Wales prioritises heat pumps in vision for new homes

Heat pumps and networks look set to be the principal means of keeping Wales’ new homes warm from 2025, according to new draft building regulations.

The Welsh government’s revisions to the Part L regulations, which govern energy use in new housing, state that all new homes must be heated and powered from low-carbon energy sources from 2025, bringing Wales into line with changes in England.

The new regulations tie in with moves by Welsh ministers to legislate for a 95 per cent cut in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, which will be brought forward later this year. New and existing homes currently account for nine per cent of total Welsh greenhouse gas emissions.

The regulations stipulate that the use of high-carbon fossil fuels will be phased out in new homes and replaced by low-carbon heating and energy generation alternatives, such as photovoltaic panels, heat pumps and district heat networks.

The document, which is out for consultation until 12 March, says the Welsh government anticipates that heat pumps, particularly air source devices, will play a “major role” in delivering low carbon heat for new homes.

And it says that district heat networks could be an “important part” of plans for Wales’ domestic heating, particularly in high density, urban areas, partly because they be decarbonised “more easily” than most other heat sources.

But while other technologies, such as hydrogen, “may” have a role to play in the heating systems of the future, heat networks and pumps will be the “principal” means of providing low carbon heating in homes developed to the proposed Part L standard.

The Welsh government claims that a combination of the improved energy efficiency measures proposed in the regulations and installation of low carbon heating technologies will mean that new homes from 2025 homes should produce 75 to 80 per cent less CO2 emissions than those built to current requirements.

Welsh housing minister Julie James said: “These measures will not only help tackle climate change, but they will also help keep down household energy costs now and in the future – helping people, no matter what their background or circumstances, with the cost of living.”