Vaillant Responds as New Build Heat Standard Scoping Consultation Closes

Following the closure of the Scottish Government’s scoping consultation of the New Build Heat Standard, Mark Wilkins, Technologies and Training Director comments:

“In response to the Scottish Government’s New Build Heat Standard Scoping Consultation, Vaillant applauds the Scottish Government on their commitment to ensuring that, from 2024, new buildings must use heating systems that produce zero direct emissions at the point of use. The quick and clear signposting of the Scottish Government’s expectations for future technologies allows all stakeholders and the heating industry time to prepare with investment in products and training. However, whilst the consultation provides us with outlined ambitions in the decarbonisation of new build properties from 2024, we need a framework of how these technologies will be delivered and what regulations the new products will need to adhere to. By providing clarity on the type of heating systems that would be permissible under the new standard, it allows manufacturers to work on the definition of their product and education offering alongside recruitment to plug the skills gap in future technologies.

"To ensure this goal is achievable, work needs to begin immediately to ensure that new build projects currently in development are designed with an element of future proofing to make the transition to low flow temperature systems easier when the time comes. We suggest that the Scottish Government must remain technology agnostic to all technologies which are zero direct emissions to support this. Furthermore, due to the varying natures of demand between residential and commercial properties, residential properties should be mandated to be zero direct emissions from 2024, whilst in commercial buildings, a phased reduction of emissions over the remaining decade would be more achievable.

“It’s clear that different product solutions and technologies such as heat pumps, hydrogen boilers and hybrid systems will be required to support the route to decarbonisation. We urge the Scottish Government to urgently define the technology mix, which will be permissible in all new builds from 2024, to ensure that there isn’t a shortage of product options, skills and public acceptance of low carbon technologies.”