Heat pump rollout must not undermine insulation drive

The rollout of heat pumps across the UK must not undermine the importance of home insulation, a leading thinktank boss has said.

Speaking to Utility Week Lucy Yu, chief executive at the Octopus Energy-backed think tank the Centre for Net Zero, agreed that work should be done to remove barriers preventing people taking up heat pumps but urged caution around dismissing insulation measures.

It comes after the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero announced it is considering changing the eligibility criteria for the Boiler Upgrade Scheme (BUS). In particular, the government is looking at removing rules which prevent homeowners from accessing the scheme if they do not have a valid Energy Performance Certificate (less than 10 years old) with no outstanding recommendations for loft or cavity wall insulation.

Yu said: “We need to be very clear in removing any insulation requirements as a prerequisite for installing a heat pump […] what we’re not suggesting is that better insulated properties should not be a priority, or that insulation is not important.

“Really what that means is we need to look at how are we incentivising and subsidising or providing grants for households to insulate their properties but just doing that through a separate mechanism.

“So removing it as a barrier in terms of the Boiler Upgrade Scheme and in terms of accessing subsidies to get those heat pumps, but it is still a very important part of the energy efficiency equation and the future energy landscape.”

She added: “It is important but the issue is by making it a prerequisite for the previous incarnation of the BUS, you are effectively creating a barrier or a blocker to more people accessing that scheme.

“Taking that out is going to help unlock more people to use that scheme but you just need to make sure that by taking it out as a requirement there, that you are not downgrading the significance or the importance of it overall.”

The thinktank chief further stressed the importance of heat pumps in helping to benefit the grid by shifting usage to periods of cheaper and greener energy, while switching off during more carbon intensive periods.

She added: “If you have preheated your home, if you have a well-insulated home, it’s going to stay at that level of heat for longer, so the heat loss is going to be much slower. Whereas if your home is not as well insulated, that is less true.

“So having a better insulated home enables you to use your heat pump in a more flexible way that can support the gird to be lower carbon.

“These things are linked in terms of the future energy system but we just have to be careful that we are not linking them in terms of incentives and subsidies in a way that is actually going to be counterproductive to the objectives we are trying to achieve.”

Yu is not alone in her concerns, with Greenpeace UK climate campaigner Georgia Whitaker commenting: “While the government is absolutely right to make the installation of heat pumps cheaper and more accessible, removing the need for insulation is cutting all the wrong corners.”

Meanwhile Bean Beanland, director for growth & external affairs at the Heat Pump Federation, told Utility Week he believed that the focus should be on better insulation across the board, regardless of how customers heat their homes.

Beanland said his organisation would consult with its members, as well as other organisations across the industry, on the government’s proposals.

Giving his personal thoughts to Utility Week, he added: “Steps should be taken to encourage everybody to insulate their homes better regardless of fuel type. EPCs are up for significant reform which is a good thing because they are currently a problem in themselves. But we should be doing everything we can, given the high cost of living, to encourage people to better insulate their homes and that is a fundamental missing part in energy policy in the UK at the moment.”