Heat Pumps Today

16 Griff Thomas, MD for renewable training provider, GTEC, provides an overview of what’s happening with heat pumps, their market potential and the exciting business opportunities they present to installers with the right skills. All hands to the pump GTEC delivers heat pump, biomass, solar thermal, solar PV and battery storage training from its centre in Hawes, North Yorkshire and at partner sites across the UK. For more information, visit: www.gtec.co.uk Heat pumps, particularly air source heat pumps, are fast becoming a firm fixture in UK homes and workplaces; a trend that is only set to increase as we strive towards a low carbon future. Suitable for a wide variety of properties at a price tag that’s being made more a‘ordable as production costs come down along with Government grants and initiatives, Air Source Heat Pumps in particular are an obvious upskilling choice for existing heating and plumbing installers. Here’s why: Versatility: ASHP’s are a well-established technology, tried and tested across the world. Far more e•cient than other electric heating systems, heat pumps produce as much as four times more heat than the electricity they use. In properties also benefitting from Solar PV and battery storage, this electricity can be self-generated. Often considered a ‘new build’ technology, ASHP’s are actually suitable for most properties as long as they are designed properly. ASHP’s work particularly well at low flow temperatures - larger radiators and heating systems like UFH can often give the best results. The heat pump itself is situated outside, so takes up less useful space and can be retrofitted to existing plumbing. While they boast even greater e•ciencies, Ground Source Heat Pumps (GSHPs) are typically suitable for buildings with a large amount of outside space, needed to bury the ground loop. Funding: the domestic Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) is still open for applications until March next year. The RHI should pay back the installation costs within seven years, making it a very attractive proposition for customers thinking about installing a heat pump (or other heat- based renewable technologies) imminently. Making your customers aware of the approaching deadline might be just the incentive to push them over the line when it comes to moving away from gas and oil. Spring 2022 will be all change. At the time of writing, Ministers are looking to increase the funding available through the October | November 2021 O P I N I O N new Clean Heat Grant, set to launch next April, with a budget from £100m to £400m. Introduced to provide grants for homeowners looking to upgrade their gas or oil boiler to a low carbon energy source, such as a heat pump, if approved, the uplift in Clean Heat Grant funds could see people receiving up to £7,000, potentially covering a large chunk of the upfront costs of a heat pump install. Government targets: Government has some very ambitious heat pump installation targets – 60,000 heat pumps over the next three years, rising to 600,000 a year by 2028. Overall, the Committee for Climate Change (CCC) has advised that 19 million heat pumps need to be installed by 2050. That’s a lot of heat pumps! Lack of installers: Despite the demand, the amount of trained heat pump installers is woefully low. At the moment, there are around 1,000 MCS certified heat pump installers (compared with 130,000 Gas Safe Registered installers!) To meet the targets, it’s been estimated that 10,000 installers would need to qualify within the next four years. New building standards: To force the hand of the new build sector, the Government launched the Future Homes Standard which sets out strict energy performance goals. Part L of the Building Regulations is also due for an uplift; by next year carbon emissions should be reduced by 31% and by 2025, 75-80%, on track for net zero by 2050. Existing properties are also in the firing line, with the Committee for Climate Change (CCC) recommending that all new heating installations should be low carbon. Air Source Heat Pumps will form a big part of meeting these standards and recommendations. The road is long What’s clear from these targets and incentives, is that heat pump installers have a long and in demand career ahead of them. Any gas or oil installers reading this should not fear the end of their bread and butter however, we are going through a process of transition, where both the old and new forms of heating will take their place, sometimes alongside each other. Upskilling now means work with existing ‘traditional’ fossil fuel heating systems can be bolstered with heat pumps, while putting you in a good position for when a total switch over eventually happens. Your knowledge of heating alternatives will also make you more attractive to customers looking for advice on green building services. Train for the future Heat-based renewables training is designed for existing plumbing and heating engineers, which means trades people are front and centre when it comes to benefitting from a green future. Like consumers are being incentivised, we have helped installers access funded training through the Renewable Heat Incentive Training and Support Scheme (RHITSS), which we ran in partnership with MCS, o‘ering up to 70% o‘ the cost of heat-based renewables training. So far, RHITTS has helped more than 750 installers access heavily discounted training. The funding for this scheme has nearly run out, but I sincerely hope something similar is set up to help out industry make the move into renewables. With such a distinct lack of suitably trained trades people, Government should be putting the same onus on creating a workforce ready to deliver heat pumps as they are encouraging home owners to ‘go green’. Potentially, we could reach a point where demand far outstrips the pool of available installers, which would be very damaging to our low carbon heating e‘orts and the reputation of the building services industry as a whole.