The government’s flagship program to make home heating greener got off to a bad start in its first year.
The Boiler Modernization Program is offering a £5,000 grant to help households switch to heat pumps, which burn much less carbon, which warms our atmosphere.
It was supposed to distribute 30,000 grants a year in England and Wales, but only half of them were distributed in the first year.
Experts blame the lack of installers and the cost of preparing homes for heat pump installations.
Heat pumps are a key part of the government’s pledge to achieve zero emissions in the UK by 2050, which means no more greenhouse gases will be released into the atmosphere. Home heating currently accounts for 14% of UK carbon emissions.
Figures released Thursday show data on grants issued since the scheme launched in May 2022, a day after Britain’s climate watchdog said the government was “significantly off course”. The program is valid until 2028.
The UK Climate Change Council (UKCCC) has cited the high cost of heat pumps, the low number of trained heat pump installers and the lack of energy efficiency measures such as insulation to help improve heat pump efficiency as the main reasons for slow installation rates.
The remaining £70m, which cannot be used for grants in subsequent years due to unpaid grants last year, will now be returned to the Treasury.
A spokesman for the Department of Energy Security and Net Zero, who is in charge of the program, said: “The number of requests reported by the industry has increased and we believe the number of deployments will increase over time.”
In February, a House of Lords committee raised concerns about the poor performance of the scheme. The government replied that a marketing campaign would be launched to promote the scheme.
In the first 14 days of the campaign, clicks to the gov.uk page were reported to have increased by 62% compared to the previous 14 days. But the government’s own data show that the number of vouchers issued has declined since March. The government is reportedly planning wider rollout later this year.
To meet the UK’s climate change targets, the government wants to install 600,000 low-carbon heat pumps a year over five years – the current figure is about one-ninth that figure.
Even with a boiler retrofit program in place, installing a heat pump can cost £10,000 and a new boiler can cost thousands of pounds.
Major energy providers Octopus Energy and EDF are now offering heat pumps for less than £3,000 at select properties.
But Dr Sean Fitzgerald, director of the University of Cambridge’s Climate Recovery Centre, told the BBC that costs could rise if more insulation is needed to improve efficiency.
The old UK housing stock is one of the most poorly insulated in Europe. The government has announced a new plan to implement 376,000 insulation measures (from attic insulation to solid wall insulation) between 2023 and 2026.
While the cost of heat pumps continues to fall – 6.7% per unit in 2022 – inflation and rising labor costs mean that total installed costs will fall by just 1.9% in 2022 after rising by 19.2% a year earlier.
Adam Chapman, chief executive of Heat Geek, one of the UK’s leading heating trainers, said gas engineers currently earn far more for installing boilers than for installing heat pumps, so there is no incentive to retrain.
“Consumers have demand, but installers do not. We need a tougher policy to phase out boilers,” he said.
Mike Pitts, Deputy Director of the UK’s National Innovation Agency, said investment in research into new heat pump technologies has also reduced costs.
While the cost remains high, the Scottish Government has provided a larger grant of £7,500 and additional loans of up to £7,500 to cover the full cost of the heat pumps.
The director of development and external relations for the Heat Pump Federation, Bean Beanland, was more optimistic about the plan. He said the site had a “difficult start” until November when it launched, but has since gained momentum.
“If the government decides on future electricity prices versus fossil fuels, that could change the numbers,” he said.
Heat pumps use electricity and as the UK moves to cheaper renewables the cost of running a heating system is likely to come down, but electricity prices are set by what is currently the most expensive fuel (gas).
Homes that perform more efficiently can increase sales or rental value, and a home’s performance is currently determined by its EPC rating. To encourage better housing, the government is proposing that all new rental properties be required to receive Class C EPCs by 2025.
But the current rough way of calculating EPC penalizes homeowners for installing heat pumps. It considers the potential cost of heating a facility given the high long-term costs of electricity and gas, regardless of system efficiency.
Dave Baldwin installed the heat pump last year through a boiler retrofit program. He said he was happy with the technology, but after installing it, his EPC rating fell 13 points from C to D.
He told the BBC: “My poor EPC rating is academic to me because I see big energy cost savings from using heat pumps, but it could put me at a disadvantage in the future, especially if I want to. my property.” .
The government plans to hold consultations on new methods for estimating and producing EPCs later this year.
Australian broke Tina Turner’s world dance record. Video Australian broke Tina Turner’s world dance record
© 2023 BBC. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external websites. Learn about our approach to external links.