AIR SOURCE & GROUND SOURCE HEAT PUMPS
Is the government’s heat pump scheme being left out in the cold?
H
Lindsay Adams, principal building performance & sustainability engineer Harley Haddow, unpicks the challenges facing the government’s commitment to heat pumps
eat pumps were at one point fated to be the perfect solution to several crises facing the UK simultaneously. Thanks to their high-efficiency, low-
emission operational processes, heat pumps transfer up to three times more energy than they consume and over the course of their lifetimes should be economical to run, positioning them as an obvious resolution to the country’s overdependence on traditional boilers. The government presented its £450 billion Boiler Upgrade Scheme as a way of negating high installation costs, as the BUS offers subsidies to domestic and small non-domestic properties in England and Wales, while the Scottish equivalent gives householders access to the Home Energy Scheme, with a loan for heat pumps available to domestic properties. On the surface, a national push for heat pumps seems straightforward. The numbers, however, tell a different story.
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A recent report demonstrated that take-up for the government’s costly heat pump scheme has been disappointing so far. In 2021 only 55,000 heat pumps were installed across the UK, less than half of the £1.5 million new gas boilers that were also fitted that year, indicating that the government looks very unlikely to meet its target of installing 600,000 heat pumps by 2028. In February this year, the Lords’ Environment and Climate Change Committee found
that the scheme had failed to deliver on its objectives so far, partially blaming the continuing unaffordability of installing a heat pump. The BUS offers householders a grant of £5,000 to help with the cost of installing an air source heat pump, and £6,000 for a ground source heat pump.
While the grant will no doubt contribute towards shouldering the upfront costs associated with a heat pump, the former costs upwards of £8,000 to install, with the latter costing around £15,000, leaving householders to pay the balance. Unsurprisingly, this means that only wealthier people can bear the financial demands, while heat pumps remain out of reach for lower-income individuals and families. Furthermore, not all properties are equipped to fully reap the benefits after the pump itself is installed.
An additional challenge identified by the
Lords’ inquiry is the lack of availability of skilled professionals to install the devices. The government is already addressing this by rolling out subsidised courses across England to develop a skilled ‘green workforce’. These courses will provide training opportunities to those looking to move into the green energy sector and are intended to educate the heat pump and energy efficiency installers of the future. The Lords’ inquiry suggested that, to address these issues, the government must not only seek to facilitate the scheme in practical ways but also boost public awareness
around the potential benefits of installing a heat pump. The recent announcement that the government will extend the BUS initiative until 2028 is a welcome one, as, considering the slow take-up, three years was an unrealistically short period in which to execute the scheme. The publication of the ‘Power Up Britain’ energy security plan, which was written in response to a review of the government’s Net Zero policies, also includes a commitment to enhancing the public awareness campaign around the BUS. A change of attitudes of this magnitude will require time and persistence, and it’s gratifying to see that the government has acknowledged this in the latest heat pump installation update.
It is also crucial, however, that the government recognises that helping householders adapt to having a heat pump is an ongoing process that doesn’t end after the device is installed. Independent retrofit co-ordinators can play an important role in advising people about their new heat pump and helping recipients of the grant to navigate the future with their low-carbon heating installation. Shifting the national mindset from one which accepts gas boilers as the default to one that embraces the heat pump revolution will also take a significant effort on the government’s part. Raising awareness and increasing the accessibility of heat pumps would be an excellent place to start.
Read the latest at:
www.bsee.co.uk
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