NEWS EXTRA
CITY PLUMBING AIMS TO BOOST ENERGY SALES
Anajli Sooknanan visited the opening of City Plumbing’s first Energy Efficiency Centre
WITH THE 2050 net zero target getting closer, City Plumbing has opened an Energy Efficiency Centre to help its customers meet demand for more efficient products.
The centre, in Farnborough, Hampshire, has been designed to showcase renewable energy home heating technologies such as heat pumps, underfloor heating and solar panels. Following a partnership between City Plumbing and GTEC Training, accredited training courses will also be available to installers in a designated training room. The centre is open to the public and includes a range of fully kitted-out zones highlighting how alternative home heating solutions work in real life. The opening of the centre follows a survey commissioned by Energy Efficiency at City Plumbing and conducted by Censuswide. This polled installers about their current knowledge of renewable technologies in the heating market and whether they planned to become certified to install them. The results show there is significant work to provide installers with all the information they require about the topic, inspire them to seek training, and address their concerns.
The government has a target for 600,000 heat pumps to be installed per year by 2028 in a bid to achieve national net zero targets. However, last year the figure was between 60,000 and 70,000 - and installers require more information on how to get involved.
The survey revealed: • 44% of installers don’t know where to go to get trained and only 27% say it’s easy to find a course near where they live • Just 18% of installers currently
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installers to make better margins but it’s down to us to get that message across.”
The partnership has been bolstered by news that it has secured government funding through the BEIS Home Decarbonisation Skills Training Competition to reduce the cost of courses to installers until the end of March 2023. “As the market evolves, we are looking to support our installers through their journey and this partnership, and the Energy Efficiency Centre are crucial steps in this process. This funding allows us to offer installers based in England subsidised heat pump training and qualifications through a range of locations, with funding available to SMEs,” said Adam Foy, managing director, Energy Efficiency at City Plumbing. “The target of net zero by 2050 is a stretching and demanding one but as an industry we’ll recognise that we have a massive role to play. 30% of all C02 emissions in the UK come from the construction industry. We as an organisation can acknowledge that change brings uncertainty but often with it comes opportunity. Our business has a massive role to play in providing that support and education,” he added.
install heat pumps and only 6% are MCS certified • 32% of installers are unaware of the government’s Boiler Upgrade Scheme in England and Wales (which offers discounts for homeowners switching to a heat pump if they use a certified installer) • Only 45% of installers say they are confident they know enough about heat pumps to explain their benefits to customers Speaking at the opening event, Griff Thomas, managing director at GTEC, said: “We need more collaboration and more partnerships like the one with City Plumbing and GTEC to contribute to the future of low carbon heating. Speaking from a training perspective, we’ve all heard the challenge of installing 600,000 heat pumps per year by 2028. To get there we would need an
additional 30,000 people in the industry as a whole. We’ve got to make that training as accessible and easy as possible for installers. I’ve been doing what I do for around 20 years and I’ve never seen such a sustained drive on a government level to hit those targets. We have some great initiatives coming up as well as a £500 training fund going towards air source heat pump training. We at GTEC are proud to be working with City Plumbing in what we hope will be the first of many hybrid centres across the UK. It’s been an absolute pleasure to be working with the team to bring this all together. A few weeks ago, we ran our first course and we received a lot of positive feedback and we’re looking at a bright future. Those big targets we’re seeing at the moment are also real opportunities for
The opening of the centre was supported by the Energy Saving Trust. Head of policy Stew Horne said: “This is an absolutely fantastic facility and I’ve been walking around looking at all the kit. I work five days a week where I talk to people about the technology available but you never actually get the chance to see and touch it. For myself, that’s really transformational as it shows the potential in here to provide installers with those skills to have those same conversations. “One of the things we’re always talking about is how much support the supply chain needs to be able to upskill the workforce. All of the technology which can be seen at this Energy Efficiency Centre is really important for driving that transition. Each and every piece of technology is going to help cut energy loss which means cutting costs and boosting energy security. Everyone working in the supply chain has a vital role in this.” BMJ
www.buildersmerchantsjournal.net May 2023
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