With speculation that the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) may become a victim of spending cuts due to be announced next month, a report from the Energy Saving Trust (EST) – the largest ever field study of heat pump devices in the UK – brings more bad news. The EST’s study shows that 80% of heat pumps perform so badly – primarily due to poor quality installation – they would not qualify as renewable energy under proposed European standards. Here at Good Energy we have had a couple of customer queries on just this issue so to gain clarification on the technology we contacted our heat pump expert Alex Lockton, Managing Director of Freesource Energy – installers of heat pumps, solar panels and wind turbines, and a Good Energy partner – to see what he had to say on the matter.

Alex Lockton says:

There is no doubt that heat pumps work in terms of their ability to generate sufficient heat to warm houses or other types of building – we have numerous examples. At Freesource we design the heat pumps we install to ensure they are sufficiently sized to meet the demands of the building. The energy efficiency of the building is also of the utmost importance – if the building is not up to the standard required the owner needs to be responsible for upgrading their building before the installation can go ahead.

In terms of the viability of heat pumps, where the gas network is still available it is arguably sometimes cheaper to use a gas boiler when gas prices are low. However, if a client is not on the gas network, they will struggle to find a green alternative which is as practical as a heat pump in terms of space and running costs. Many office buildings requiring heating or cooling also choose inverter driven heat pumps for their controllability and efficiency. Much of northern Europe advocates heat pumps, Sweden in particular.

At the end of the day, there is no silver bullet for green technology for the home. The heat pump is one of a range of tools that must be used in the right circumstances – just as with solar PV and wind turbines. We believe that there are good buildings for this technology and lots and lots of bad ones. The key really is to ensure a quality company is selected to carry out the initial property survey and the following installation.


For further information on why the Feed-in Tariff and RHI must go on read our Commercial Director, Chris Welby’s, blog here.