Now I know that some will see this as yet another regulatory burden, although by far the greatest impact will fall onto manufacturers. However, energy labelling has become widely understood in other sectors, most notably in white good and home appliances.
In addition, since heat pumps are likely to be rated as either A+ or A++, it makes it a whole lot easier to explain the benefits of choosing a renewable heating device and the concept of cost of ownership. I think that awakening consumer interest may even be instrumental in changing the view of heating selection from a painful necessity into an aspirational exercise. This is further enhanced with the role out of smart meters and the internet of things, or ‘widgets with digits’ as I call it.
We think that it is so important that we are about to launch in to a 40 venue tour of the UK to explain the basics of ErP and labelling to our customers and what it means to manufacturers, merchants, installers and consumers.