UK heating engineers slow to support transition to clean heat technologies
Baxi has published its 2024 Installer Skills Survey, revealing that attitudes of heating engineers towards low carbon heating are hard to shift, contributing to the slow growth in UK heat pump adoption.
The survey, conducted in partnership with green supply chain consultancy Gemserv, examines the appetite and confidence of heating engineers to support households in their transition to clean heat technologies. It also reflects the future pace of change in the installer community. In the UK, around 18% of all carbon emissions comes from home heating, with around 85% of homes using natural gas boilers.
As consumers often rely on a heating engineer’s expertise when deciding on heating options for their home, installers play an influential role in the decision to move away from natural gas boilers towards low carbon alternatives, such as heat pumps. As such, the survey is an important indicator of the readiness of heating engineers to adopt and promote heat pumps in the context of evolving government policies and consumer demands. Over 300 installers took part in the survey, conducted in August 2024.
Although this year’s survey reveals more positive sentiment towards heat pumps compared to the first edition in 2022, it’s clear that many installers still lack the training, knowledge and incentive to help homeowners begin their transition away from gas boilers.
Just 9% of installers say they are fitting heat pumps. This is up from 3% in 2022 and 7% in 2023. Sentiment towards heat pump installation in the future looks weak, with half of installers saying they are “somewhat” or “extremely unlikely” to start fitting heat pumps in the next three years. This compares to 46% in 2022 and even less confidence – 53% – in 2023. There is more enthusiasm for hybrid systems – where a heat pump is combined with a gas boiler – with 30% of installers showing interest.
Ian Trott, Baxi’s Head of UK Training, said: “While the 2024 survey shows some positive developments, particularly regarding hybrid systems, many of the challenges highlighted by previous surveys, such as insufficient training, poor government support, low consumer demand, haven’t moved on. The transition to low carbon heating will require more targeted interventions to support installers in overcoming these barriers.”
