From the home energy transition to retirement
For this Life & Pension, we are talking to Bas Huijbrechts from Bavel. Bas works at TNO as a Business Developer. In his spare time, he enjoys working on making his home more sustainable. These days, that mainly involves programming his tiny computer for technical optimisation. And later when he retires? Then he will see what comes his way. That could very possibly be something involving quantum computers, if they are affordable at that time.
Bas loves technology, innovations and challenges, and it shows. His previous hobby, brewing beer, for which he became Dutch champion, involved a lot of cleaning up, and he felt it was time for something new. Which is why in recent years he has been hard at work making his home more sustainable. That actually came about a bit by chance, Bas says. "In 2007, I bought a newly built house in Bavel, near Breda. That turned out to be one of the first all-electric neighbourhoods in the Netherlands. That was quite unique at that time. The house even already had a heat pump, although I had no idea what that was. Like the other people in the neighbourhood, I was a bit sceptical at first, but then I started looking into it. I soon noticed how comfortable that was,” Bas continues enthusiastically. And then one thing led to another until he arrived at technical optimisation.
Surprised how little that cost
"The temperature in my house is around 21.5 degrees day and night. Including in summer. That is very comfortable and I was surprised at how little that cost. I then started making measurements and looking at how I could further optimise my energy consumption. After I finished fitting my entire house – right down to the refrigerator! – with LED lights and after I installed solar panels on the roof myself, I managed to get below zero in terms of energy consumption." But it didn't end there.
“Now the system is so intuitive that you don't even notice it.”
Most proud of the tiny computer
"I removed all the switches in the house and everything now turns on and off automatically. I optimised everything to what is most comfortable. We also have a delay start, for example, on the washing machine. The energy crisis at the time did help gain support at home for those adjustments." But what Bas is most proud of is the invisible piece: the tiny computer with a consumption of 0.7 watts with which he has smart control of everything in the house. "You start by focussing on the technology and program it as effectively as possible at first. Then you increasingly focus on the family’s preferences. Now the system is so intuitive that you don't even notice it. That actually made it very simple." Every now and then, Bas notices that the system could be just a little bit better or needs a tweak, and then he goes back to programming on weekends.
The challenge
The tricky thing, though, is that Bas is the only one who understands and can operate his system. "A new resident wouldn't be able to operate the system without familiarising themselves with it." Yet that is not the only problem. It is also the general installation of new equipment. "For example, I recently got a new heat pump after almost 20 years. The fitter was able to install everything perfectly, but found that configuring the heat pump involved too much customisation. But that is precisely what makes it possible to get even more value out of the heat pump. You want the whole house to be connected to that pump system, which is what is required, but that is complicated."
Insights from home
The themes from home also arise in his work, but that is a coincidence. Bas has been involved in the road map focused on the digitisation of energy systems for the past two years. "What I learnt at home, I’m now seeing at work. The energy transition is above all also a social transition in which you need to involve the entire chain. Improving sustainability is actually very easy, but people don't change. You can have wonderful technologies, but you need to educate the ecosystem around the technology. The industry and politicians do not know how much is to be gained by investing in this. Ingrained thinking patterns get in the way. Take electric car charging, for example. When you get home in the evening, energy is expensive, so it's better to charge your car later in the evening, but that often still happens too rarely. And when you get home, do you then immediately turn up the thermostat on your central heating or do you have a heat pump and adjust your behaviour accordingly and thus ensure a constant temperature?"
Retirement still feels far away
Thinking about his retirement is not really on his mind yet, Bas says, although it does come into play. "Once you get above the age of 50, you tend to start experiencing complaints and ailments. That makes you start to look more critically at how you spend your time and what opportunities there are to do more fun things. Retirement then begins to look tempting. Unfortunately, I found out that there were problems with my pension insurance with my previous employer. All kinds of nice promises were made, but now it turns out I did not accrue enough pension there. Retiring a little earlier or working a little less is not in the cards for me right now."
At any rate, something with new technologies
Finally, Bas is asked what he would like to do when he retires. "Perhaps something involving giving lectures at a university to pass on my knowledge to a younger generation," Bas says. At any rate, when the time comes, he will see what comes his way. "Every five to 10 years, I like to do something new. I have an engineering background, so at any rate it will be something with new technologies. For example, I would like to understand the limits of AI and quantum computing interests me. Or perhaps I will go abroad. My wife is Polish, so we go to Poland a lot. Poland has now also become quite modernised, so that is certainly an attractive option as well."