Proactive Investors - Heat pumps have received positive feedback in the UK’s first large-scale survey of owners who have made the switch from traditional gas boilers, innovation charity Nesta found.
Over 70% of 2,500 respondents said they were satisfied with their new heat pumps last winter after replacing older oil and gas-burning boilers, including those in older buildings.
Heat pumps work by compressing air to heat it up, which is then circulated through buildings, providing a greener and more efficient alternative to carbon-emitting boilers.
Despite criticism that the systems would not work in older and less-well-insulated houses, Nesta concluded there “was no evidence that satisfaction varied significantly by property age”.
Nesta sustainable future director Madeleine Gabriel commented that the report should put “outdated” views on heat pumps to rest and allow the government to “redouble efforts” to fit 600,000 new systems in UK homes by 2028.
£5,000 government grants have struggled to push homeowners to install heat pumps so far though, with just over a third of the available funding being accepted last year.
Octopus Energy (LON:ORIT) and Centrica PLC (LON:CNA) subsidiary British Gas are among suppliers which have also moved to cut prices of heat pumps in the past year, with the former also promising refunds in May if customers are unsatisfied.
According to Octopus, there is “astronomical demand” for heat pumps, with some 50,000 households having expressed an interest in the new systems to the company.
“The government should now have the confidence to move forward quickly” in rolling out heat pumps, the supplier’s external affairs director, Clem Cowton, commented.