What’s been happening in the heating sector

This week, the clean heating sector is wrestling with major issues of corporate trust, financial failure, and seismic shifts in installation methodology. Scroll down for the full analysis of three big stories dominating the industry chatter:

The Corporate Collapse: New filings reveal the scale of £650,000 in debt and a controversial quick asset buyout from the company behind the Heat Pump Summit. This leads us to ask: Are these high-ticket industry events actually worthwhile?

Controversial Approach: Heat Geek’s ZeroDisrupt initiative has become the industry’s biggest talking point. This new system design approach is causing massive debate among installers. Don't miss my deep-dive interview with Adam Chapman (link below).

Kensa Under Scrutiny: Amid recent layoffs and leadership changes, we offer a non-judgmental look at the Kensa manufacturer in Cornwall, sharing the full spectrum of opinions I’ve received from the sector.

Read on for the full analysis of all three stories, and check out our exclusive podcast content below for more…

The Strange Heat Pump Summit

Following the closure, there have been some unusual and complicated goings-on surrounding the media company behind the Heat Pump Summit. The details of these events - including the financial liabilities, the swift liquidation, and the transfer of assets to a new entity - are certainly strange and became apparent to some in the heating sector via these two articles: here & here.

I will admit to feeling some astonishment when the Heat Pump Summit first launched last year. It was certainly interesting to observe who was sponsoring the Summit this year, and I was especially surprised by the high-profile industry bodies that offered their support. Given all the interest around the Summit, I contacted the main sponsor, Hive, to ask if they would use their opening speech at the event to demonstrate real leadership by discussing some of the mistakes and shortcomings from their past, even though, admittedly, they were understandable given the context of the time. Unfortuanlty that did not happen.

I genuinely believe Hive is in a prime position to take a leading, influential role in the clean energy transition…which may surprise you. I'll be exploring this further and writing about the opportunities for Hive in an upcoming article.

Scrutiny Falls on Cornwall’s Kensa Amid Layoffs and Leadership Change

Recent weeks have seen an unusual amount of attention focused on Kensa, the Cornwall-based ground source heat pump manufacturer. As someone deeply involved in this sector, I’ve found myself in the position of receiving all sorts of information - and strong opinions - from people across the industry regarding the company's recent events.

The news has been dominated by reports (link) of a redundancy consultation affecting approximately 20% of the workforce, followed swiftly by the apparent resignation of CEO Tamsin Lishman. The articles coming out of Cornwall understandably highlighted the distress among staff, who felt "broken" by the job cuts, alongside a reported substantial increase in the highest-paid director’s remuneration for the preceding year. On the matter of that pay, however, I did hear chatter that the public reporting may not have been entirely correct, with word suggesting that the pay increase for the CEO was not a spontaneous raise but was, in fact, already built into the original contract agreed upon when the new leadership joined.

Setting aside the policy delays that Kensa cited for its decision, the chatter around the company's culture has also been mixed. I've heard quite negative things about the working environment and culture there, particularly from those who felt the impact of the changes. Yet, at the very same time, I do hear positive things about the quality of the technology, the mission, and the dedicated teams. It seems the reality of working life at Kensa is complex and multifaceted, as is often the case with rapidly growing companies.

Ultimately, my own personal opinion, taking a step back from all the noise and conflicting reports, is that Kensa will be okay. They have a strong product and operate in a sector with undeniable long-term growth potential. They have secured significant investment, and the strategic direction remains relevant to the UK’s decarbonisation goals. The recent pain feels like a consequence of market instability and perhaps an overly aggressive growth plan that had to be abruptly adjusted. I truly hope that those individuals who have been affected by the redundancies quickly find meaningful and satisfying work elsewhere in our expanding industry.

Controversial Approach

The recent announcement of Zero Disrupt from Heat Geek has certainly caused a considerable stir and led to lively discussion across the heating industry. As we all hold different opinions on the best path forward - a diversity I genuinely appreciate - I felt it was essential for us to delve into this new initiative. Adam very kindly gave me the opportunity to chat with him about it on the BetaTalk podcast in what I found to be a really useful and insightful interview, giving you the chance to hear directly from him. This episode offers excellent learning and vital insight into how our industry is evolving with new initiatives. Anyone wanting to know more about Heat Geek will certainly find this episode essential listening! You can listen to that episode here.

In a related discussion, I also had the pleasure of recently chatting about the Zero Disrupt initiative with Mark Denman from Custom Renewables, members of the Guild of Master Heat Engineers, who were responsible for our first heat pump case study in a Grade II listed building. I was joined by Mark and his customer, Alex Hilton, for the conversation. Mark offered a particularly good perspective on Zero Disrupt during our chat, which I believe you can hear around the 25-minute mark. You can listen here.

This discussion and the full case study are a valuable resource to share with others - especially those who are considering a heat pump for their own property. They allow us to learn directly from a real-world installation. You can explore the details of this fantastic case study here at this link.

If you would like to know more about the Guild of Master Heat Engineers, please click here. The great news is that there are going to be many more heat pump case studies coming from Guild engineers in the future, which will be incredibly helpful in showcasing who some of the best engineers are.

Listen now to the Adam Chapman from Heat Geek interview!