Response to Amendments to the Boiler Upgrade Scheme (BUS)

On the 18 November, the UK government published its amendments to the Boiler Upgrade Scheme (BUS). Energy Systems Catapult responds.

Kat Young, Practice Manager – Heat Policy, Energy Systems Catapult, said:

The technology best-suited for decarbonising each of our homes will vary but achieving affordable, low-carbon warmth must be the goal. By expanding the Boiler Upgrade Scheme grants to include air-to-air heat pumps and thermal batteries, government is giving consumers greater choice and increasing the accessibility of these technologies.

Thanks to their significantly higher efficiencies, air-to-air heat pumps can be a powerful tool to tackle fuel poverty for households currently using direct electric resistive heating. The upfront cost and disruption can be significantly lower than installing a new wet central heating system, making air-to-air heat pumps potentially more cost effective and attractive to consumers. By making the grant only available when fossil fuel heating systems are removed, this ensures real carbon savings can be achieved.

With overheating in summer increasingly becoming a national health concern, air-to-air heat pumps offer the additional benefit of cooling, allowing people to stay comfortable sustainably. Passive climate resilience should always be considered in building design, but this move could increase awareness of the multiple benefits of heat pumps and accelerate uptake.

We know from the Electrification of Heat demonstration project that there are some properties where installing heat pumps is more disruptive or challenging. The inclusion of heat batteries in the Boiler Upgrade Scheme, where it can meet the full space and hot water demand of the household, without fossil fuel heating systems, increases consumer choice. It’s important that agile and time-of-use tariffs continue to be available and that consumers are incentivised to charge their heat batteries in off-peak periods, to reduce strain on the electricity networks.

The grant support for heat batteries will only become available once technical product standards have been established. This is important for consumer protection and ensuring good performance of the systems.

Innovative business models that increase the choice of financial products available for consumers updating their heating system should be encouraged. Heat-as-a-Service (HaaS) models offer significant potential to accelerate heat pump adoption by removing upfront costs, simplifying the consumer experience, and aligning provider incentives with comfort, efficiency and decarbonisation. However, the business models need to operate within a strong policy framework of consumer protection, which is not yet in place. We look forward to working with government and industry to make this a reality.