Heat pump installations in the UK have already exceeded last year’s total, setting a new milestone for the Microgeneration Certification Scheme (MCS) with three months still to go in 2024. By the end of September, 42,000 installations were completed—outpacing 2023's total by approximately 4%.
The UK government is launching the Warm Homes Grant in 2025, an exciting initiative aimed at helping homeowners make their properties more energy-efficient. This fully funded scheme is available to those who meet certain criteria and could significantly reduce your energy costs while lowering your home's carbon footprint.
This week, the UK's last coal power station closed, signalling that the country’s energy landscape is undergoing a massive transformation. For over 200 years, coal was king, powering industry and homes alike. But today, renewable energy sources like wind, solar, and hydro are rapidly replacing fossil fuels in the national grid. With that change comes a new challenge—and opportunity—for those of us in the heating and plumbing industry.
With the UK election out the way and a new government in place, we feel it’s important to explore the potential implications for the heat pump market now that Labour has taken the helm. For plumbers, particularly those considering diversifying into heat pump installations, Labour's anticipated measures could present significant opportunities in the evolving green energy sector.
The UK remains overly dependent on natural gas, according to the National Infrastructure Commission (NIC), which provides independent recommendations to the government.
In its recent annual assessment, the NIC highlights the urgent need to reduce reliance on high-cost, high-carbon natural gas and accelerate the adoption of heat pump technology to meet the ambitious net zero targets by 2050. According to the Commission, decarbonising buildings is a critical aspect of this transition and represents the single biggest challenge on the path to net zero.
The plumbing and heating industry is on the brink of a significant transformation, as we have been warning for some time. Last week, it was reported by the Independent that gas boilers are likely to be banned in most new build homes by 2027, as part of efforts to reduce the UK’s carbon emissions. This follows the recent closure of the country’s last coal power plant just a few months ago.
In today’s blog, we wanted to recap of our recent outing with our Commissioning Engineer, Martin, who took us through the process of commissioning an Air Source Heat Pump for one of our customers. If you didn’t already know, we design, supply and commission Heat Pumps and the purpose of this video was to give you an idea of what’s involved in the final process.
The Government has recently published it’s long anticipated consultation response about the up and coming Future Homes Standard, as well as more imminent changes to the building regulations now planned for 2022. These updates will have a huge impact on the choices developers make about the specification of new homes. Is it finally time for heat pumps to become the norm in new builds?
In this blog, we reflect on an amazing year for Alto Energy - and the heat pump industry as a whole - in 2019. We also look forward to the next year and the next decade, in what are incredibly exciting times for heat pumps and their ever increasing role in wider global efforts to live in a more environmentally friendly way.
The Government is currently consulting on its new Future Homes Standard, which includes proposals to increase the energy efficiency requirements for new homes in 2020. Part of this includes an update to Part L of the Building Regulations, which is the section that relates to energy efficiency, and in particular the changes that will make heat pumps the go-to heating system for developers.
Latest figures from the Internation Energy Agency show that electricity generated in the UK continues to get cleaner, with emission rates per unit of electricity at their lowest for over 100 years. The biggest contributor to this is the development and continued investment in offshore wind. In fact, figures show that the UK has the largest offshore wind capacity in the World, and has done so since 2008.
The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Philip Hammond, has today announced the Government’s commitment to ban fossil fuel heating from new homes by 2025. In today’s Spring Statement, Hammond confirmed the introduction of a new standard for new build homes will be introduced by 2025, in order to future-proof new build homes with low carbon heating, such as heat pumps.
According to the latest advice from Government advisors, new build homes should be banned from connecting to the gas grid within as little as 6 years in order to tackle climate change. As reported in the Times and the BBC, The Committee on Climate Change report, titled “UK Housing: Fit for the Future”, suggests that all new-build homes in the countryside should be heated by heat pumps, rather than traditional fossil fuel boilers.
