28 Heating, Ventilation & Air Conditioning
Heating, Ventilation & Air Conditioning Feature Harness the power of water
Chris Stammers from BEAMA’s Underfl oor Heating (UFH) Group explains how hydronic (water-based) underfl oor heating, paired with air-source heat pumps, delivers reliable energy effi ciency – and why social landlords are ideally placed to make the most of it.
T
he regulatory landscape for social housing has shiſt ed dramatically in a short space of time, bringing some of the biggest changes the industry has ever experienced. T e Government’s £15bn Warm Homes Plan aims
to upgrade up to fi ve million homes and liſt up to one million families out of fuel poverty by 2030. For social landlords, this isn’t a distant ambition – it comes with clear, time-bound obligations. £1.29bn has been allocated through the Warm Homes: Social Housing Fund Wave 3, to be delivered between 2025 and 2028 by eligible social housing landlords. Alongside this, the Government has confi rmed that every social home must
meet the current EPC C standard by 2030, with phased compliance extending to 2039 under the new system. From 2030, social landlords will also be required to upgrade homes to meet new energy effi ciency standards, which could include improving insulation, installing solar panels or fi tting modern heating systems such as heat pumps. For organisations planning new-build programmes or upgrading existing
stock, the heating specifi cation is no longer a secondary concern – it now sits at the centre of compliance, tenant wellbeing and long-term asset value.
HYDRONIC UNDERFLOOR HEATING AND HEAT PUMPS Air source heat pumps are widely expected to become the primary heating technology for new homes, but maximising effi ciency of these renewable heat
sources depends heavily on the heat emitter it’s paired with. As heat pumps perform best at low fl ow temperatures, typically between 35 and 45°C, hydronic underfl oor heating is the ideal partner, as it’s designed precisely for this range and creates a highly effi cient combination. An accurately designed and professionally installed system can be up to
40% more effi cient than a conventional radiator based heating system. T at improvement comes from the way underfl oor heating works. Pipe loops embedded in the fl oor create a large, low-temperature radiant surface which heats a space evenly and consistently, rather than generating high-intensity heat from a single point. T e heat pump doesn’t need to work as hard, which improves its Coeffi cient of Performance and directly reduces running costs for tenants and evidence from Salford University’s Energy House 2.0 backs this up. Testing a property built to the proposed Future Homes Standard, the study
found that a hydronic underfl oor heating system paired with an air-to-water heat pump recorded a temperature variation of just 0.8°C at -5°C – compared to a minimum variation of 2.2°C from traditional radiators, with some systems showing diff erences of up to 4°C. For tenants on tight budgets, that consistency isn’t just about comfort, it’s about predictable, manageable warmth.
A DIRECT RESPONSE TO FUEL POVERTY With National Energy Action predicting that 6.7 million UK households could
Housing Management & Maintenance Summer 2026
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