In the UK we have A LOT of safety regulations for these sorts of things. They were mostly EU rules that we kept after Brexit (not necessarily a bad thing), getting something approved takes time, development and money.
Another issue is we have many MANY small terraced (lots of houses joined together in a row) houses that would struggle to fit a large heat pump and many of these houses are old, like 100 years + making modifications expensive. Until they’re smaller and cheaper with better incentives I unfortunately just don’t see us taking them up.
I don’t understand why any of these factors, none of which seems specific for the UK but instead applicable to the entire EU, would make heat pumps more expensive in the UK compared to the EU.
In the UK we have A LOT of safety regulations for these sorts of things. They were mostly EU rules that we kept after Brexit (not necessarily a bad thing), getting something approved takes time, development and money. Another issue is we have many MANY small terraced (lots of houses joined together in a row) houses that would struggle to fit a large heat pump and many of these houses are old, like 100 years + making modifications expensive. Until they’re smaller and cheaper with better incentives I unfortunately just don’t see us taking them up.
I don’t understand why any of these factors, none of which seems specific for the UK but instead applicable to the entire EU, would make heat pumps more expensive in the UK compared to the EU.
AFAIK they’re really expensive in Germany because of how they’re subsidised.
Aka… they’re purposely overpriced because “free government money” brings the price back to what it would be, theoretically. Ain’t capitalism grand?
You’d think all new builds would have to have heat pumps and solar panels, thereby reducing demand.
Sadly, that’s probably like 1% of housing stock.