The cost and benefits
There are a range of things that can be done to our homes to reduce their carbon emissions, each of which comes with its own financial and practical considerations.
Carbon vs cost savings for green retrofit measures
Installing an air source heat pump has the highest potential for carbon saving compared to other energy efficiency measures. It’s also comparatively affordable once the £7,500 Boiler Upgrade Scheme or £7,500-£9,000 Home Energy Scotland grant is used.
Sources: Energy Savings Trust and Nesta
Retrofitting our homes: the cost and impact
Retrofitting the UK’s comparatively old housing stock to be more energy efficient is going to be one of the biggest challenges in decarbonising our homes; A 2024 report found that 38% of UK properties were built before 1946.
27,000
27,000 retrofit engineers needed by 2028
6,000
6,000 avoided deaths per annum when housing is more heat-efficient
Greening Our Existing Homes – Construction Leadership Council
400,000
400,000 green jobs generated for the wider economy
£2
Every £1 invested in greener homes = £2 back to the economy
Greening Our Existing Homes – Construction Leadership Council
We need more heat pump engineers
The UK Government has set out a target to increase the annual installation of heat pumps from around 30,000 before 2020 to 600,000 by 2028.
Nesta estimates that there are currently 3,000 trained heat pump engineers in the UK (compared to 130,000 Gas Safe heating engineers), which will need to increase to at least 27,000 in the next six years if that target is to be met.
The heating industry is one of the least diverse parts of the UK economy. Considering the high average age of engineers, and that many will be retiring within the next decade, the industry needs to cast the widest possible net to attract recruits who are currently underrepresented. But there are some interesting new initiatives already emerging and training is surging:
- Stopcocks, all female heating engineers (visual of website)
- Low carbon heating apprenticeship schemes (announced by MCS in 2023), the first intake starting their training journey at Derby College in February 2024 (visual of website/image)
- Octopus even held a green jobs festival, OctoPalooza in February 2024 (embed clip)
Browse this list of heat training providers by region.
Check out our show section for relevant locations for filming.
Image: courtesy of Daikin www.daikin.co.uk
Find out more:
- The Greenworkx website helps users find pathways to a new green job, empowering job seekers with the essential skills for green careers and connecting employers with environmentally conscious talent.
- This recent report from Public First, Princes Trust Foundation and Ennismore (2023) looks at young people's readiness for the net zero skills revolution.
- This MCS report from 2023 explores what it will take to train a skilled workforce from gen-Z.
- This paper from ODI and Green Alliance addresses the challenge of decarbonising the UK's building stock, and asks: can immigration challenges help solve the UK's workforce challenges?
- Read Nesta’s “How to scale a highly skilled heat pump industry” paper
- The Climate Assembly UK’s In The Home report makes recommendations about changes needed to the use of heating, hot water and electricity in the home to reach net zero greenhouse gas emissions.
- Nesta’s report, How to scale a highly skilled heat pump industry, explores the current state of the heat pump market and suggests ways that the UK can drastically increase the number of heat pump installations.
- Hundreds of people are being given free specialist training at 'Retrofit Bootcamps' in the West Midlands, to upgrade thousands of homes in the latest low carbon technologies.
- Watch this episode of ITV’s Save Money: My Beautiful Green Home, which aims to demystify all things to do with eco-building.
- Watch Channel 4’s series, George Clarke's Amazing Spaces, where presenter George Clark explores the extraordinary world of small builds. In this particular episode, George visits a glass-fronted eco-lodge.
- Watch this series of Kevin McCloud's Man Made Home, where Kevin builds his own beach home in Somerset, recycling and repurposing all sorts of different materials and even setting up a solar powered hot water shower made from an old telephone box.
- Watch Channel 5’s documentary, Solar Panels: Are They Really Worth It? in which presenter Alexis Conran investigates the pros and cons of buying solar panels for our homes.