Is The UK's Heat Pump Problem Really A Trust Problem. Still?

On the start of InstallerSHOW, Which? has published research suggesting that many homeowners see heat pumps as a gamble rather than a straightforward home improvement decision.

The headline finding is dumbfounding.

Homeowners are worried about installation quality, future running costs, comfort, reliability and what happens if something goes wrong. Cost remains important, but it is not the whole story. It's dumbfounding because these are arguments many thought put to bed.

The findings deserve attention.

But they also deserve context.

One detail hidden in the methodology is that Which? surveyed homeowners who had already looked into heat pumps and either rejected the idea or remained undecided.

The research therefore tells us a great deal about hesitation, uncertainty and perceived risk. It does not necessarily tell us how every homeowner feels about heat pumps.

This is not a criticism of the survey. In many ways it is precisely what makes it valuable.

The people who stop, hesitate or walk away are often the people we most need to understand.

This is critical analysis of the No Sale.

Yet there is another question worth asking.

Why, after years of government policy, industry investment, installer training, certification schemes and consumer campaigns, are so many people still unsure?

The obvious answer is cost.

The more interesting answer may be trust.

Consumers do not appear to be asking technical questions. They are asking human questions.

Will my house be warm? Will my bills go up? Can I trust the installer? Will someone fix it if it goes wrong? Will I regret this decision?

Those are not engineering problems. They are confidence problems.

And confidence is created through communication.

The retrofit sector often talks about a skills gap. But perhaps, as some industry figures have argued, the skills gap is partly a symptom of a communication gap.

The UK heat pump market is highly fragmented. Thousands of independent installers, manufacturers, assessors, certification bodies, consultants and government agencies are all attempting to explain the same technology in different ways.

Consumers are left trying to navigate a maze of information.

Perhaps the real lesson from the Which? report is not that homeowners distrust heat pumps.

Perhaps it is that they are struggling to work out who to trust.

That is a very different challenge.

And one that everybody attending InstallerSHOW this week should be discussing.

Here's some of the very reasonable requests made in the press release in full, so you can see.

PRESS RELEASE -

Homeowners view heat pumps as a ‘high stakes gamble’, but costs are only partly to blame, Which? finds

New research from Which? reveals that homeowners find multiple risks attached to the prospect of installing a heat pump that go beyond the upfront cost.

Consumers are increasingly open to the idea of getting a heat pump, but uptake remains low despite growing interest. The consumer champion spoke to homeowners to understand what is holding them back. 

Which? carried out research to find out why uptake remains so low. The consumer champion surveyed over 1,000 homeowners to quantify key attitudes including levels of uncertainty, perceptions of risk and cost concerns.  

High costs have often been cited to explain the sluggish rate of adoption, but Which? researchers have identified psychological factors that play a significant role alongside financial considerations. 

For instance, a third (33%) of homeowners surveyed by the consumer champion who had looked into a heat pump but decided against or were undecided said there are “too many long-term uncertainties” for them to fully consider getting a heat pump and 29 per cent explicitly agreed that “the investment feels too much of a gamble.”

Participants in Which?’s interviews and focus groups raised a long list of unanswered questions covering the entire heat pump journey: from buying the technology, to living with it and eventually selling their home. Rather than facing a single barrier, homeowners encounter multiple uncertainties that build on one another, which creates a compounding sense of risk. Confidence is undermined as these uncertainties accumulate, which makes the investment increasingly difficult to justify. 

One cause of this anxiety is the perception that the heat pump installation market is a ‘Wild West’ filled with patchy advice and cowboy builders. Those surveyed consistently expressed the need for a recognised and rigorous standard of authority as a benchmark for trust. 

The government’s Microgeneration Certification Scheme (MCS) seeks to provide the guarantee of quality and installer competence that homeowners are looking for. One problem with the MCS is that homeowners have almost no spontaneous awareness of the acronym. Eight in 10 (77 per cent) of homeowners surveyed who had rejected or were undecided about getting a heat pump said they were not aware of the MCS certification for heat pump installers prior to taking the survey.

For MCS to serve its purpose of instilling confidence, Which? believes that the government must improve the MCS’s visibility and communicate its standards in plain, accessible language that directly addresses homeowners fears. Once the MCS concept was explained to respondents as the “UK’s quality mark for renewable energy systems”, three quarters (75 per cent) of homeowners surveyed stated that an MCS certification would reassure them about getting a heat pump, with only four per cent saying it would not. 

Another problem with the MCS is its mixed track record as a safeguard against cowboy installers. The MCS has introduced a new installer scheme which aims to address many of its past problems, but the effectiveness of this scheme remains to be proven. 

In the survey of 1,004 homeowners who had considered but rejected or were undecided about getting a heat pump, affordability remains the most significant concern. Almost half (49%) stated that both upfront and ongoing costs are stopping them from getting a heat pump. To solve this, new financing models are being promoted to overcome the cost barrier, such as Heat-as-a-Service and Property-Linked Finance. But Which? found that these new models often increased uncertainty rather than reducing it. 

Homeowners expressed particular concern about losing control over their heating and potential difficulties when selling their home in future. In contrast, more traditional options like additional borrowing on an existing mortgage were viewed far more positively.

Uncertainty about future energy bills is adding to homeowners’ anxiety. Many of those surveyed said they had no clear way of knowing whether switching to a heat pump would actually save them money over time. 

To tackle this, Which? is calling on the government to reduce the cost of electricity by removing environmental and social levies from bills and funding them through general taxation. Which? also recommends incentivising the use of performance monitoring technology to improve the efficiency of heat pump installations and give homeowners greater confidence in their running costs. Additionally, the consumer champion wants the government to help people access and choose appropriate tariffs, including smart tariffs, so they can keep their bills as low as possible.

Another factor is that heat pumps simply remain an unfamiliar technology for most people. Uncertainty and anxiety are rampant due to concerns about comfort, speed of heating, and whether homes will feel as warm as they do now. 

Consumers perceive heat pump installation as a step into the unknown, which is a psychological barrier that purely financial solutions, such as loan schemes, cannot solve. Better information and advice is needed for consumers to overcome their unfamiliarity and to build confidence in this new breed of heating system. 

Which? recommends that the government provides official information services with reliable facts on costs, performance and what to expect during and after installation. The government should also support partnerships with businesses, local authorities and consumer groups to deliver tailored advice that helps homeowners understand their options and feel confident when choosing a heat pump.

Which? is calling for the government to introduce a Warm Homes Guarantee to give homeowners much-needed reassurance about the quality of heat pump installations. The proposed guarantee would cover the standard of work and include a clear commitment to resolve any problems quickly and without hassle for the homeowner. 

Sue Davies, Which? Head of Consumer Protection Policy, said:

“Home heating is a costly but essential lifeline in the UK, so it is fully understandable that consumers perceive heat pumps as a high stakes gamble in the absence of robust protections and greater clarity about the impact on their future energy bills. 

“Interest in heat pumps is steadily growing, but homeowners are being held back by high upfront costs, uncertainty about running costs and a lack of confidence in technology that is still unfamiliar for many. 

“To support consumers considering a heat pump the government needs to ensure they are a straightforward, safe and affordable option.”

-ENDS-