Surge in Climate Change Concern
The GSHPA website now receives over 8,200 visits a month (from May 2019) as interest in ground source heat pump installations grow. Amongst the most popular pages are the lists of GSHPA Members to which viewers go to look for installers, consultants, drillers and suppliers.
The number of "entrances" to the website in a month has increased from around 5,600 six months ago to a level of 8,256 in the month to 14 May 2019. An alternative measure, also provided by Google Analytics, is that the "Unique Page Views" has risen to 12,691 over the same month.
This rise reflects the increasing interest in how to provide heating without combustion following a general upsurge in the interest in the environment following documentaries by Sir David Attenborough on the dangers of global warming and the risks of uncontrolled climate change. Greta Thunberg has played her part in mobilising first schoolchildren, then the Davos World Economic Forum, the European Parliament and even Westminster that there is an urgent problem to be addressed: "Our House is on Fire".
Even the cynics, who have tried to persuade themselves that they do not need to address tomorrow's problems today, were alarmed when the Chancellor announced a ban on installing fossil fuel boilers for heating new homes from 2025.
The construction industry is very conservative, especially of its cash. It has always been inclined to adopt the cheapest short term solution to heating – and cooling – in terms of the cheapest up-front costs and has therefore opted for gas boilers and mounting chillers on the roof: they rarely have to pay for the ongoing costs of large air conditioning bills and gas imports, let alone the damage to the environment.
However, things are changing. The GLA is now refusing to grant planning permission for new buildings in London without heat pumps. It seems that the authorities in Liverpool are now taking the same approach. The construction industry now has to take notice of the new public awareness that is filtering up through the politicians.
Some in the construction industry are even being forced to take radical measures, like coming to the GSHPA website news page to find out what is going on, and to find ground source heat pump experts and installers who know how to make heating and cooling installations work well for the long term, without issuing any more carbon dioxide.
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