Research reveals that eight in ten people who switched their vote from Conservative to Labour since 2019 think the outgoing government didn’t do enough on energy efficiency. With swift action expected from this one, Glynn Williams, UK Managing Director, Grundfos, says simple solutions are already available.
In the wake of the King’s Speech, it is clear that the new government needs to address the energy efficiency problems facing UK homes and commercial buildings. 7.4 million UK adults struggle to pay bills and the Chancellor has now scrapped winter fuel payments for 10 million pensioners.
The Climate Change Committee recently urged government to push taxes on electricity onto gas to maximise the benefit of green technologies such as heat pumps. However, for most businesses other, lower-hanging fruit measures will make more of an impact in the immediate term.
Government can turn the tables by implementing efficiency upgrades that streamline energy consumption and enable substantial savings in both the short and the long term. Specifically, choosing the right pumps and optimising them within the heating systems they serve can offer businesses huge savings.
During Labour’s election campaign, the party pledged an extra £6.6 billion in grants and low interest loans to support investment in insulation. Yet while this is valuable, insulation is not a silver bullet.
Instead, focusing on the root causes of energy waste through critical improvements in heating systems is the only way to get to the heart of the issue. What’s more, we cannot forget about businesses, which face an annual opportunity cost of £717 million due to missing out on innovative energy efficiency upgrades.
GB Energy, announced last week as a publicly owned company designed to boost energy independence and lower bills, holds potential for the public and private sectors to work together on solutions to this issue. In the same way, government can look to best practice that private sector players in the industry know will be key to improving energy efficiency nationwide.
Taking advantage of easy, accessible, low-hanging fruit solutions
Indeed, simple and straightforward solutions are readily available. Circulator pump upgrades, thermostatic radiator valves, and hydraulic balancing, for instance, are all relatively low-cost measures that can quickly translate into high-impact savings on energy bills.
Encouraging the uptake of new circulator pumps, for example, can help business owners feel more confident about energy efficiency, while lowering bills by as much as £110 a year. Variable speed technology allows new pumps to respond immediately to their system’s needs, only running on full power when absolutely necessary.
As a result, these modulating pumps are far more efficient than traditional models. Reducing pump speed by 20% can lower electricity consumption by up to 50%. That translates to savings on energy bills that businesses can hardly afford to ignore.
This is particularly critical in light of the fact that at least 10% of circulator pumps sold in the UK each year have falsely certified energy efficiency credentials – and that’s a conservative estimate. With cynical exporters looking to profit from the UK’s increasing demand for circulators, their misleading labels wrongly reassure onlookers that these models meet strict eco-design rules.
In fact, after being bought seemingly cheaply, these pumps cost more once installed because they needless run at full power all the time. Helping business owners ensure they have the most efficient, cost-effective models installed on their premises will enable them to heat their commercial buildings without breaking the bank.
Meanwhile, commercial buildings can look to implement a radiator thermostat that can automatically feed the correct amount of hot water into a radiator, reducing energy use by around 9% without compromising on warmth. Similarly, hydraulic balancing – the process of adjusting a heating system to distribute hot water to radiators efficiently – can save up to £129 each year for businesses.
If government can equip business owners with the right knowledge and tools to implement these simple solutions, businesses nationwide could significantly reduce their energy bills.
In the coming months we therefore hope to see increased regulation and funding to help UK business owners reduce their energy bills. Intelligent, efficient and affordable solutions do exist, and now is the time for Starmer’s new government to seize the opportunities in front of them and address this growing issue.
