Blue Mountains News

Blaxland Community Centre, Mid-Mountains Community Centre at Lawson, Leura Oval and Dog park amenities building, and the newly renovated Katoomba Town Centre Arcade all received new systems in July.

This follows the successful installation of heat pump hot water systems at Lawson and Glenbrook Swim Centres, Mt Riverview RFS and Pitt Park earlier this year.

Blue Mountains Mayor, Cr Mark Greenhill said: “These are the first installations of what we hope will be many in the future.

“Achieving net zero emissions is all about reducing the amount of harmful greenhouse gases released as much as we can, and then offsetting those that we can’t by implementing new carbon removal projects.

“These new hot water systems absolutely fit the bill being both energy efficient and using a refrigerant gas with one of the lowest possible global warming potential,” Cr Greenhill said.

Heating water is the second largest energy use in households, accounting for more than a quarter of the average household’s energy use. In some homes it may be much more^[1].

Heat pump technology in hot water systems is quite new and extremely efficient as they use a refrigeration cycle to extract heat from the surrounding air. A heat exchanger then heats water in an insulated storage cylinder, rather than using electricity to heat the water directly with an element.

“These heat pump systems use 70 per cent less energy compared to a conventional hot water system, so these will have an enormous impact for Council facilities,” Mayor Greenhill said.

“We hope that by leading the way, we can give homeowners the confidence to consider if these incredible new technologies are right for their homes, so they can also reap the benefits for their own budget and carbon footprint.”

Council accessed a NSW Government subsidy, which significantly reduced the cost of the installation, saving Council more than $70,000 in upfront costs, as well as the projected savings off energy bills in future. Similar subsidies are also available to households via the NSW Government’s Energy Security Safeguards.

The roll out of heat pumps in July builds on the recent successful replacement of a large gas boiler at Lawson Swim Centre, with a commercial heat pump for heating the pool water.

The new heat pump at Lawson Swim Centre is a win-win for Council because it will reduce our consumption of gas, a fossil fuel, and move the energy source to 100 per cent renewable power, reducing emissions and costs. The commercial heat pump is expected to deliver emissions reductions of over 825 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (825tCO2e) over the next 15 years.

All these new systems use refrigerants with a Global Warming Potential of one, which is well below Council’s commitment to use refrigerant gases with a Global Warming Potential of less than 10 for air-conditioning, refrigeration and heat pump systems.

Read more about Council’s action on climate change and the recently adopted Community Towards Net Zero Plan 2024-2033: here