Why the Government doesn't want you to have aircon

Telegraph

a day ago

It's been a long, hot summer in Britain. Three official heatwaves have been declared so far, and June was the warmest on record.
It followed what the Met Office said was the driest January-to-June period since 1976. With a summer of back-to-back heatwaves, is this the new normal?
Sweltering nights have left many longing for air conditioning, but just 5pc of British homes have it, according to a government report. This is far lower than the European average of 20pc and nothing compared to the US, where nine in 10 homes have AC.
British government policy discourages built-in air conditioning at every level, argues Sam Dumitriu, of the think tank Britain Remade. Obtuse planning rules mean new-build developers must exhaust all methods of so-called 'passive cooling' before considering AC, and those in older homes risk torpedoing their home's energy rating if they install it.
'Nozzle Britain'
Planning laws force new-build developers to demonstrate that 'all practicable passive means of removing excess heat have been used first' before installing AC. For the most part, this means new-builds have tiny prison-style windows that let in little sunlight and are not much help when the air outside is already warm. The Government is still weighing up responses to a consultation run by the Tories in 2023 to change the rules.
In the meantime, many households rely on portable AC units. It is not uncommon, Dumitriu says, to walk around new-build estates and see 'lots of little tubes poking out of windows', dubbed by some online as 'Nozzle Britain'.
Christian Deilmann, of smart energy firm Tado, says demand for portable units is soaring. But, he warns, 'they can be some of the most energy-intensive appliances in the home'.
The issue is at its most acute in London, adds Dumitriu, 'where instead of recognising the policy is bad, they double down'.
This is largely because of Mayor Sadiq Khan's London Plan, which ultimately warns against installing AC units as they 'have significant energy requirements' and expel hot air, making the surrounding area even more stifling in hot weather.
It also says that London homes must maximise 'dual-aspect' before considering AC. In layman's terms, that means improving airflow with windows on different walls.
The so-called 'urban heat island effect' means flats and offices that do have air conditioning make life worse for those who don't, says David Hilton, of consultancy Heat and Energy Ltd. He adds: 'The mass of the other buildings means that ventilation cooling is even more problematic, as the outside air is hot.'
EPC penalties
Most people switching their gas boiler for a heat pump opt for an air-to-water model, which extracts the heat from the air and uses it to heat the water in radiators.
The lesser-known air-to-air heat pump can reverse this process, heating homes in winter and cooling them in summer. But it does not create hot water, meaning you would have to have a regular boiler or other heater installed alongside. And, crucially, it is currently excluded from the £7,500 boiler upgrade scheme (BUS) grant.
Ed Miliband's energy department is poised to allow households to install air conditioning with these taxpayer-funded grants.
Bean Beanland, of the Heat Pump Federation lobby group, says policymakers are leaning towards bringing air-to-air heat pumps, which are much cheaper than other systems, into scope for the BUS. 'It's very mature technology,' Beanland explains. Some 160,000 are installed every year, mostly in commercial properties – but it's not caught on with homeowners yet, mostly because it's not supported by the subsidy.
But installing an air-to-air heat pump could backfire on homeowners by tanking their energy performance certificate (EPC) score.
Dumitriu says: 'EPCs are based on primary energy use, which naturally discourages electricity. In the case of air-to-air heat pumps, if you've not ripped your boiler out and you've kept it for hot water, the EPC treats the heat pump as a secondary heating system, so that hurts your score.'
Dropping an EPC band can hit your house price and can limit the availability of cheaper mortgages. A landlord whose property drops from a C to a D will be banned from letting it to tenants from 2030 under laws proposed by Miliband and Angela Rayner, the Housing Secretary.
'A lot of the data we use to grade the efficiency of a heat pump is completely out of date and inaccurate,' says Dumitriu.
While domestic air conditioning remains a pipe dream in Britain, some believe it is the ideal solution to meet the surplus energy supply from increased solar generation.
'You'd effectively be able to power the AC with just solar. With a variable tariff, you get an hourly price that drops when we have an abundance of solar energy that we'd otherwise have to sell to France,' says Dumitriu. 'We need this kind of solution, because if you don't use AC to mop up the extra energy, we will be in a situation like in Scotland, where they have to pay to turn off wind farms.'