To reduce emissions from heat there is a need to drastically increase heating from renewable resources. There is a push towards the electrification of heating through national policies and in line with the Government’s legal obligations and as such all new residential properties will not be connected to the gas grid from 2025 meaning there is a need for suitable alternatives. Mass deployment of heat pumps is likely to be key to achieving these aims.

While heat pumps are a renewable technology capable of being deployed on residential properties there are many barriers to their deployment, which has resulted in a low uptake across the UK and include;

• Uncertainty from property owners around suitability of their property.

• Lack of understanding how to best bring a building up to the required standard to make it suitable for a heat pump.

• Fewer incentives to transition to renewable heating options such as heat pumps’

• Capital costs required exceed that of traditional gas boilers.

• Fuel poverty.

All of the above have a significant impact on the deployment of residential heat pumps and through this project PEC tackles these problems by focussing on the qualities of different housing archetypes and what retrofit measures are required for each to allow for optimum heat pump installations will allow us to work towards removing these barriers.

The learning from this project will support PEC and Plymouth City Council with domestic low carbon retrofit across the city. This will include the launch of the Sustainable Warmth programme and support practical recruitment of householders to receive funded low carbon improvements.

This project provides a more robust understanding of heat pump roll out for Devon and SW of England by rounding out the learnings from the rural heat pump project undertaken by the SW Net Zero Energy Hub.