The Climate Change Committee’s Seventh Carbon Budget set a trajectory for heat pump installations that must be met for the UK to reach climate targets – which equates to installing 380,000 low-carbon heating systems in existing homes in 2028, and 610,000 in 2030.

Reaching these targets will require positive changes across multiple factors, such as more people wanting heat pumps in their homes and a workforce that has the skills and capacity to meet this demand. Making these installations easy and affordable will also help ensure we stay on track. However, we know that some installations are considerably slower and more expensive than others, partly due to additional processes such as applying for planning permission.

This project explored how we can make each heat pump installation easy by identifying the biggest obstacles to heat pump adoption. This included those that result in high levels of delays or unexpected costs to householders, or which stop people on their heat pump journey entirely.

Identifying points of friction enables us to explore where we should focus our efforts to make the heat pump journey easier, particularly by identifying obstacles that could be overcome by creating a novel intervention. Raising the profile of interventions, or contributing to the evidence base of issues, also helps influence policy decisions by synergising with the efforts of other industry stakeholders. We think there could be a role for Nesta in creating shared learnings and initiating wider change by convening industry stakeholders, building on the efforts of others to make installing heat pumps easier.

Improving the experience of householders during their journey to installing a heat pump has been the focus of many installers, and many have also documented the array of barriers faced during this process. Some of the barriers have been addressed by changes in policy, such as the removal of the one metre rule for heat pump placement in England. However, there is still progress to be made in terms of making the installation process easy for each homeowner, especially because some barriers are only encountered by some people (such as requiring planning permission).

As we found with our project on investigating and addressing policy barriers in home decarbonisation, we believe that Nesta is well-placed to systematically map frictions in consumer heat pump journeys and help prioritise them based upon their impact. Our reputation as a trusted voice will help us convene industry stakeholders and start to build a comprehensive understanding of who faces barriers, their impact, and what we can potentially do to alleviate them.

We used a systematic approach to create a long-list of barriers and frictions that consumers face when installing heat pumps, from the information gathering stage to the physical installation. Using pre-existing datasets, alongside collecting new data, we assessed how prevalent barriers and frictions are, and the impact they are having on consumers in terms of additional costs and delays. We also assessed the extent to which others are working on solutions to address barriers, enabling us to highlight any overlooked areas, or prioritise which barriers could be most impactful if successfully removed.

In addition to the mapping approach, we spoke directly to heat pump owners, and those who wish to be one, to understand the lived experience of heat pump journeys. This enabled us to create a set of case studies to show how varied each experience can be.

Our findings indicate that there are a number of frictions and barriers that homeowners face when installing a heat pump, which can result in delays, unexpected costs, or hurdles that stop homeowners from progressing further. You can read the full findings in our reports Identifying barriers to air source heat pump adoption and Should we be making homes heat pump ready?. You can also read our blog on 10 things governments across Great Britain should do to make getting a heat pump easier.