SEBE BENV0141 ‘Energy Systems in Society’ Assignment

Deadline: 6th January 2026 at 11:00

The assignment addresses a contentious and contextual issue in decarbonisation of homes for which there is no clear answer, namely ‘Should we use hybrid heat pumps to heat homes, and if so in what contexts? , Firstly, some definitions. A hybrid heat pump (hHP) is a heating system that combines a heat pump and a regular gas boiler. A monovalent heat pump (mHP) is a heating system that only uses a heat pump (i.e. a ‘normal’ heat pump system). As a rule of thumb, a hHP system will have a normal sized gas boiler and a half-size HP. Ifa home would need an 8kW mHP to provide all its heating, then that same home would have a 4kW HP + boiler hybrid system. The boiler is usually sized to supply hot water needs, which typically require higher power than heating needs. In a hHP system, the HP and the boiler are linked by a controller which decides which provides heating energy. This can be based on any control logic but is frequently based on the cost of delivered heat. Thus, if the price of electricity divided by the HP’s Coefficient of Performance (CoP) is lower than the price of gas, then the HP will provide heat – if not then the boiler will.

There is no clear ‘right’ answer as to which to use in all contexts, it depends on what assumptions you make about how quickly you want to decarbonise, how far you want to decarbonise, and how rapidly you think the rest ofthe system can adapt. The topic is left deliberately broad, and you are required to carefully define the preconditions, contexts, and cases where you think heating homes with hHPs is appropriate. You can argue that they should be widely used, used only in very specific cases, or not used at all. The setting is Great Britain, but you will need to be clear with the assumptions you make about the timeframes you are considering and how the British energy system will evolve over those timeframes. You will also need to specify the regions within Britain, housing types, occupancy types, skills bases, etc needed to make heating homes with hHPs appropriate. All such assumptions need to be realistic and justified. You must also consider the wider social issues around energy equity and infrastructures that would arise from deploying hHPs in the areas you recommend. While installing hHPs in one location may not cause social inequities, doing so in all qualifying locations might.

The assignment is intended to introduce you to the process of academic writing and its structure should be based on that found in academic journals relevant to this field. You can assume your audience is made up of applied energy researchers, policy makers, energy media and industry representatives. Academic writing should provide a balanced and unbiased assessment of the literature and be based on logical and reasoned argument. It is important to stress that there is no right answer to this question, and that your mark will be based on your knowledge and analysis of the literature, the strength of your argument, and your coverage of the relevant sociotechnical issues discussed in this Module and in the SEBE course more widely. You should assume that what you learn in other modules is also relevant to doing this assignment, understanding the physics of buildings and the structure of the energy system is important here.

The assignment is designed to allow you to draw on the discussion of the issues highlighted in the cases during the course including: energy services; energy equity; energy value; energy practices; and energy infrastructures. Your assignment should address each of these in the context of where you think we should consider heating homes with hybrid heat pumps.

A suggested structure of the assignment is provided below. You should use the marks allocated in each section of the Assignment Marking Scheme below as a guide to where most emphasis  should be placed in the assignment. The total word count is 3000 and the elements included in the word-count are as defined in the course handbook.

Title: Should we use hybrid heat pumps to heat homes, and if so in what contexts?

Summary

•   Provide an abstract summarising the case you considered, the key arguments for and

against, and where you think heating homes with hHPs may be appropriate.

Background

•   Outline the energy systems solutions for use of hHPs to heat homes and critically analyse and summarise the main arguments in the literature for and against doing so.

Baseline

•   You are to compare heating homes with hHPs to heating homes with mHPs. In both cases you must be detailed and specific about the precise hHP configuration proposed, and the comparator mHP configuration proposed. The mHP described in this section will be the ‘baseline’ for comparison in each of the sections below.

Sociotechnical analysis

This section should address each of the five key social issues addressed in the course, namely energy services, energy equity, energy value, energy practices and energy infrastructures, and say how they apply to your case. For each, they should be compared to your baseline mHP technology described above. This section should also include references to the literature on these social issues.

•   What service(s) does, or could, heating homes with hHPs provide? Are these services better or worse than the base case? (Refer to the Case 1 literature.)

•   Who benefits and who loses from the hHP system compared to the mHP baseline (in both absolute and relative terms)? Consider the end users and wider supply chain of the new system, as well as any other important stakeholder groups you think might be affected. (Refer to the Case 2 literature.)

•   What are the direct and indirect financial and non-financial costs and benefits ofthe hHP system compared to the mHP system and to whom do they accrue? What is, or could be,  the ‘social value stack’ of this solution? Which elements of this value stack can be used to improve uptake and how? (Refer to the Case 3 literature.)

•   How does the hHP system interact with users ’routines and practices compared to the mHP system? Which does it harmonise with, and which does it disrupt? How widely are these practices spread in the population and how may this impact on uptake? (Refer to the Case 4 literature.)

•   What social-structural and energy infrastructural issues are associated with wider deployment ofthe hHP system compared to the mHP system? (Refer to the Case 5 literature.)

Findings

•   Based on the above analysis, define the contexts in which you consider it appropriate to use hHPs to heat homes. Specify this in terms of particular British regions, particular types of home with specific physical characteristics, particular classes of ownership or types of household, particular configurations of energy systems, specific energy technologies, etc.

Discussion

•   Say why you think the use of hHPs for home heating is appropriate in these contexts.

•   Compare and contrast your conclusions with those of the literature.

•    Say what you didn’t consider in your analysis and how this may affect your conclusions.

•   Address limitations arising from the assumptions you made about the socio-technical British energy system and how it will evolve over the timeframes of your analysis.

•   Say what you think the key remaining uncertainties are about where and when to use hHPs for heating homes that we need to reduce before making a policy decision.

Implications for research, practice, and policy

•   State what further research is needed to reduce the uncertainties you identify above.

•    State whether, and if so how, the way we supply and install such hHP heating systems needs to change.

•   State what if any policies you feel are needed to support hHP heating in homes.

References

•   Provide your list of references correctly formatted in Harvard (Author, Date) style.

Assignment mark scheme

The guideline mark scheme for this coursework is outlined below. The assessors will ask each of these questions of your assignment and award marks accordingly.