heat pump

In conjunction with East Cambridgeshire District Council, Palace Green Homes is in the final phase of a new 54-home residential development in the village of Haddenham, Cambridgeshire, with 19 affordable housing properties for the Haddenham Community Land Trust (CLT). The Team at Panasonic and Specialist heating and cooling distributor Oceanair, worked with CG Plumbing to provide each property with sustainable heating thanks to Panasonic’s Aquarea Mono-bloc air to water heat pumps which supply heating and domestic hot water to each home.

So, for the first time Prince Charles, the future King of the United Kingdom, gave the Queens Speech, which provides the government with an opportunity to highlight its main priorities for the months ahead.

There is one bill that stood out for me most. The Energy Security Bill. But, there was also a section in the government’s background briefing entitled “Housing Reform”.

Let’s cover this first.

Given that the country is in the thick of the biggest housing crisis and property affordability crisis the governments “housing reform” announcement borders on being pathetic.

by Russell Dean, Head of the Residential Product Group at Mitsubishi Electric

The Government recently brought forward an Energy Security Bill as part of the Queen’s Speech, which sets out the policies and the proposed legislative programme for the new Parliamentary session.

Although the news was full of the fact that this was the first time the Queen had been unable to deliver the speech since 1963, with Prince Charles stepping in to deliver the address in place of his mother, there was another important omission that hasn’t yet gained any coverage.

The Energy Security Bill is designed to deliver the transition to cheaper, cleaner, and more secure energy and will deliver the Government’s commitments in the British Energy Security Strategy and the Ten Point Plan for a Green Industrial Revolution to build a more secure, homegrown energy system that is cleaner and more affordable.

Although the bill focuses on new proposed legislation, there was no mention of how this builds on existing plans, such as the recently published ECO4 initiative, which is the fourth and final phase of the Government’s Energy Company Obligation (ECO).

Thanks to the Building Regulations and Part L changes, which come into force this summer, low temperature heating systems will now become the norm for newly built homes. While there is flexibility on which energy source can be used,
it is anticipated that heat pumps will become the most specified option.

Here, Ashley Cooper, Managing Director at WMS underfloor heating, provides an overview of the changes ahead and how underfloor heating and heat pumps can together achieve the ultimate low temperature system.

One of the current key challenges in the housing sector is how to tackle the move from traditional fossil fuel sources to new, renewable and low carbon solutions for heating residential homes. Panasonic’s UK and Ireland Head of Marketing, Richard Bishop, focuses on the importance of live demonstrations and regular training for installing and maintenance, to keep ahead of the game when it comes to sustainable technology.

In 2019 the UK became the first major economy to pass laws to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050. Yet in late 2021 at COP26, the UK government itself admits they are falling short of the ambitious target, to reduce emissions by 78% by 2035.

Following the October 2021 publication of both the Heat and Buildings Strategy (HABS) and Net Zero Strategy, and the GLA’s updated London Plan, the UK now has a defined route to net zero and reinforcing regulations will soon follow. But what will this look like for residents within social housing apartments, where green technology is not immediately practical to install?

You know things are changing when Evan Davis on Radio 4’s ‘PM’ programme starts talking about Air Source Heat Pumps. Yep, that’s exactly what happened on my radio yesterday.
Evan Davis did a long feature on heat pumps and even visited a home that had one installed.
Unfortunately, he went to a big posh house in London where the install costs they mentioned were massive and over a third over the cost of a typical 4-bedroom house installation, so I’m worried his feature may have inadvertently put people off.
Anyway, Evan is going to be talking about heat pumps again tonight and over the next few days, which is all very exciting for us heat pump fans.
So why is he talking about this? Because things are changing and they are changing pretty fast. At last!
For me, the rate of change hasn’t been fast enough or big enough, but things are definitely happening. The next few months are massive for the UK and for the global green economy.