Heat pump installations rose by more than 50% in 2021

The number of heat pump installations increased by more than half last year, the chairman of the sector’s trade association has revealed.

At a briefing on Monday (14 March) to mark next month’s introduction of the government’s new Boiler Upgrade Scheme, Heat Pump Association chair Phil Hurley said most recent industry estimates point to installation levels of between 65,000 and 67,000 of the electric heating devices in 2021.

This marks a big jump on the 36,000 heat pumps which were installed in 2020, he said, adding that the number is expected to further increase to 100,000 this year. Of last year’s total, just over 30,000 apiece were in new build and retrofitted properties, added Hurley, who is also UK managing director of NIBE Energy Systems.

He said the level of installations has a “long way to go” to reach the government’s target of 600,000 per annum by 2028 but the increase shows that the industry is “on the road” to meeting it.

Hurley told the briefing, which was organised by the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU), that the “biggest challenges” to meeting the 600,000 per annum target are training enough installers and manufacturing sufficient heat pumps.

Asked by Utility Week for one step chancellor Rishi Sunak could take to kickstart the heat pump market in next week’s Spring Statement, the HPA chair identified making it financially worthwhile for installers to go on training courses.

Hurley said that heating installers, the bulk of whom are micro-businesses, find it difficult to justify the four to five days of earnings they will lose when attending heat pump training courses.

He stressed it is important to target this group because most decisions by households on heating options are driven by these tradesmen.

But Greg Jackson, Octopus Energy founder and CEO, told the same event that he doesn’t think skills “is going to be an issue”.

Pointing to the approximately 200 installers Octopus has already trained at its recently established academy, he said: “It’s not going to hold us back.”

Jackson also dismissed concerns that the UK’s housing stock require expensive works, such as replacing existing radiators, so that they can use heat pumps instead of gas boilers.

He said that around 60% of UK homes, many of which have been built in the past 50 years, require few changes in order to make them heat pump ready. Of these, around one half require no more than £500 of works.

Many of the scare stories about heat pumps not providing sufficient heat were the result of devices being fitted in large, draughty older properties which require more significant upgrades, Jackson said: “The market is immature: we can’t base the future on what we have seen to date.

“We don’t need to worry as much as people do about the transition.”

New grants of £5,000 will be available from April for homeowners installing low carbon heating systems through the new three-year Boiler Upgrade Scheme, which was announced last October.

To tie in with today’s briefing, the ECIU has published new figures showing that energy efficiency measures installed between 2009 and 2019 will save bill payers £1.15 billion this year, as global gas prices surge, partly as a result of the war in Ukraine.