The government has unveiled a new £15m boost to fund innovative projects that aim to make heat pumps cheaper and easier to install. Brits are currently facing sky-high energy bills thanks to the rise in gas wholesale costs following the Russian invasion of Ukraine. While the UK does not import gas from Russia, it relies heavily on gas, particularly to heat homes via boilers. To end the UK’s vulnerability to wholesale gas markets, the government wants to replace gas boilers with: heat pumpsonce installed, save on utility bills by using electricity instead of gas.
However, this advanced technology is unaffordable for millions of homes, as a typical heat pump could cost Britons £13,000.
The new £15m funding pool would be split by the government across 24 innovation projects to make “low-carbon heating such as heat pumps cheaper and easier to install”.
The funding is part of the UK’s £60 million Heat Pump Ready programme, which aims to develop innovative solutions that would remove barriers to the roll-out of low-carbon technology in homes and businesses across the country.
In a statement, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy said: “The government believes that as the low-carbon heating market grows, technology costs will fall rapidly.
“In collaboration with industry, the government aims to have heat pumps cost the same as fossil fuel boilers to buy and use by 2030, with major reductions of at least 25-50 percent by 2025.”
Minister for Affairs and Energy, Lord Callanan, said: “In light of rising global gas and oil prices, getting low-carbon heating technology into homes is a priority for this government as it will help households use the expensive fossil fuels that fuel the drive up bills, dump.
“Heat pumps are a proven, reliable technology that uses cheaper renewable energy produced in the UK. We are already cutting costs through the Boiler Upgrade Scheme and cutting VAT to zero, but by finding innovative ways to make them even cheaper and easier to install, we will help more homes see the benefits even faster.”
The government has pushed for more households to invest in heat pumps, and has even rolled out the Boiler Upgrade Scheme, which offers grants of up to £5,000 to households looking to replace their boilers.
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Britons have also been offered a zero VAT rate for installing clean heating measures, which the government says will make it an even more affordable option for people looking to replace a gas or oil boiler on their property.
The Heat Pump Ready program is mainly aimed at reducing costs and increasing the performance of domestic heat pumps, “minimizing inconvenience in homes during the heat pump installation process and developing financial models that increase the deployment of heat pumps.” support heat pumps.”
This is because a new report has found that green home upgrades, such as insulation and heat pumps, are poised to boost the economy by £7 billion a year and provide 140,000 new jobs by 2030.
However, the researchers cautioned that government policies are critical to ensuring these measures are taken by households, especially since many of them have high upfront costs.
One of the factors that may deter households from using BUS support is that in order to be eligible, households must meet a high standard of home insulation.
These measures can cost between £7,000 and £15,000, and until recently there was no government support for the average homeowner.
Meanwhile, Kevin McCloud, a real estate designer, urged Britons to focus on improving their home’s energy efficiency as a surefire way to cut bills, adding that those who now have the means to run a heat pump to buy have to go for it.
He said: “They’re getting more efficient, but I’d say get one now. They’re still a little expensive, but the point is, it’s not a complex technology and the offerings won’t really change.
“The only thing that’s going to happen in the next 10 years is that they’re going to come down in price because they’re going to be produced in large quantities.”