste of energy that could be harnessed if it was mandatory to reuse excess heat.”
Utilizing the excess heat
The list of low-hanging fruits for saving energy and heat reuse is endless. Data centers, supermarkets, industries, and wastewater facilities are all producers of vast amounts of energy currently wasted on a massive scale.
But solutions exist already, they can be implemented right away, and they have short payback times.
Simple and smart technologies
Since using CO2 as a refrigerant, and installing energy efficiency and heat reuse solutions in 2019, one supermarket in Denmark covers 78% of their heat demand from reused energy.
Stroem says, “All of these examples demonstrate that we can and should use both simple and smart technologies to break the curve on energy demand. This is not the future. This is now. The solutions are here. The greenest energy is the energy we don’t use. It is also the cheapest.”
