Heat Pump Ready programme: learning how to support innovation across the sector
At Unlock Net Zero Live, the Carbon Trust was excited to showcase the Heat Pump Ready programme, the UK Government’s initiative to support development and deployment of innovative solutions for reducing barriers to the rollout of heat pumps in homes across the UK.
The key objectives of Heat Pump Ready are to:
- reduce costs and increase the performance of domestic heat pumps;
- minimise disruption in homes during the process of heat pump installation; and
- develop financial models that support an increase in heat pump deployment
The Department of Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS) has provided £60 million of funding to support the development of 36 projects and to disseminate programme learnings to the wider industry. There are two main types of projects:
- High density deployment: 11 projects that are focussed on high density deployment of heat pumps in local areas;
- Optimised solutions: 24 projects that are building new tools, technologies, processes and approaches to improve heat pump deployment.
At the event, a remarkable array of issues was discussed by speakers from BEIS and four of the projects looking at optimised solutions.
We heard from Ventive about their plans to streamline the manufacture of heat pumps, through off-site modular assembly that will simplify the installer’s work and help bring down installation costs. Purrmetrix discussed improved methods for surveying properties and using existing smart meter data, to optimise heat pump sizing for a property and improve overall system design. MCS described their project to help link up homeowners looking to install heat pumps with local suppliers, through an innovative approach to speed up the quotation process by minimising expensive site visits. There was recognition of the cost to property owners of heat pump installation, including the significant costs if the whole of an old heating system requires upgrading to a new heat pump-based system. One way to tackle this is City Science’s plan to provide ‘Heat as a Service’, which they likened to the mass transition to digital streaming platforms providing ‘Music as a Service’. Despite recognition of the many challenges, the speakers gave a sense of optimism that solutions will be found to significantly increase uptake of low carbon technology for domestic heating.
Information about the optimised solutions projects is here. Many projects will benefit from collaboration with property owners, so if you are interested in working with a project to trial innovative solutions please contact us at heatpumpready@carbontrust.com.
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