Heat Pump Installations take a Hit Due to High Prices in Scotland

UK: Scottish ministers have cautioned that heat pumps remain prohibitively expensive for ordinary homes, as new numbers show the Scottish Government failing to fulfil its own ambitions for installing the equipment.

Westminster's Public Accounts Committee said: "The cost of buying and running heat pumps is a substantial barrier to take-up for most households, at a time when incomes are already stretched." An average heat pump costs four times more than a gas boiler. The UK Climate Change Committee noted that only 6,000 heat pumps were installed in Scotland in 2023.

The UK Government aims to achieve net zero emissions by 2050, which necessitates almost all of the UK's 28 million households to replace their gas boilers and transition to decarbonized heating systems. Currently, only 237,256 of these devices have been installed in British homes. Scotland leads with the highest installation rate at 1.57%, followed by Wales at 1.45%, England at 0.74%, and Northern Ireland at 0.13%.

Source: Scottish Daily Express