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HEAT PUMPS The Ground Source Heat Pump Association (GSHPA) begins 2020 with a new look and a new confidence that – with heat pumps emerging as a favoured option in the government's Future Homes consultation – the sector is about to come into its own. Chairman, Bean Beanland, tells Elaine Knutt about its plans to promote the electrification of heat NETWORK / 32 / FEBRUARY 2020 T he GSHPA sees 2020 as a turning point in the debate over low carbon heat, with the ongoing government consultation on the Future Homes Standard focussing attention on the technologies that can heat homes in the run up to 2025, rather than the more distant prospect of 2050. As such, GSHPA chairman, Bean Beanland, says that heat pumps – a proven technology that can offer both winter warmth and sum - mer cooling – stands to be widely adopted in the new homes sector while the hydrogen transition is still in trial mode. Beanland argues that electricity-powered heat pumps are the most viable low carbon heat solution for new homes or retro-fits today, while widescale conversion of the gas grid to hydrogen is at least ten to 15 years Electrifying the low carbon heat debate its new logo, with a design that represents systems for ground and water source heat pumps. The association brings together around 120 practitioners, consultants, installers, suppliers and other interested parties from across the UK ground and water source industry, pressing the case for low carbon heating and cooling systems based on heat capture, storage and transfer. Installers, contractors and consultants work to the GSHPA Standards, which ensure good customer outcomes, and benefit form a technical CPD programme. How does the tech work? The association says that ground-source heat pumps can be installed anywhere in the UK, using a borehole or shallow away. He said: "If we can get it right with government, if we can persuade them of the merits of electrification of heat in the built environment in the absence of other technologies that are technically and com - mercially viable, it could be a defining year. "We don't have hydrogen at scale – it's still some way off in terms of availability and commercial viability – we don't have biofuels at scale, heat pumps is all we have. There's a danger we do nothing to 24 or 25 million homes on the gas grid for the next 10 to 15 years – that's how long the commercialisation of hydrogen might take – then we only have 15 years to decarbonise the built environment. So we have a job of work to do." The GSHPA has begun 2020 by unveiling