There is no possibility that the UK can meet its 2050 target for CO2 emissions without a fundamental change to the way our homes are heated, so reads a damning report published last month by the Royal Academy of Engineering.
The RAE highlights many issues that lead to this pessimistic outlook, including that of a sub-skilled plumbing and heating installation sector.
The Academy’s report, Heat: degrees of comfort, looks at the challenges of matching our demand for domestic heating with the binding requirement to reduce our overall carbon emissions. In it the authors called for more investment in “upskilling” heating engineers and installers, and a coordinated approach across the UK that would enable houses to be upgraded at a lower cost.
“We can no longer just muddle through,” said Scott Steedman of the RAE. “We need to make drastic changes.”
The report states that plumbers are almost wholly unprepared for the “drastic change” to the way the UK’s homes are heated as part of efforts to cut carbon emissions, meaning householders could need to turn to architects and engineers at a potential cost of over £20,000 per house.
The lack of necessary skills among plumbers and heating installers is proving a major brake on the UK’s ability to make this switch, the RAE found. The study found examples of inexperienced or under qualified installers causing serious problems.
One household paid thousands more than it should have because a heat pump had been wrongly connected – instead of energy bills falling as they had expected, the bills soared from £30 to £250 a month. It cost thousands to fix. In another case cited by one of the study authors, solid wall insulation was badly installed in some old housing stock, causing condensation to collect on the walls and rot floor joists. In conclusion the report states:
“The levels of applications engineering required to integrate a heat pump in a property along with local energy sources and other intelligent loads, such as chargers for electric cars, is much higher than is generally available in the trades that traditionally provide heating and related services to domestic consumers.
“A new type of energy use professional will be needed. Recruiting these will compete with the demands of new nuclear power, offshore wind and other energy industries that are already flagging-up staff shortages.”
In an attempt to plug the gap, late last year the Association of Plumbing and Heating Contractors announced its proposal to create a single industry scheme to allow more businesses to engage with the green agenda within the domestic sector.
The proposal is the result of the efforts of the APHC’s Sustainability Group, chaired by Lord O’Neill and comprised of key building services representatives.
The plan includes a four-stage process to move to a single industry-led voluntary scheme, the first stage of which would be to establish discussions with other building services organisations dealing with residential properties.
“There is a real appetite for an industry-led voluntary scheme aimed at the residential sector,” says Lord O’Neill.
Could your business be one of those benefiting from the APHC scheme? If so why not join the club for the ‘super plumbers’ of a zero-carbon future.
Heather Campbell
Editor
