Heat pump cost savings may be less than thought
Released On 17th Apr 2023
Heat pump cost savings may be less than thought
Academics have cautioned the government that the cost of heat pumps is only slowly declining.
Over the past ten years, household heat pump installation costs in the UK have decreased “little or no reduction,” according to researchers from the UK Energy Research Centre (UKERC).
Following their research, academics are urging the UK government to take measures to reduce the cost of low carbon heating.
The government’s ambitions to decarbonise heating rely heavily on heat pumps, but researchers found that while some nations had successfully slowed market expansion while lowering costs, overall reductions had been small.
The UKERC report draws attention to the UK’s dismal history of heat pump adoption and cost containment.
The Heat and Buildings Strategy of the government seeks cost reductions of 25–50% by 2025 and price parity with gas boilers by 2030; however, most projections indicate that costs will only decrease by 20–25% by 2030, far short of the government’s goal.
To guarantee milestones are completed and affordability hurdles are eliminated, researchers contend that a more supportive policy climate is required.
UKERC Director, Professor Rob Gross, stated, “To realise the low carbon heating transition it is vital that government focuses effort on bringing heat pump costs down.
“Well designed & sustained policy support will be a critical enabler of deployment growth & price reductions. A key action that could be taken right away is to bring forward the proposed shift of legacy charges from electricity to gas, reducing heat pump operational costs.”
