[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":89},["ShallowReactive",2],{"resource-/resources/outcomes-not-equipment":3},{"id":4,"title":5,"audience":6,"author":6,"body":7,"category":68,"date":69,"description":70,"draft":71,"extension":72,"image":73,"imageAlt":74,"meta":75,"navigation":76,"path":77,"pdfPath":6,"resourceType":6,"seo":78,"series":6,"stem":79,"tags":80,"visibility":87,"__hash__":88},"resources/resources/outcomes-not-equipment.md","Outcomes, Not Equipment",null,{"type":8,"value":9,"toc":61},"minimark",[10,14,17,20,25,34,38,41,44,47,55,58],[11,12,13],"p",{},"Three numbers decide the economics of every heat pump a social landlord installs, and this spring the sector's own institutions published all three in one guide. \"Improving heat pump outcomes in social housing\" was written by the Carbon Trust with Bristol City Council and the University of Bristol, delivered for Innovate UK's Net Zero Living Programme, and it is worth reading in full precisely because it is not a vendor describing the problem.",[11,15,16],{},"The first is 2.8: the average seasonal performance factor recorded across the Electrification of Heat Demonstration Project, the field trial often treated as indicative of average heat pump performance. The second is 3.9: the average from the community-led HeatPumpMonitor initiative, whose systems include a higher proportion designed by specialists in low-temperature heating. The third is the one that turns a spread into a verdict. On the April to June 2026 price cap rates, a heat pump typically needs a seasonal performance factor of at least 3.7 to match or undercut the running cost of the gas boiler it replaced.",[11,18,19],{},"Put those together and the conclusion is uncomfortable. The average installation, as delivered today, sits below the line. It costs the resident more to run than the boiler it replaced, while the well-commissioned installation, same technology, clears the line with room to spare. If you run a decarbonisation programme, that is not an engineering statistic. It is the difference between a programme that lifts your residents and one that, in the guide's own words, risks \"deepening fuel poverty for the very households they are intended to help\".",[21,22,24],"h2",{"id":23},"the-gap-is-not-the-hardware","The gap is not the hardware",[11,26,27,28,33],{},"We have written before about ",[29,30,32],"a",{"href":31},"/resources/the-commissioning-quality-gap","the commissioning quality gap",": the same compressor technology and the same product lines appear at both ends of the performance spread. What differs is the delivery: flow temperatures, weather compensation, sizing against actual heat loss, emitter selection. The new guide reaches the same place from the sector's side, and finds that programmes embedding quality checks across the full journey, from design review through post-installation monitoring, resolve underperformance early. Programmes that don't, discover it in residents' bills.",[21,35,37],{"id":36},"what-the-guidance-actually-asks-landlords-to-do","What the guidance actually asks landlords to do",[11,39,40],{},"The guide's central recommendation is a change in how landlords buy. Specify performance outcomes rather than equipment alone. Require evidence of past installer performance. Check quality at every stage, and monitor after install.",[11,42,43],{},"That advice is right, and it carries a quiet test inside it. Could you state, today, the number each heat pump in your programme should achieve this winter, home by home? And when the season ends, could you show which homes met it?",[11,45,46],{},"For almost every programme in the country the honest answer is not yet, and not for lack of trying. \"At least 3.7\" is not a product property; it is a prediction about a particular heat pump in a particular home in a particular winter. Stating that number takes a model of the home's physics and the system in it. Holding a programme to it takes measurement against that model, home by home, with causes named when the two diverge: a configuration left at default, a sizing mismatch, a control never activated.",[11,48,49,50,54],{},"You can. That is what ",[29,51,53],{"href":52},"/modules/commissioning-verification","commissioning verification"," does: an expected performance figure for every home from the physics, actuals compared against it from the data your estate already produces, and a stated cause when they part company. Which homes cleared the line, which fell short, and why, while the installer is still on the contract rather than years into your residents' bills.",[11,56,57],{},"The sector has written its instruction: buy outcomes, and verify them. The question is no longer whether that is the right way to buy. It is whether you can answer it, home by home, before your board, your regulator or your residents ask it of you.",[11,59,60],{},"Sources: \"Improving heat pump outcomes in social housing: a practical action guide\", the Carbon Trust for Innovate UK's Net Zero Living Programme, April 2026.",{"title":62,"searchDepth":63,"depth":63,"links":64},"",3,[65,67],{"id":23,"depth":66,"text":24},2,{"id":36,"depth":66,"text":37},"articles","2026-07-17","The sector's own guidance now tells social landlords to specify heat pump performance outcomes and verify them after install. The numbers behind that advice deserve a close read: the average install underperforms the boiler it replaced.",false,"md","/images/resources/articles/spf-line-to-clear-1600x900.png","Published field data: two bars for seasonal performance factor. The average installation from the Electrification of Heat field trial reaches 2.8; the specialist-designed installation from HeatPumpMonitor community monitoring reaches 3.9, crossing the dashed gas-parity line at 3.7 from the April to June 2026 price cap.",{},true,"/resources/outcomes-not-equipment",{"title":5,"description":70},"resources/outcomes-not-equipment",[81,82,83,84,85,86],"housing and place","heat pumps","commissioning","performance verification","fuel poverty","social housing","public","8yJpcDOz11qv3YbENK4CoMPGIOUSTTkxVR1I0qFQ87Y",1784620592481]