The prospects for the Government’s plans to impose the installation of heat pumps at a rate of 600,000 per annum and then a million by the mid-2030s are looking gloomier by the day. According to the Telegraph, while heat pumps being fitted on a one-by-one basis to homes where a Government grant has been secured have to be installed by a certified installer, that’s not the case for heat pumps being installed in new builds. Anyone with the gift of the gab, pipe-cutters, a drill and a socket set can do the job:
Defective heat pumps will be fitted in new homes under Net Zero plans, the Government has been warned.
From 2027, new homes will be fitted with a heat pump as standard under rules that are expected to be introduced within weeks.
But while heat pumps installed under Government grant schemes in existing homes must be fitted by accredited technicians, there are no such standards for new homes.
Households have been warned that, as a result, “rogue traders” may be fitting their heat pumps, potentially leading to a mis-selling scandal.
Owners of new builds fitted with heat pumps have already reported issues linked to poor installations that have left their homes cold and expensive to run.
If the Government is to meet its house-building targets, heat pump installations will more than quadruple between new build and existing homes by 2027.
“Most people who install low-carbon technologies see genuine benefits and would recommend them to family and friends, but public trust is being eroded by the actions of some rogue traders and shoddy installations,” said Andy Manning, the Head of Energy Policy at Citizens Advice.
“Installers of green upgrades like solar panels and heat pumps don’t have to be accredited unless they’re carrying out work that’s funded by Government grants.”
It is not known exactly how many heat pumps were installed in new builds last year, but 98,000 were sold across the country – the vast majority for existing properties.
But industry experts have said there is a dearth of well-trained installers even at current levels, and ramping up installations without better regulation and training is likely to lead to poorly-installed technology.
John Hornby bought a newly built five-bedroom home in a Shropshire hamlet in 2021, fitted with an air source heat pump that failed to keep the house warm and left him paying £500 a month on electricity during the winter.
An independent assessor commissioned by Mr Hornby found that both the heat pump and the radiators were too small for the house, a common complaint among owners.
Two smaller homes on the estate had been fitted with the same size heat pump, despite bigger homes requiring larger technology, suggesting a lack of understanding by the installers. An inspection of the insulation in the home’s bathroom also found gaps, meaning heat was escaping.
It seems the way is open to a legacy of problems with poorly installed, badly configured and inappropriately sized heat pumps being foisted on those who buy new builds in the years to come. Some of course will be properly installed, but how is any homebuyer supposed to be able to discriminate?
Worth reading in full.
Despite this almost incomprehensible level of Government negligence don’t get excited about the prospect of either Net Zero or Ed Miliband being put out to grass. Tim Stanley thinks the Secretary of State for Energy’s job is secure:
Rumour has it, his head’s on the block. Rachel Reeves, having killed the private sector with her first budget, is now all about cuts and growth – and Net Zero is perceived to be a costly jobs killer.
But I think he’s safe. A poll of Labour members found he’s the most popular minister. Why? Because he’s the only one doing something they like. Telegraph readers might regard the Government as far-Left, but remove Net Zero and its policies are to cut foreign aid, cut benefits and raise defence spending, making it seem far-Right to the grassroots.
Miliband helps maintain a pretence that Labour is different-ish from the Tories, thanks to videos of him touring wind farms with Blue Peter energy. His sticky-backed plastic, Groovy Gang, ‘cool kids pick up litter’ vibe is enhanced by a cosmic self-assurance that borders on the guru.
That’s despite an interview on Radio 4 last week suggested that Mr Miliband’s aspirations and dreams diverge widely from reality.
Tim Stanley’s column is worth reading in full too.
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Defective governments fitted around the globe for decades, and nobody bats an eyelid.
Keep calm and blunder on.
I’m looking forward to the DS coverage of this rather ground breaking paper:
https://scienceofclimatechange.org/wp-content/uploads/SCC-Grok-3-Review-V5-1.pdf
A review/summary: https://metatron.substack.com/p/a-critical-reassessment-of-the-anthropogenic
Ground breaking because I believe it’s the first peer reviewed paper where AI (Grok) is the lead author. Interesting times!
Many of the findings have been documented before but if it’s true then this Net Zero madness should crumble away. Not going to put any money on it though.
Aside: I have no problem with moving towards reducing use of precious raw materials but let’s do it at a more steady controlled pace and not trash the economy.
Thank you for these two links. I somehow doubt Ministers of Energy Insecurity will be more inclined to listen to the wisdom of AI, any more than they ignore the real wisdom of rational argument.
I’m relatively new to climatology literature, but have picked up that Grok-3’s co-author, Willie Soon, has been critiqueing the carbon dioxide hypothesis for two decades.
As Dead Man Walking’s mate Claude distils out, Grok-3 and co-authors have homed in on well-documented flaws in the carbon-dioxide hypothesis – solar influence downplayed, temperature rise precedes CO2 rise, exaggerated CO2 residence time, temperature sensitivity and homogenisation.
Dead Man’s pinned commenter makes the same points eloquently. Torture the data long enough and it’ll tell you what you want to hear.
Maybe GROK and Claude could join forces to write a modern-Shakespearean morality-play, showing up the climate debate for what it is. Might even be some kid up in a damp and drafty attic writing it already.
As for “reducing use of precious resources”, history tells the clever bit is using human ingenuity to overcome whatever the challenge is.
Maybe the U.S. Administration will kick off a definitive look, one way or the other, at the abiotic theory of oil synthesis inside the earth’s crust.
But they do produce more hot air.
Imagine buying a new home where the only heat source is a reverse operating dodgy fridge! Power cuts anyone? and then what?
can’t light a real fire, can’t turn on the gas, all electric homes are a fools game and you’d be daft to even entertain the idea of buying one.
As with the failure of evs to hold their value, it will just increase the value of older houses with proper heating systems!
Your new build plot will be so small there is not room for a gas tank or oil tank especially as they need access from the road. I presume they are chimney free so you will need an external flue for a woodburner or two.
poor installations that have left their homes cold and expensive to run.
Sounds like they are working perfectly to me.
I wonder how many of these new build estates have mains gas? I have heard of ‘all electric’ estates running into the problem of a lack grid capacity and so being forced to supply mains gas. At least if you have gas you can nip across to France or Ireland and buy a gas boiler in the future.
Best bet is to buy one now and stash it in the garage, better still, buy a few for sale to ship-wrecked friends.
Does not the Heathrow incident show the importance of redundancy?
If the electricity goes, I can still cook on the gas hob, I’ve got a handful of LED lights and I can still heat the house with the coal fire (aside, new net zero coal is nigh on impossible to light). Hopefully enough hot water in the tank to ride it out.
If the gas goes, I’ve got the microwave & oven for cooking, coal fire for heat and immersion heater for water.
That’s exactly the way to do it, the more different sources of heating, cooking and lighting the better!
We have electric,a 3000watt 12v inverter, a 6.5kva generator, logs and coal burning stove, oil lamps and candles, bottled gas and a gas cooker and a lazy maid (not the wife) for drying on
So the gov’t is an insurance company?
The reason that we are powerless to fight back isn’t an understanding that all resistance would be futile. It is simply laziness and cowardice. If you talk about any of these issues to a British audience and allow questions at the end you will always get asked, what can we do to fight back? In countries where there is more cohesion and spirituality and integrity, where hardship and warfare have pushed them to their limits, they will listen to the talk. They already know what they have to do.
Based on our precarious electricity supply and its exorbitant cost alone, you would be a damn fool to throw away your gas boiler.