PHAM NEWS | FEBRUARY 2025 12 Your Views Star letter


Share your views and you could win £100 for writing the star letter


There’s more to heating than heat pumps


I run my own micro business involved with portable industrial heaters, better known as space heaters. I have been on your mailing list for PHAM News for a number of years, and whilst you deal with domestic and similar type heating there was often a crossover in most editions that was of interest.


However, in recent times PHAM News


seems to be developing an unhealthy obsession with heat pumps. It doesn’t matter what the problem is, a heat pump is the answer, and everybody also loves heat pumps!


I’m sure heat pumps can be a solution


under certain circumstances, but not universally. I live in the middle of nowhere in a converted barn, and to fi t a heat pump you would have to rip the place to pieces, something I’m not prepared to do or can aff ord. Heat pumps fi tted into new builds, yes perhaps, but retro fi tted in many cases – no.


So write about heat pumps if you want,


but please don’t neglect all the other aspects of heating because there’s lots of interesting stuff to discuss.


Oliver Rogers


Rogers Space Heaters Ltd Via email


Too many holes


I read a story in your last issue that nearly half of the small businesses in the UK have suff ered a fi nancial loss due to damage caused by potholes. Somehow this doesn’t surprise me. The state of some of the roads in this country is a disgrace!


The other day I saw in my local paper


that the A429 was closed after a VW Transporter van collided with a pothole, lost a wheel and then went into an ambulance. Clearly such incidents are not only costing money, they are also endangering lives.


I also hear that local councils are


refusing to fi x potholes that are less than a foot wide. You couldn’t make it up! Surely we’ve reached a level now where the cost of failing to repair our roads is far greater than the funds that will be needed to fi x the problem.


D.G. Atkinson Via email


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Maintaining standards Trust and transparency


In the fi rst of a series of columns from MCS, CEO Ian Rippin argues that transparency is crucial to building trust and driving confi dence in renewables technology.


L


ast year, there were more certifi ed small-scale renewable installations than ever before (see page 18). As an industry, we are confi dent


this momentum will carry into the next 12 months, which means continuing to build trust and confi dence in the benefi ts of renewables. Transparency is key to delivering this. One of the reasons that an open and


honest approach is so important is that for many consumers, and some installers, renewables are a relatively new and unfamiliar technology. This is particularly true of heat pumps and battery storage, both of which saw record numbers of certifi ed installations last year. If we are to reassure homeowners that these technologies are suitable for their homes, then we need to be clear as a sector about how they work, how much they cost, and what the installation process looks like. At MCS, we know that means we


also need to be as transparent as possible with our installer base. They are, after all, the backbone of our industry. It comes back to building trust, by demonstrating that we are supporting the sector, helping to raise standards, and providing installers with everything they need to go out and do what they do best – which is deliver great installations.


Profi t for purpose As the UK’s quality mark for renewable energy technologies, we’re often asked about our ownership and how the money that installers pay to MCS as part of their certifi cation costs is spent. Some of the money that we receive


is reinvested back into MCS itself, to ensure it is working as eff ectively as possible for the renewables industry. Whether it’s building our compliance team, facilitating the creation and maintenance of standards (with the help of hundreds of industry volunteers), sharing access to data insights, or onboarding new installers, it’s all about raising standards across the board. Any surplus after that goes to The


MCS Foundation. This is a charitable trust that owns MCS, whose purpose is to ‘make every UK home carbon free’ using energy that’s eff ective, effi cient and aff ordable. From commissioning independent research to building skills for the next generation through funding for apprenticeships, the work that The MCS Foundation does means any profi t made by MCS goes straight back into the sector, rather than into shareholders’ pockets. In this way, I like to think of MCS as a ‘profi t for purpose’ organisation, because we are committed to growing the sector as a whole.


Real-time data Our position in the sector means we have a lot of data – everything from


Ian Rippin CEO at MCS


the number of installations and average cost, through to the numbers of certifi ed installers for each technology. We have committed to making this information freely available and correct to within 24 hours, all of which can be viewed on the MCS Data Dashboard. We do this because it is the industry’s data; MCS is just the custodian. We want to be open and transparent about the state of the sector, because ultimately it is in everyone’s best interest to understand how renewables uptake is changing over time. Crucially, because MCS data is the


most accurate snapshot of the industry available, it is often used by government to inform policy. This is where it becomes a two-way relationship. We need installers to be as accurate as possible when registering their installations with MCS, because our data is only as good as the information we are given. In this way, installers are having a genuine impact on the direction of government policy and initiatives.


More transparency We aren’t just saying that we want to be more transparent – it’s a fundamental part of the redeveloped installer Scheme that is launching this year. The best example of this is the introduction of a Quality Risk Model. This will be used to determine the frequency of assessments undertaken by Certifi cation Bodies, using factors that we know can, at times, result in poor-quality installations – such as the complexity of a contractor’s operations. Crucially, an installer should always


know how MCS views their level of risk, and thanks to a new direct relationship that we’ll have with installers, we will work with them to help drive their level of risk down, drive compliance up and strengthen standards. Ultimately, we need to improve trust


and confi dence at every level of the supply chain – and transparency is fundamental to achieving that.


Find out more For more information on the redevelopment of MCS, please use the online enquiry link below. ◼ phamnews.co.uk/225/16


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