by An attempt that offers the heating engineers a free heat pump for their own houses is intended to roll out thousands of people after increasing professional support for technology.
The “Start at home” pilot from Innovation Agency Nesta to support heating engineers in installing their first heat pump in their house found that they increased their technical knowledge, understanding of life with technology and trust in the promotion of customers for customers.
Warning experts warn that the use of heat pumps with clean electrical heat is decisive to replace the widespread use of gas boilers in houses in order to reduce carbon emissions as part of the targets for cutting greenhouse gases to “NET zero” by 2050.
This means that around 450,000 heat pumps are installed in existing houses up to 2030 per year, so that 38,000 other installers are trained and confident that they previously install heat pumps, said Nesta.
While the number of heating engineers and installers who train as heat pump installers is increasing, this does not lead to a large active workforce that focuses on technology.
It pointed to the investigation of the Department of Energy Safety and Net Zero (DESNZ), which indicates that only 27% of the newly trained installers have completed an installation within one year.
Many have difficulty finding their first heat pump customers, which would enable them to achieve the certification that is necessary for access to state installation grants, while many still have confidence in designing and installing systems or even in the effectiveness of the technology, the report says.
In the meantime, the demand for work on gas kettles and general sanitary installations is continued and a greater certainty and familiarity is continued.
A pilot in collaboration with the Schottisch and Northern Ireland employers’ association (Snipef) recruited 36 heating engineers from all over Scotland, with half of them offer training to install heat pumps and the other half offered training and a free heat pump to install them in their house.
All 18 participants who have installed a heat pump in their house reported an increase in the understanding of the design and the installation of the heat pump system – 13 said they had a considerable knowledge of knowledge.
And 11 reported on a significant increase in trust in heat pumps as heating technology, which gained trust that they were working.
Life with heat pumps in their own houses also provided the engineers more trust and insights to advise customers like the problems they may have and how they can solve them.
Nesta has now launched a state-financed program to scale the start-to-house program throughout the UK, by registering 5,000 heating engineers in the first 12 months, each of which is received an expert support and a free heat pump to install it in your own house.
