By By The Newsroom
Now could be the ideal time to find out more to cut your emissions and save on bills. With around a fifth of the UK鈥檚 carbon emissions coming from homes, net zero targets look unattainable unless more households move away from fossil fuels, including gas boilers. A new episode of The Scotsman鈥檚 Sustainable Scotland podcast, in association with Aira, a clean energy- tech business, focuses on the benefits of air heat pumps. Nicola Mahmood, Head of Region at Aira, and Robin Parker, Mission Manager of Sustainable Future Mission, at Nesta, an innovation agency for social good, participated in the podcast. Nicola explained more about Aira, saying: 鈥淲e were founded in Sweden, the home of heat pumps, and we鈥檙e now operating across the UK, Germany and Italy. We offer an all-inclusive service to consumers for heat pumps, and we also provide other clean energy solutions for the home. Our primary focus is helping customers to save money and reduce their heating carbon emissions.鈥 Robin said Nesta is an independent charity with a number of missions – one of which is to reduce carbon emissions from home heating. To do this it tests and scales solutions in the areas of policy, consumers, infrastructure and skills. Heat pumps work by taking heat from the air, even in freezing temperatures, and turning it into usable heat for homes. Nicola said: 鈥淵ou get a lovely, cosy feeling without the ups and downs you can have with a gas boiler. Robin added: 鈥淎 gas boiler roars up and drives lots of heat into your radiators and slams to a stop when they are warm enough. They obviously start to get colder and the boiler races to do the same thing again. It鈥檚 like a boy racer slamming their brakes at the traffic lights, and speeding off when they go green. But a heat pump, by design, knows how much heat your home needs and puts it out smoothly, like a chauffeur slowing down to stop and then driving smoothly away.鈥 Contrary to what some people may think, heat pumps can be very affordable to install, partly because of the financial help available, and can lead to lower energy bills. Financial support of 拢15,000 is available as Home Energy Scotland can provide a grant of up to 拢7,500 and an interest-free loan of 拢7,500 to help people make the switch to clean heating systems, including heat pumps. An uplift of 拢1,500 is available for rural and island homes to both the clean heating and energy efficiency grants, meaning rural households can claim up to 拢18,000 in grant funding. Now is an ideal time to install a heat pump – not only is funding available, but the warmer summer months are the perfect time to make the switch because you won鈥檛 miss heating for a few days and it will be up and running well before colder times return. Nicola concluded: 鈥淚 would just encourage anybody who’s not sure about whether a heat pump is for them to get involved and find out more.鈥 For more information go to www.airahome.com To find out how to make your home more energy-efficient, call Aira today to book a free home energy assessment with their Clean Energy Experts on 0330 828 1111 鈥 lines are open from Mon鈥揊ri: 8am鈥8pm, Sat鈥揝un: 9am鈥6pm.