The biggest ever heat pump survey has been launched, to understand the heat pump installation industry and the people who work within it, so the sector can grow and develop.
Nesta is collaborating with Emma Bohan, general manager at IMS Heat Pumps, and Nathan van Gambling, host of the BetaTalk podcast and to launch the UK’s most extensive survey of heat pump installers to date.
The survey will take around 30 minutes to complete and participants can pause and come back to it as often as they need.
Installer spoke to Emma and Nathan, to find out more:
“I run an installation company and we’ve been installing heat pumps for years,” Emma explained. “Before there were standards, before there was MCS, before government grants, back when it was a niche industry. We’re not the only company that’s been installing heat pumps in the UK for a while, before all this new ‘awareness’ there was already an industry. What I’m seeing and hearing now, is a lot of new people who are sensing an opportunity in the market, big companies, big names, and new players.
“Now I’m not against new entrants, and big companies. Look at the boiler industry, there’s some huge companies, and energy providers, but there are an awful lot of local engineers running their own businesses. There’s enough work to go around.
“But there’s a lot of negative press and confusion around heat pumps. You can’t install them in this type of property, there’s not enough installers, they’re too complicated. I’m sitting here looking at this, and the government funding, and people saying what the industry’s going to look like and I’m thinking, is anybody asking the people who are actually doing this job what we think? What do we need? How do we scale up our businesses?
“I was looking at the MCS figures for heat pump installs and the record month for the UK was in March 2022 when the RHI scheme was coming to an end. At the time, there were around 1,400 MCS Certified heat pump installers and we achieved over 7,000 installs that month. In simple terms, if you times that by 12 that’s 84,000 MCS installations a year that we could already install, using the current people who are already fitting the kit and have been for years. No upskilling, no new training, no new onboarding onto schemes, these are people who are ready to go. Actually today, there are already more heat pump installers now then there were then, and we haven’t even started on those people fitting heat pumps without MCS certification – there’s a lot more than you think.
“So I thought, we need to ask those engineers what they think of the state of the industry, and how we can reach those government targets. I’m doing over 150 pumps a year, how do you support me to do 500 a year? Because I’ve got the skills, I’ve got the infrastructure, and we’re already training new guys. How do we then help the sole trader take on those apprentices that we desperately need? How do we help the micro business become an SME?
“I spoke to Nathan, I spoke to a lot of the heat pump engineers that we know from all different backgrounds, and then we spoke to NESTA and we’ve come up with this survey. I don’t have the answers for these questions, and other heat pump engineers won’t agree with everything I have to say, that’s life, but how will we know unless we ask them? I can’t wait to see the results of this survey because we’ll be able to go to the industry and the government and say, this is what’s happening, this is the view from the front line, now how can we make it better? We’re aiming for this to be the biggest ever survey of heat pump engineers, so please take some time out of your day to fill it in.”
Nathan van Gambling added:
“I speak to a lot of heat pump engineers and there is fantastic work being done every day around the UK. Emma and her team, and the other companies working on this technology every day, they are the experts and we want to get their views. Innovation and new products will make the heat pump rollout easier in the future, but in the here and now it is tried and tested technology that we know works. We want to help those independent engineers get their voices heard.”
Everyone who completes the survey will be able to enter an amazing prize draw to win one of over 40 incredible prizes donated by survey supporters in the industry. These include overseas factory visits, hardware, vouchers and digital tools.
Sunamp and Trianco are offering first prize of a game-changing ActivAir heat pump plus Thermino heat battery package. Another winner will get a Vaillant air to water heat pump from Wolseley, the leading specialist provider of renewables, plumbing, heating, cooling, and utility products to trade customers.
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