Boris Johnson discusses introduction of heat pumps to UK homes
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An industry insider raised the alarm over heat pumps as he warned the alarming price of the technology will not get cheaper imminently as Britain imports parts of the gas-boiler alternatives from aboard. This means the UK is burdened with the same costs its European neighbours pay. Mike Foster, CEO of the Energy and Utilities Alliance, told Express.co.uk that because certain heat pump parts are sold on the international market and imported to Britain, it has to pay the surging international price for the gas it imports, which led to the energy crisis.
Heat pumps are a low-carbon alternative to gas boilers which the Government is scrambling to roll out on scale to reach its net zero target. It is also set to ban any new gas boiler installations by 2035.
Westminster is also hoping to accelerate the rollout by offering £5,000 discounts, slashing the alarming £10,000 installation costs by half in the hope households will be incentivised to replace their gas boilers.
While Mr Foster did admit these eye-watering installation costs will come down, he stressed the argument needs to be “split into two parts”.
He told Express.co.uk: “The cost of installing the heat pump will become cheaper as more heat pumps are installed because installers get used to the difficulties of this technology as it is not as simple as replacing a boiler with another boiler. But that time can be made shorter, and therefore cheaper, if you have the right number of engineers.”
However, while this may appeal to buyers, there may be another cost issue holding them back.
Mr Foster added: “The other argument, which is that the higher the volumes of heat pumps produced, the cheaper the actual product will become, is nonsense – it is an utter fallacy. You have got well over a million heat pumps sold in Europe last year, against 50,000 in the UK.
“Heat pumps as products are more expensive in France than they are in the UK. How is that argument stand the test of time? It doesn’t. These heat pumps are made abroad. 70 percent of the heat pumps made in the UK are imported.
“We are paying the same price, more or less, as our European neighbours. In the same way that we are burdened with paying the global price of gas at the moment, heat pumps are also a global market.
While energy experts pinpointed heat pumps as a way of improving energy efficiency for householders and potentially reducing energy bills, a number of heat pump users have complained about their boiler alternatives.
For instance, in a poll conducted by Express.co.uk last month, an overwhelming 92 percent (4,575 people) of people who took part in the survey that 4,997 people responded to, said “no”, they would not install a heat pump to improve their home’s energy efficiency.
Meanwhile, seven percent (359 people) said “yes” they would, and one percent (63 people) said they did not know either way.
But contrary to Mr Foster, TV property designer Kevin McCloud has argued the increased volumes of heat pumps being produced will, in fact, slash the price of the technology.
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He told The Telegraph last month: “[Heat pumps] are getting more efficient, but I’d say get one now. They’re still a little expensive but the point is that it’s not complex technology and it’s not really going to change in terms of the offer.
“All that is going to happen over the next 10 years is that they’ll come down in price because they will be produced in vast volumes.”
While heat pumps cost on average £10,000 without the Government grant, they can cost up to £14,000 – up to 10 times more than the average £1,500 gas boiler.
The UK Government aims to have 600,000 heat pumps installed annually by 2028.
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