www.heatingandventilating.net
INDUSTRY INSIGHT boilingpoint
What to expect from 2024 I
Chief executive of the Association of Plumbing and Heating Contractors (APHC) John Thompson looks at what 2024 will bring for the industry
t’s fair to say that Net Zero has dominated the plumbing & heating landscape yet again during 2023. Reflecting back on 2023, I think many of us were looking for a clear policy
steer and greater clarity from Government on the road ahead. Part of that the expectation was that we’d have clear signals on the end date for gas boiler installs in both new and existing properties as well as confirmation of the cut- off date for fossil fuel appliance installs in off the gas grid properties. The PM’s announcement in September based around a more pragmatic
approach to Net Zero cut right across what was anticipated at the start of 2023. It did come like a ‘bolt out of the blue’ at the time as only a few days before civil servants were still very publicly promoting the much earlier dates that we were originally provided with as key target dates. Nevertheless, and reflecting back on it with hindsight it wasn’t that surprising really – there does need to be greater planning and time to facilitate the considerable change process. What the PM’s intervention signalled for me was a recognition that substantive public financial support for the transition in housing on a medium to long term basis is not going to be there. It’s clear that the Government coffers are pretty much bare as a result of both the pandemic and the need to support the energy/cost of living crisis. As we look forward to a general election in 2024 and should the political landscape change, it will be interesting to see whether more public funding could be available to support the housing transition – personally I’m pretty sceptical about this. Overall, I think it’s fair to say that the transition process in much of owner occupied housing will have to be funded by property owners themselves in the medium to long term. As a result, I think we’re probably losing sight of some of the earlier net zero in housing aims which were to look at a ‘fabric first approach’ to energy in housing and in progressing this we’d improve on our reputation of having the least energy efficient homes from a fabric perspective. Tackling this on a wholesale basis in private housing really does need some element of public funding.
Going into 2024, I think there’s greater clarity now around heat pumps being the future with much of the discussion in previous years surrounding hydrogen being largely ‘put to bed’. As such we’re seeing an ever growing number of installers equipping their businesses to install them. The current market is being assisted in its development by the significant financial uplift that was made to the Boiler Upgrade Scheme and also from an installers perspective the financial assistance to support installer renewable installer training. 2024, will see the introduction of the Clean Heat Market Mechanism which will seek to influence the uptake of heat pumps by imposing what could be described as a possible indirect tax on fossil fuel appliance sales. The aim being to accelerate the speed of transition – via a ‘stealth tax’.
So, despite a few wobbles here and there the move towards heat pumps is
around us and happening. As an industry we need to do some work around the some of the negative press that has been associated with heat pump installs to date. Some of that negative press is coming from the industry in terms of making comparison to installing a replacement fossil fuel boiler in an existing heating system. I think it’s fair to say that we have much work to do in emphasising that a heat pump install needs to be looked at entirely differently to a gas or oil boiler install in an existing system. Heat pumps operate very successfully but are pretty unforgiving in terms of operating and running costs if a range of key design parameters are not met. Areas that we need to work on include – ¡ Initial discussion with the customer around design room heat temperatures - the customer who always runs the thermostat at 24°C in their gas heating system may not achieve those room temperatures with their heat pump unless specifically catered for ¡ It’s likely that several radiators may need changing in an existing system to cater for the lower design flow and return temperatures ¡ The pipe sizing will need to be checked in any existing system and it’s possible that sections may need re-piping to accommodate the increased flow rate required by a heat pump It’s these areas (mentioned above) that can lead to problems with the
overall install and are a source of much of the negative press that’s out there. Moving forward we do need to look at heat pumps differently to fossil fuel appliances where quite often ‘rule of thumb’ design and application principles have prevailed that will not work for heat pumps. Moving forward into 2024, I for one would like to see a greater emphasis on installer training on low temperature heating system design, even if the design is carried out by a 3rd party there’s a need to understand key design principles as part of the site survey and whilst progressing the installation. As a final point during 2024 I’d really like to see a stronger focus on the issues associated with lead in water. In particular, we’re still seeing a small but significant number of serious lead contamination in water public health issues which are down to using leaded solders. This is despite the fact that the legislation changed regarding the use of leaded solders in water supplies as far back as 1985. There’s a very easy method of dealing with this – just remove the sale of leaded solder from merchants shelves.
DOWNLOAD THE HVR APP NOW
January 2024 29
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36
