Heat pumps in Liverpool: river heat for the centre, heat pumps for houses

The Liverpool heat network zone opportunity report, published by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, identified 18 potential zones. Two are strategic: Liverpool City Centre and Speke/Garston. Networks already exist at Paddington Village, Liverpool Waters and the main universities and hospitals, all exploring how to decarbonise.

The heat sources named are distinctive: the River Mersey, the Sandon Dock wastewater treatment works and the docks. The council's net zero plan, as summarised in the report, aims to connect 70,000 buildings to heat networks by 2030. Like all the pilot reports, it warns that the figures are provisional.

Source: assets.publishing.service.gov.uk · gov.uk

Zoning can oblige some buildings in a zone to connect, but only three kinds have been proposed: new developments, large non-domestic premises and residential blocks already on communal heating. A terraced house in Anfield or Wavertree heated by its own boiler can move straight to a heat pump, and the Boiler Upgrade Scheme applies.

Flats are different. New flat developments in the city centre and at Liverpool Waters, and communally heated blocks, may already be connected or planned for connection. Ask the managing agent or developer.

Many Liverpool terraces have a small back yard opening onto an alley or entry. It can be a good place for an outdoor unit, provided there is space for airflow and servicing and the noise at the neighbours' windows, often only a few metres away, meets the MCS planning standard. Units must not block the alley or overhang it.

Under permitted development in England, a terraced house can have one outdoor unit, and in a conservation area it must not be on a wall or roof facing a road. Liverpool has conservation areas around its Georgian and Victorian neighbourhoods, so check your street before settling on a front position.

Inside, compact terraces often lost their airing cupboard when a combi boiler went in. A heat pump needs a hot water cylinder again, so the installer has to find room for it, sometimes in a bedroom cupboard or the loft space above the landing, with the pipework to reach it. Ask for the cylinder position to be agreed at the survey, not on installation day.

• yard size and access for the unit and servicing
• distance to neighbours' windows for the noise assessment
• whether the house is in a conservation area
• cylinder space inside a compact terrace
• radiator changes after the heat loss calculation

Source: planningportal.co.uk

The form asks whether you own the house and how it is heated today, because Boiler Upgrade Scheme eligibility depends on both. Merseyside installers see the job anonymously; the first to buy it is the only one who ever receives it, and our email names that firm, with address and phone number, before it can call you. You pay Offrano nothing.