What is Harp and who participates?
HARP stands for Heating Appliances Retrofit Planning. It is a project financed by the European Union under the Horizon 2020 programme. Five member countries are involved: Italy, Portugal, Spain, France and Germany, and 18 participants. For Italy, Assotermica, a member of ANIMA Confindustria, is a member of the project. Together with Assotermica, Enea and Eurac Research participate in the project.
What is the aim of Harp?
Raising end-user awareness is the aim of the project. Making existing luminaires more efficient requires greater awareness on the part of everyone. A change in mentality could take place if different options were available and transparent: with Harp this will be possible. The project aims to make consumers aware of the benefits of replacing old appliances for space heating and hot water production and the potential savings that can be achieved with new high efficiency appliances. In three years it is estimated that 1.5 million consumers will be involved, and around 10,000 people may decide to make their heating system more efficient.
How will Harp's evaluation work?
Through the HARPa application, consumers and professionals will be able to obtain the energy label of existing heating appliances. The application will also provide an estimate of the costs associated with the installed heating system (energy consumption, maintenance, etc.), an overview of the most efficient alternatives available on the market, together with the related benefits, such as energy and money savings, reduction of CO2 emissions, improvement of indoor comfort. In order to motivate citizens to replace existing appliances with more efficient ones, incentives and financial mechanisms available at national level will also be indicated. HARPa will be available in two different versions: a basic version for consumers and an advanced version dedicated to professionals who will be able to provide their clients with more detailed indications about suitable replacement solutions.
Why replace the boiler?
Today, the appliance is replaced almost exclusively when it breaks down, so there is no time to reflect and make a more targeted investment. On the other hand, it is good to know that in buildings about 80% of consumption is associated with heating and the production of domestic hot water, so the incidence on the bill is very high.
It is clear, therefore, that replacing an old boiler with a modern one can bring great benefits both for the individual and for the community (in terms of reducing our country's energy needs and cutting emissions). Buildings themselves produce 36% of greenhouse gas emissions. About 126 million boilers are installed in the EU, about 60% of which are inefficient.
To take a practical case, we need only consider a class G flat of 100 square metres in Milan. If we wanted to retrofit the old system with a conventional boiler with a hybrid appliance, we would obtain a final energy saving of about 52% and a cut in bill costs of at least 37%; all this without considering the other great benefit which is the reduction of nitrogen oxide emissions by more than 80%.
