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 Domestic Renewable Heat Incentive (“RHI”) scheme is closing to new applicants on 31st March 2022. Whilst we are still awaiting the confirmation of the final details from the Government about the closure of the scheme, we already have a good understanding of the plan from the Government’s consultation document earlier in the year, as well as a number of Ofgem workshops we have attended over the past few months.
The Government have today published their consultation response for the Future Support for Low Carbon Heat: Boiler Upgrade Scheme. This scheme will be the successor to the current domestic renewable heat incentive scheme, and will provide customers with an upfront grant to reduce the capital cost of installing a heat pump system.
The Government plans for the cost of green levies - which raise money to pay for climate change policies - to start coming from your gas bill instead of your electricity bill. This is great news for heat pumps, because it means that by switching from gas to an electrically-powered heat pump, you will save even more on your running costs.
We understand that when designing a heat pump for your home, every property is unique. This means that the heat pump design will need to be unique too. For every heat pump that we design and supply, we complete a bespoke room-by-room heat loss assessment and produce a suite of bespoke schematics for the heat pump installation.
The Domestic Renewable Heat Incentive (“RHI”) scheme for air source and ground source heat pumps is only open for a further 7 months! The scheme is set to end on 31st March 2022 for new applicants - that’s just 7 months away! If you are considering a ground source heat pump or air source heat pump for your home, now is the time to act in order to benefit from this generous Government grant scheme.
