The Heat Pump Association (HPA) has welcomed a report by the Committee on Climate Change (CCC) that calls for a ban on gas boilers in homes by 2025.
The report called ‘UK housing: Fit for the future?’ calls on the government to tackle emissions from homes, warning that the UK’s legally-binding climate change targets will not be met without the near-complete elimination of greenhouse gas emissions from UK buildings.
The Heat Pump Association believes that it is vital that key people in industry are aware of the potential of heat pumps for low carbon heating. Heat pumps supply more energy than they consume, by extracting heat from their surroundings. Currently heat pump systems can supply as much as 3kW of heat output for just 1kW of energy input. In many systems, heat is transferred from outside air or from warm exhaust air. In other types the heat can be drawn from the ground, or water sources such as rivers or waste water.
Graham Wright, Chairman of the HPA, said: “Although a major short-term shift to solely heat pumps would be impractical, extension of the gas grid in rural areas severely risks creating a much bigger negative legacy for the future. What cannot be denied is the ability of heat pump systems of all genres to significantly reduce carbon emissions, even at quite modest system efficiencies, compared to combustion-based heating.”
