Tag: #renewablestraining

Why Buy a Heat Pump from Us?

We know it’s difficult to choose a heat pump installer. Whilst you should always start with an MCS (www.mcscertified.com) accredited installer, there are a lot of them to choose from. So why choose us?

Tailored and Bespoke Installations

Our founder and owner Leah Robson has been installing heat pumps for 10 years. She visits each of our customers and ensures that the heating system we fit for you is bespoke and tailored to meet the needs of you and your home. Heat pumps come in many brands, types and sizes and whilst we most often install Samsung, Vaillant and Kensa heat pumps, we are able to install many others as required. We also understand that some customers would rather maximise the performance and energy efficiency of their heating system, whereas for others, cost to run, noise or appearance of the outdoor unit are more important.

High Quality Installations

We pride ourselves on the quality of our workmanship. A lot of our business comes from customers recommending us to their friends and we have some excellent reviews on Google. We want you to talk about how fantastic it has been to have a heat pump installed by us. You can see from the photos in our Gallery that each cylinder cupboard is carefully designed to create an elegant, easy to maintain arrangement of pipework. Each heat pump sits on a purpose-built base to ensure that the condensate drainage is safely kept off paths and away from your building.

Once you agree to have a heat pump installed by us, our Senior Heating Engineer Kevin will visit your home to confirm the technical design and discuss pipe and cable runs. He will run the project once we start, directing our other heating engineers Colin and Dave and liaising with you should you have any queries. Any issues can always be escalated to Leah. At the end of your project Kevin will provide a full handover and you will receive a handover pack with all the information about your installation. Ongoing support is provided and we very much want to annually service your heat pump for you.

Whole House Renewables

We are a whole house renewables company and 50% of our customers also have solar PV and batteries installed by us as part of their project. This means that we can work with you to ensure that the various components of your renewable home work well together. We will ensure that you have the right amount of PV panels and battery storage to reduce the running cost of your heat pump and can advise about the best controls for your heat pump and solar PV system.

We are used to installing heat pumps as part of a wider project of refurbishing or extending your home and can be flexible to install as part of 1st and 2nd fix. Once you sign up with us we provide a full set of builder’s requirements so that your builder knows what they need to provide for us – electrical supplies, pipework etc. Then we meet on site with you and your builder to ensure that everyone is on the same page.

Social Enterprise and Training

Finally, we are a social enterprise, dedicated to training the next generation of renewables installers. We currently have 5 female trainees learning heating, plumbing and electrics. We are a 50/50 male /female firm, which is an outstanding ratio in an industry that is only 2% female. You can read more about our training scheme here. We want to train our trainees to be the very best that they can be and they all work very closely supervised by our experienced installers.

More Subsidy for Heat Pumps

Yesterday the Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, announced changes to the government policies supporting the country’s transition to Net Zero.

One of the changes affects the Boiler Upgrade Scheme (BUS), which helps homeowners with an upfront payment towards the cost of an energy-efficient heating system, such as heat pump. Under this scheme grants are to be increased.

Where before there was a £5000 grant towards an eligible air-source heat pump installation, this has been increased by 50% to £7500.

For an eligible ground-source heat pump installation the grant has been increased from £6000 to £7500.

The new vouchers will be available from 23rd October, but we can already take bookings for work at the new rate. Note that they do not yet reflect on the government website.

We recognise that a heat pump has a large upfront cost attached to it. The increase in the grant will make an installation more affordable and allow more homeowners to take low carbon heating into consideration.

Heating our homes and workplaces with low carbon heat is the best way of helping to lower carbon emissions and doing our bit to help combat climate change. Emissions from domestic heating and hot water currently make up around 77% of total household carbon emissions. We seriously need to move away from the high carbon fossil fuels we currently use and change the way we heat our homes over the next decade and beyond to work towards Net Zero.

The demand for renewable energy solutions is currently high, yet there are not enough trained engineers to meet the demand of heat pump and solar panel installations. We are proud to have launched an innovative training scheme in renewables to meet the shortage of low carbon energy experts.

If you have an upcoming installation with us, you will certainly get to meet one of our trainees.

You can read more about our training programme here.

Your Energy Your Way launches new Trainee Scheme to solve the Renewables Skills Gap

Social Enterprise Your Energy Your Way launches a Trainee Renewables Scheme to meet the skills shortage of low carbon energy experts by recruiting a diverse workforce of renewables technicians.

With households and businesses realising that low carbon energy is an essential part of meeting Net Zero climate change targets,  demand for renewable energy solutions is high. But, there are not enough trained fitters to install the necessary heat pumps and solar panels. A recent report by Nesta states that we need 27,000 more by 2028*.

Social Enterprise Your Energy Your Way (YEYW) is launching a new scheme designed to meet this skills gap by recruiting a diverse workforce. The mission of YEYW is to  enable the transition to low carbon energy, through integrated renewable solutions, delivered by a diverse workforce. The scheme has therefore been designed to be particularly appropriate for women, by addressing  potential barriers for female candidates:

• shortage of apprenticeship places

• a lack of female role models

• unsupportive environments

• financial difficulties associated with training later in life.

Full details of the trainee scheme: https://www.greenworkx.org/lp-your-energy-your-way

Leah Robson, Managing Director of YEYW, said:

‘A recent report on the heating sector by Energy Systems Catapult* stated that “Increasing diversity is key to addressing the skills shortage and meeting Net Zero targets”. We think we have found a solution, by designing a training programme that is rooted in real world experience. We intend to pay trainees the real Living Wage to encourage recent graduates and career changers to join the programme.’

Samsung Climate Solutions has generously donated a significant grant to enable the traineeship to take place.

Steve Fleming, Head of Samsung Climate Solutions UK & Ireland, commented:

“Samsung Climate Solutions are really proud to be involved with this initiative to make a change in the heating industry. We feel this is a fantastic opportunity for the installers of the future to work and train with Leah, one of the standard bearers in the industry. We look forward to supporting the trainees’ progress and helping to mentor and train the new recruits.”

The programme is intended as the pilot for a renewables training programme that could be rolled out to improve training, workforce diversity and renewable delivery across the sector.

It is being facilitated by online learning experts Betateach, who will provide fortnightly online meetings with a learning manager, to support the real world experience of working with YEYW’s heat pump installers, solar PV installation team and office team.

Each trainee will be tasked to maintain a daily presence on Betateach’s Learning Experience Platform, uploading videos, comments and  discussion starters about the work they have been engaged in that day to enable peer-to-peer learning between the trainees. YEYW will provide additional engagement with industry experts, the Betateach Learning Manager will make regular site visits to the trainees, and each trainee will have an external mentor throughout.

At the end of the course, the  trainees will be peer assessed by Your Energy Your Way staff and other recognised industry professionals to confirm that they are competent.

Greenworkx, the talent platform for emerging green jobs, is running the campaign to find fresh new talent for this programme. Mat Ilic has been working closely with YEYW on it and says:

‘Greenworkx is on a mission to get ten million people into green jobs by the end of the decade, a crucial contribution if the world is to reach net zero targets. We are delighted to be working with Your Energy Your Way on this campaign, because we share a vision that says these are good jobs for everyone, and our route to a better future for people and the planet. This training programme is building a clear pathway for new entrants to industry to learn while they earn, which is fundamental if we are going to succeed in building the skilled workforce for net zero.’

Renewable Energy Technicians fitting solar panels