When Will Heat Pumps Be Mandatory?

So When Will Heat Pumps Be Mandatory?

You may be wondering when air source heat pumps will be mandatory for homes? The new governments future home standards will come into place in 2025 which means all new builds in 2025 will be required to have an air source heat pump installed.

In 2025 the regulations in part L will be changing, now a lot the regulations are not just based around heating it's based-on fabrication of properties too. The main part that will affect boilers and air source heat pumps is that any new wet heating system installed in 2025 must be designed with a maximum flow temperature of 55°C but they must also try to achieve the lowest flow temperature reasonably possible.

One of the hardest parts of implementing air source heat pumps into the current UK housing stock is that all radiators in the current housing stock are designed with flow temperature of around 65°C and an air source heat pump runs at 55°C and below meaning that switching to an air source heat pump means that the entire heating system apart from maybe some pipework would have to be changed to accommodate the new flow temperature. This regulation will make it far easier to switch any future heating system to an air source heat pump and with the £7500 Grant for air source heat pumps it will also prompt people start installing air source heat pumps in new properties and older properties when replacing existing heating systems. If new build properties have to design the system for low temperature the most logical solution would be to install a device that specialises in low temperature heating.

Future Targets for the Government with Air Source Heat Pumps

The government have set a target that by 2028 the UK should be replacing around 600,000 fossil fuel boilers per year with air source heat pumps. By 2035 the government are wanting this number to increase to 1,600,000 per year and completely start replacing fossil fuel systems across the UK when it's possible.

In 2022 the UK installed approximately 55,000 heat pumps meaning that we would need to start installing ten times the current number of systems to achieve this target.

What Government Funding is There for Air Source Heat Pumps

The Boiler Upgrade Scheme (BUS) launched back in May 2022 to help support homeowners in the UK with the installation of an air source heat pump in their home. This would help decarbonise the housing in stock within in the UK massively. The boiler upgrade scheme allows an upfront grant of £7500 towards the cost of having an air source heat pump system installed.

Originally the Boiler Upgrade Scheme was only supposed to be allocated for 30,000 installs per year for 3 years and was restricted to £5000 but at first there was little uptake, and the government had to increase the funding to £7500 they also extended to the scheme to 2028 to help push towards the target of 600,000 heat pump replacement by 2028.

Gas Boiler Ban in 2025?

In 2025 all new homes built will not be allowed to install gas boiler which means all new builds will have to be installed with an air source heat pump or other alternative. This is another regulation set out in the future homes standard to help increase the push towards the government targets of net zero by 2050. This will be one of the major catalysts to pushing air source heat pumps to a household brand. If people think back to when solar panels where installed they were very few installed back in 2010 it was only maybe 1-2 systems per village, but now you can see maybe 2-3 systems per street. This is what will happen with air source heat pumps in the future, especially with gas boiler ban on new builds in 2025 coming into place.

Sale of Gas Boilers Banned by 2035

The government have set a target to ban the sale of new gas boilers by 2035 although this is subject to change as the government are thinking this may be a bit premature to implement just a massive change this quickly. Climate experts have warned the government about putting this target back any further as delaying this will make net zero targets very unlikely to be hit. This will also have big implications on pushing the installation targets of air source heat pumps back even further.

Is it Worth Installing a New Gas Boiler?

With the future of gas boilers on the decline and the chance that the sale of gas boilers will be banned by 2035 if you're at the point of needing a new boiler it's the best time to investigate into an air source heat pump especially with the government offering £7500 towards the cost of an air source heat pump to all homers in England.