Renewables Centre has teamed up with Nesta to launch the Start at Home scheme, giving newly trained heat pump installers the opportunity to install a heat pump in their own home for free.

Through the scheme, Renewables Centre will provide installers with a free heat pump, radiators, ancillaries, and free MCS designs and commissioning to help them carry out their first installation in a low-risk environment to help build their confidence.

Installers will also benefit from regular site visits by experienced engineers, providing live support and expert guidance throughout the installation.

Coupled with its free training offer, the launch of the Start at Home offering means Renewables Centre is helping installers bridge the gap between training and installation.

According to the Heat Pump Association, that gap is currently very large, with a study showing that 73 percent of trained heat pump installers don’t carry out an installation within the first 12 months of passing their training.

The Start at Home scheme will help close that gap by giving installers a chance to carry out their first heat pump installation in their home, with no financial or reputational risk. Installers will also benefit from regular site visits for live support throughout the installation,

Rory Sparkes, Head of Proposition at Renewables Centre, comments: “The Start at Home scheme is the latest addition to our proposition, offering installers all the tools to get started on their renewables journey.

“Studies show there is a lack of newly trained heat pump installers who go on to install during the first 12 months after their training. That may be due to a number of things, whether it’s having the confidence to start installing, or lacking an understanding of the systems.

“Giving installers the chance to install one in their home through this scheme will help address that by giving them hands-on experience of an installation, so they feel more confident to start installing heat pumps on a regular basis.”

Louis Stupple-Harris, Strategic Partnerships Lead at Nesta, comments: “After testing the Start at Home scheme with heating engineers in Scotland and Northern Ireland, we found that it was a great success.

“By allowing them to install a heat pump in their own home, all participants said they became more confident and had a deeper technical understanding. This meant they were much better placed to start installing heat pumps and promoting the benefits to homeowners.”

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