Experts from a “nudge unit” have been hired to help ministers fight misinformation about heat pumps to try to encourage take-up of the devices.
The appliances run on electricity instead of gas and are regarded as a way of decarbonising homes at scale. A target of installing 600,000 a year by 2028 is part of a drive to achieve Britain’s commitment to reach net zero by 2050.
However, misinformation shared in the media and by “other stakeholders” is impeding uptake, according to a £100,000 government contract awarded to the Behavioural Insights Team (BIT), which specialises in ideas to “nudge” the public into taking different actions.
The contract awarded to BIT contains details of a previously unpublished research by the Department for Energy.
It found that individuals who self-reported that they knew a fair amount or a lot about heat pumps were less likely to want one. However, people who correctly answered a simple knowledge question about heat pumps were more likely to want one.
BIT is finalising a large survey of householders’ views and coverage in the media that will be used in planning how the government will push back against misinformation.
“Information about heat pumps is being shared by the media and stakeholders, which may be skewed to negative, incorrect or exaggerated stories of heat pump adoption,” says the contract, which cites examples including claims that the pumps are noisy, cost too much to install and are not reliable and don’t work in older homes.
Articles about heat pumps in the Daily Mail and the Daily Telegraph were cited in the document, which states that some of these stories “are generally well-founded, such as believing that heat pumps are expensive” but adds that some include incorrect misconceptions, such as believing they might not work well in the cold.
“Online information which is imbalanced or skewed towards incorrect and exaggerated claims could be considered an environment where misinformation is a problem,” it reads.
Hmmn, the version of England that i live in is filled with cheapskates and incompetence.
I remember the uk govt having to rapidly rewrite a whole section of the the MCS to address heatpumps. due to widespread under sizing, and poor installation / system design. Sure you can get quiet ones, if you pay even more.
The govt and the HP manufactures like to do their CBA on a “best case”, “minimum viable spec”, herioc assumptions about insulation/remedial work, and minimal retrofit costs. Oh sure they “can be quiet”; but what price was assumed in the CBA? not the “silent” model that costs a few £k more.
Whole new build estates were built with inadequate systems - there’s no excuse for not getting the sizing right on such a development as the overhead of an engineer is nothing, but of course they cheaped out; save £5k cost per house. Fuck the buyer ; they can pay for all the rework, and all the immersion heater uptime in the meanwhile.
It is totally reasonable to warn people of cost overruns, poor performance and massive remedial work with heat pump installs in England since inadequate installs and uderspec systems have happened and will continue to happen whenever a customer chooses the midpoint estimate. You need to tell them get at least 5 quotes and expect to pay the second highest or something. And they need to be vigilant that they actually get the output spec that they pay for.
If they tell people these things are “cheap”, then many peple will think that means they can take a cheap quote. It’s true that they can work, but the system needs to be designed and sized right - and this is likely to mean an awful lot more expense than a gas boiler that peple are used to.
I saw a youtube video where they remediated an inadequate install - they basically doubled the power rating, and installed several extra bits and pieces, must have been at least double the original cost - but they never gave the cost of the new system or the remedial work. This makes me very suspicious they just threw £30+K worth of stuff at the video as an advertising cost.