Heat pumps: no silver bullet in the journey to net zero

By Alan Fogarty 2022-04-19T06:00:00

Government incentives for pumps and solar panels look like token gestures when the real focus should be on making existing homes more energy efficient

Existing buildings are the biggest challenge we face when it comes to decarbonising the built environment. With approximately 25 million households in the UK at present, we must retrofit 75,000 homes a month to meet the government’s ambitious 2050 net zero target.

In the discussion about how we achieve this, heat pumps are often talked about as a silver bullet solution that will save all our problems. However, with the constant evolution of technology and energy prices on the rise, is this really the solution we should be laying all our hopes on? Or should we be focussing our efforts on upgrading building envelopes instead?

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