Some of the UK’s biggest heating manufacturers have revealed how they are taking steps towards zero carbon heating.

A total of 24 heating and mechanical engineering companies have signed up to the Net Zero By Design report and are calling for policy changes to help them meet the country’s goal of eliminating or offsetting national carbon emissions fully by 2050.

Skills

BEAMA chief executive Dr Howard Porter has said that the Net Zero by Design report is an “opportunity” for the UK to build up its expertise in sustainability. HVAC manufacturers have echoed his comments, with some voicing concerns about a skills challenge and how lack of training and knowledge could hamper decarbonisation plans.

Efficiency

The report highlights the need for a strong focus on energy efficiency to support other technological developments towards low carbon buildings. HVAC companies point out that any changes to Building Regulations to support this would need to be robustly enforced if ambitious decarbonisation goals are to be achieved.

Incentives

The government is being called on to consider financial incentives for lower carbon technologies, such as reduced VAT, and has been criticised for planning to remove existing inducements such as reduced VAT on solar and storage.

Long-term planning

HVAC manufacturers believe that long-term planning is needed to develop a solution that incorporates different technologies, such as heat pumps and boilers powered by hydrogen, structured training programmes and efficiency measures including insulation. Jan Rosenow, Director of European programmes with the Regulatory Assistance Project (RAP), believes a  combination of low-carbon heating technologies and energy efficiency improvements is the solution to decarbonising heating, with the big challenge being to encourage mass uptake of low carbon technology alongside far greater energy efficiency.