Damon Blakemore: Heat Pumps Done Right
Unless you've been living under a rock the last few years, it's hard to ignore the presence of one of the rising stars of the heat pump world. The Sheffield based engineer, who has been a regular contributor and critic, and we need that too, is unequivocally one of the most helpful men in this industry.
When we interviewed him en route back from pricing a commercial project, we caught up with Damon to get the lie of the land as we head into show season, with the Heat Pump Show arriving soon in Newark, and the inimitable team at the Installer Show ramping up their promos.
We asked him, what is the customer attitude to heat pumps now?
“I think we've kind of gone over that bridge now with heat pumps. There's that much good out there, there's that much press, good installs. Installers are getting better. The industry is getting bigger… I think it's in a good place. It's probably the best place it's been.”
This is an incredible point to be at and signals the extent that hard working advocates like Nathan Gambling and Bean Beanland and the team at the Heat Pump Association have achieved.
Information that correctly portrays the performance of heat pumps is becoming actively available everywhere. And performance in this industry is the bedrock of gaining trust from homeowners and businesses who are barracked with a barrage of misinformation.
“Misinformation is probably the biggest one… all the bad reports in press and the bad name they've got.”
The critical point at this moment in time is capitalising on the momentum of the hard work of others. Damon is having to be conscious of the responsibility that comes with such influence. When we asked him about the use of more controls in the industry and different emitter types, he was rightly cautious to avoid endorsing products or brands that he has not actually worked with.
Blakemore Plumbing Heating Renewables
Damon Blakemores Eponymous Company: http://blakemoreplumbingandheating.co.uk/
This is not because he is not going to use them, or has not had successes with them, but in a world of hedgehogs and foxes, whether you like it or not, Damon is one of the foxes. Sceptical until seeing proof, optimistic but not gullible, you can see why the industry regards his approach as valuable. Being a fox does not mean he is not open to change, it means he keeps himself brand agnostic, delivering solutions that fit the customer's needs, not the incentives of the products he installs.
Find Out Why Damon is More Fox Than Hedgehog - And Why That's Important (Video Starts on Fox Description)
Damon is a pragmatist too. He can see that hundreds of new entrants to the industry are hungry for knowledge, but skills are difficult to acquire in the zero sum game of installations. No homeowner wants to feel like their install is being completed by someone who might get it right. Damon talks about his own challenges of recruiting and training engineers.
“I think you'll find a lot of people retraining are probably going to be in a better position than what people are already in… I think it's more about the character… you can tell a lot just speaking to someone.”
And crucially, he highlights something that runs counter to the traditional narrative of experience.
“Someone retraining… you can mould them. They’re not unlearning bad habits… sometimes they pick things up faster.”
Let us be absolutely clear here, Damon is not one of the entrenched engineers that has a binary opposition to gas boilers, but he is a man who is adamant that the future of heat in this country is in heat pumps. And he should know. He has not only installed some of the top performing heat pumps in the country, but he has also taken on, and at some expense, and because he is a stubborn idealist, remediation work.
Not your average remediation work. If you have seen some of the infamous installs by companies well known in the industry, Damon painstakingly, methodically reinstalls the heat pumps, which ultimately should have been done right the first time.
“Incorrect pipe sizing is probably the main one… water quality is a big one… but it’s all basic errors… that’s what frustrates me more.”
What becomes clear over the course of the conversation is that Damon Blakemore is not trying to win the heat pump argument. He is trying to make it work.
There is a difference.
In a sector that still oscillates between hype and hostility, Damon sits somewhere far more useful, in the middle of the work. Reflecting, improving, adjusting. Not chasing perfection as a slogan, but as a process.
“Every job I sit down afterwards… I’ve got a book of everything I don’t like about that job or what I could improve… I think you can improve on everything.”
That mindset, iterative, honest, slightly obsessive, is probably the most important signal the industry has right now. Not that everything is solved. Not that everything is broken. But that there are people inside it, doing the work properly, and getting better every time they do it.
And that matters more than endorsements, affiliations, or weekend noise.
Because the next phase of this industry will not be decided by who shouts the loudest.
It will be decided by who installs the best.
And if the current trajectory holds, if the combination of better informed customers, more accountable installers, and visible performance continues, then the sunny uplands Damon alludes to are not some distant policy ambition.
They are already starting to show up, one install at a time.
“I think this is the beginning of the take-off… I don’t think it’s ever been as positive as what it is now… I think the only way you can go is up.”
