Renewables - November 29, 2020 Heat Pumps are so 2020!2020 has been a challenging year for everyone, and the team at Prestige Plumbing & Building Services are no different. We have had to contend with working safely in our customers homes, sometimes at difficult times, when they have had no heating, hot water or have an emergency situation. So as we pull into our last month of the year, we are looking forward to getting onto the home straight and finishing December with a final flourish. We have been installing & servicing heat pumps since our director Dan Evans sat his Heat Pump qualifications with City and Guild back in 2004. Since then the quality of the units we work on has vastly improved, as has the volume of work. In 2020 we have installed more ASHP (Air Source Heat Pumps) than we have oil fired boilers. This is a first for us and it is a welcome change. Though we don't mind rolling our sleeves up and cleaning an oil boiler during a routine service, it does seem strange in 2020 we should still be installing so many kerosene burning appliances when there are many alternatives which can provide just as much comfort for the occupants of the building and make less environmental impact for their output. This year we have installed both domestic and commercial heat pumps - and offered a full turn key solution, from system design, supply and fit - we have also organised all the RHI funding by installing fully MCS approved equipment. This means our customers not only benefit from having highly efficient, clean and quiet equipment to heat their homes, they get paid grant money directly from government in return. We have been busy upskilling in the years since 2004, and can now not only install and maintain the wet side of the equipment, but we can also work on the gas side of renewable systems, and we have also helped other installation companies as sub contractors on the side of the system most difficult for traditional plumbers and heating engineers. In 2021 we intend to build on the success of 2020. We already have four heat pumps lined up for installation in January, two in newly built homes and two in existing properties. Proving any home can be heated with a heat pump -it's just a case of correctly specifying the system and ensuring the right equipment is in place along with a quality installation to tie it all together. We won't be walking away from our gas and oil appliances just yet but watch this space as we push on to utilise new technologies in our work including Viessmann's Vitovalor Hydrogen cell boiler and air to water / air to air heat pumps for cooling as well as heating. 2020 may have been a hard year for everyone but as we have all had to spend more time at home, we now all look to make them as efficient and reliable as possible and for Prestige Plumbing this can only be a good thing. Bring it on!