BESA’s UK HIU Test Regime has been considerably expanded and enhanced to improve the information available to specifiers and to ensure a better experience for end users.

It was designed with consumer protection in mind and to ensure the market meets the needs of those developing and designing heat networks. 

The test regime is a voluntary process that provides manufacturers with an independent method for testing, assessing, and comparing the performance of products. 

It has already been successful in improving HIU performance across the sector by providing specifiers with the necessary information to make informed decisions about which HIUs to select for their projects.

HIs extract heat from district heating networks to feed individual buildings and dwellings and the way they perform is central to the overall efficiency of the system.

The BESA Standard originally emerged from an efficiency research project supported by the UK government to try and improve the performance of a technology seen as central to the decarbonisation of the country’s heating. 

It has subsequently been developed and updated by the BESA HIU Steering Group, which is made up of representatives from all sides of the testing process.

This third edition of the HIU standard includes some significant improvements and has been expanded and restructured into a modular approach that allows for the testing of additional types of HIU including space heating-only models.

It also introduces a DHW load test and changes to the way the annual volume weighted return temperature (VWART) is calculated.

It now covers seven different types of HIU and has pass/fail thresholds leading to registration of a successful test.

The new modular nature of the tests is designed to minimise the amount of re-testing but maximises the information provided to specifiers.