Renewable Energy Installer February 2015 | Page 21

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Beyond domestic heating
With the domestic market for heat pumps remaining sluggish, heat pump
specialist Bob Long looks at the merits of focusing greater business attention on
commercial-sized installs
H
aving waited patiently along with
many others for the arrival of the
RHI for heat pumps, I was gravely
disappointed by the outcome. The reception
given to the RHI by an overripe and desperate
audience was euphoric for a very short period,
only to realise that the incentives available
to biomass boilers took away any meaningful
desire to own a heat pump.
The relatively low level of financial
support through RHI, coupled with a
simultaneous government initiative to give
away gas boilers in certain sectors, means the
uptake of heat pump technology continues to
be quite lethargic.
Although changes to building codes are
well met by employing heat pump technology,
the volume uptake of heat pumps for domestic
users in general, is still quite slow, and
currently viewed by many companies as too
small a return to warrant the marketing effort.
To compound these negatives, too many
companies chasing too little work has in many
instances reduced the cost of installation to
a level where contractors cannot afford to
honour guarantees, or provide any meaningful
level of customer aftercare. Not to mention the
number of companies who conveniently go
out of business!
This situation has to change, as the UK
continues to address carbon reduction issues,
and more electrical energy is fed into our
national grid from a growing mix of renewable
resources.
For the heat pump industry, the question
must be; Is this going to happen fast enough
to support the basic economic needs of
survival?
The industry is further hampered by
stringent criteria to be met, with eligibility
to benefit from a heat pump through the
RHI often difficult to achieve and, in many
instances, NOT included in the advice options
within a domestic Green deal survey.
From an installer’s point of view, the
ongoing cost to maintain their position as RHI
accredited is a significant financial burden,
made difficult by low levels of commercial
activity and the high cost annual accreditation
fees.
A company fighting to stay solvent
often leads to misrepresentation of economic
returns and rewards, by an over-zealous sales
force, trying to secure an order in a difficult
market.
Clearly, in a renewables industry
featuring electricity as the common
denominator, the heat pump industry must
eventually flourish. A heat pump remains the
most economical method of deriving thermal
energy from electrical power.
Until then, it may be worth looking
at different sectors where the commercial
returns are sufficiently attractive without
government red tape and financial assistance.
Air and water source heat pumps
can collect energy from many sources and
commercial opportunities can be plentiful.
For example, an air source heat pump
benefitting from warm ventilation air from
a small bakery could provide all the hot
water required at a fraction of the cost of
an immersion heater and boiler, or a water
to water heat pump could capture valuable
energy from waste water.
These examples do require a small
degree of engineering but there are numerous
companies capable of producing designs,
and installation thereafter is generally quite
straight forward.
Equipment purchases to reduce carbon
emissions in the commercial sector are often
rewarded by reduced taxation, but obviously a
question to ask your accountant.
Although the domestic market in UK
is potentially massive with over 22 million
homes, until the RHI makes heat pump
ownership as financially interesting as the
early days of PV, an alternative market in the
non-domestic sector could be an interim
answer to commercial survival.
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