Engineering nous is crucial for a heat pump to work efficiently, argues Stephanie Willis, a data scientist at tech firm Sero, because the energy consumed by the devices can vary greatly depending on the heating demands of a property.
It’s not just that the country needs more heating engineers, then, those engineers need to really know their stuff, too.
“Doing a good job of the installation just matters much more with a heat pump than a gas boiler,” says Ms Willis.
Various other organisations are training heat pump engineers, including energy company Octopus. It currently has 250 installers and intends to scale this up by “thousands” in the coming years, according to a spokeswoman.
The Oil Firing Technical Association (Oftec) is also running a government-subsidised heat pump installation course at 19 locations in England. However, spokesman Malcolm Farrow says the subsidised training is due to end in March.
“We think the government should extend the funding throughout next year,” he says.
Mike Sammon, director of Ainsdale Gas and Heat Pumps in Southport, argues that there is still some misinformation about heat pumps perpetuated by tradespeople who are not familiar with the latest technology.
Mr Sammon completed a previous training course offered by Heat Geek in October 2021 and says that, in his opinion, “heat pumps are the future”.
But the lack of installers isn’t the only problem. Mr Sammon criticises the grant available for homeowners in England and Wales: “It often doesn’t cover half the cost,” he says.
The maximum grant available for an air source heat pump is £5,000, though bigger grants are offered in Scotland, external. There are currently no grants available for replacing a boiler with a heat pump in Northern Ireland.
The UK has not put in place enough policies to reach the target of 600,000 heat pump installations per year, argues Richard Hanna at Imperial College London.
“There’s no official government road map on that so it’s difficult to really take government policy seriously,” he says.
A government spokeswoman responds by saying the UK is making heat pumps “attractive and affordable” – and that industry has reacted positively to the English and Welsh upgrade scheme in its first year.
Ultimately, installers are the foot soldiers of the great British heat pump push and Mr Weech, for one, is happy to be joining up.
“I’ve got a job that I’m really proud of,” he says. “I’m not just going to work to earn money, I’m going to work and I’m learning every day.”
