The company recently hosted business leaders and delegates at its £2.2m National Training and Technology Centre in the Bridgehead business park, Hessle, East Yorkshire. This event aimed to highlight the crucial efforts Ideal Heating is putting into training the nation’s heating engineers in heat pump technology.
This gathering was part of the “Real Stories” series, organized by the Oh Yes! Net Zero campaign. The campaign unites over 180 organisations from the Humber region, all dedicated to reducing their carbon emissions. Celebrating its second anniversary, Oh Yes! Net Zero counts Ideal Heating as one of its leading members, showcasing the company’s frontline role in the UK’s journey towards greener heating solutions.
Huge industry changes
Ideal Heating engineering director Helen Villamuera welcomed guests at the event and shared the company’s history and net zero journey.
She said: “Almost a third of the UK’s total carbon emissions are generated by buildings. Within that, a quarter is created through the heating of those buildings. That means the journey we have to go through as an industry is huge.
“Luckily, we have been here before. We’ve already transitioned from coal to gas-powered boilers, and now it’s time for the next chapter in our history – electrification and renewable technologies.
“It was brilliant to have the opportunity to share our story with Oh Yes! Net Zero partners and to show them the industry-leading training facilities we have for boiler installers looking to make a move to heat pumps.”
Ideal Heating opened its National Training and Technology Centre last year. The facility is the jewel in the crown of Ideal Heating’s national training arm, the Expert Academy.
Jewel in the crown
With a capacity to train up to 5,000 installers yearly, heating engineers can undertake a broad range of courses – from introductions to heat pumps and the thermodynamic cycle to specific product training, including for Ideal Heating’s own Logic Air heat pump.
Complete with a range of simulators and testing rigs, the centre has been opened to help tackle a national shortage of heat pump engineers.
Ideal Heating training director Andrew Johnson told event attendees: “The average age of a heating engineer in the UK is between 45 and 55. An overwhelming proportion of those are gas boiler engineers who have worked in the industry for decades.
“We currently have around 11,000 trained heat pump engineers across the UK, growing from 3,000 in 2022. To meet the Government’s heat pump target of 600,000 installations a year by 2028, The Heat Pump Association estimate we need a minimum of 33,700 full-time heat pump installers.
“That’s a huge amount of work and upskilling which needs to happen in a very short space of time and is exactly why we’ve invested in this centre.”