Our sustainable future mission is focused on decarbonising our home heating and believes that heat pumps are the key to phasing out fossil fuel heating in homes - ensuring the UK hits its net zero targets.

The work involves grappling with vast amounts of data, analysis, research and public policy. But we understand that it's just as important to listen and to experience.

After spending time talking with installers and manufacturers about their work, we felt that taking part in installations first hand would help us learn even more about how we could encourage both householders and heating engineers to engage with heat pump technology.

So over the last few months, colleagues from the mission have been spending time shadowing heat pump engineers on site and helping with installations: getting stuck in with plumbing, wiring and moving equipment.

We were very grateful to have been hosted by Your Energy Your Way, which focuses on getting more women into the industry, Libtek, a family-owned company with 20 years of heating experience and Ramki, which fits cutting-edge heating tech.

So, what have we learnt so far?

Installation is an art as well as a science

Putting in a heat pump is much more complex than getting a new boiler. Each house is unique, with varying heating systems and components, and installers need to be creative about how to fit all of the new equipment into often very tight spaces. Working around existing things like decking and sewerage require careful planning and consultation with designers and unexpected obstacles are common.

Communicating with customers is half the job

Most jobs involve every room in the house so lots of discussion with customers is needed to both explain and get input on things like where the heat pump is positioned. Some customers are especially chatty and keen to oversee all tasks, and some ask detailed questions or for specific approaches, which can require negotiation.

Recruitment is tough

Installers struggle to find the staff they need. Training an apprentice is a huge investment and often they can move on when qualified, so the benefits aren’t always kept within the business.

There was a call for apprenticeships focused solely on renewable heating, growing the clean heat installation sector instead of losing apprentices to gas boiler installation firms - and encouragingly one has recently been launched.

The sector needs more women

A number of studies, including Nesta's heat pump installer survey, confirm that the plumbing and heating sector is overwhelmingly male dominated.

Some of the installers we shadowed found that householders who were women would have preferred to have had an engineer who was also a woman.

But bringing gender diversity into the sector is tough as potential new entrants are often put off by how male dominated it is. Concerningly, we also heard stories of female installers experiencing bullying once they'd entered the sector.

Shadowing could help expand the industry

It’s not just new engineers that are important - experienced gas heating installers could and should be trained in heat pump installation but many are wary of training to install heat pumps.

Admin time is significant

Echoing our sector survey, installers talked about how much admin is required to fulfil MCS requirements and questioned the level of detail requested. Smaller companies often can’t afford a dedicated admin person so lose time that they could be spending on paid work.

It’s hard for small teams to grow

The whole installation process is a lot for individual installers to manage and the tasks are very varied. It’s tricky to build sufficient revenue to employ dedicated design staff, so individual installers that want to expand their business often struggle. As a result, heating companies with several employees find it disproportionately easier to move into installing heat pumps.

Deliveries and retrieving parts interrupt flow

The more complicated nature of a heat pump install means that a degree of site management is required that can be harder for smaller installers. It can be difficult to have a solid chunk of time to work on a job whilst also managing parts and elements arriving as well as juggling repeated trips back and forth to the van.

People without smartphones could be excluded

Owners of modern heat pumps can access additional information about how their system is working through the manufacturer’s app, and control the system remotely. Without a smartphone this isn’t possible.

Misinformation and abuse are rife

Social media posts about heat pump installation can get hundreds of cruel and abusive replies. “Every single time I post one of my jobs online I get a whole load of hate from people who think it’s all a scam, so I’d welcome anyone to come and see how it can be done properly,” Libtek’s Alex Winters told us.

Health and safety is a challenge

The manual handling requirements are higher than for gas boiler installation. Heat pumps themselves are heavy, and unevenly weighted, requiring installers to lift potentially unsafe heavy weights.

We’ve learned so much from our shadowing experiences - there's really nothing like seeing it with your own eyes - that we’ve made it a standard part of the induction for new colleagues joining the sustainable future team.

We'll keep using the insights from shadowing, as well as our regular contact and research with heat pump engineers, to ensure that our innovations and policy influencing also has the sector's needs at its heart.