Tuesday 1 February 2022

‘One-in-three homes need £15k upgrade to install heat pumps’

One-in-three households could face the need to pay an extra £15,000 to make an electricity supply upgrade to be able to install heat pumps.

Power company Western Power Distribution (WPD) made that claim suggesting that potentially millions of homes will need to have that upgrade to facilitate heat pump and electric vehicle charger installations.

The manager of the electricity network for the Midlands, South Wales has warned that providing electric power to homes will be one of the "biggest challenges" Britain will face in the coming years.

Currently, the majority of homes across the UK run off a "single-phase" supply with one fuse.

Larger households might need to pay for a £15,000 upgrade to a "three-phase" supply.

Paul Jewell, System Development Manager at WPD, told The Daily Telegraph the price estimate came from the application the company had received last year.

Mr Jewell said: "If a cable needs upgrading it will involve digging to the front door and if a cable needs two homes we may even want to dig in both gardens."