Green candidate supports heat pumps

Euan McPhee, Green party candidate for Camborne and Redruth, visited Kensa Engineering at Mount Wellington, near Redruth last week to see how heat pumps provide efficient housing heating whilst reducing carbon emissions. This technology has been used in Europe for years but only recently has the UK begun to realise the potential of this system for heating buildings and water.

Showing Euan around the refurbished former mine buildings which now house the Kensa workshops and offices, Managing Director Simon Lomax explained how the heat pumps draw upon the ground heat and raise the temperature via a compressor and heat exchanger to provide heating. Unlike gas or oil boilers, the pumps do not require routine annual servicing, and they typically last for up to twenty-five years. The reduced lifetime ownership cost is one of the reasons that several local housing associations have decided to fit pumps to existing and new properties; it also reduces fuel bills for the tenants. Demand for heat pumps is likely to increase when the recently announced Renewable Heat Incentive commences next year.

Simon Lomax explained that while there were around 20 employees on site at present, with a further six at an office in Exeter, there was capacity for production to quadruple in the short term, providing more employment opportunities. He also stated that wherever possible materials and components were obtained from within Cornwall and the UK.

Euan said: 'This represents a true win-win situation: the tenants benefit, the landlord benefits and the planet benefits. This is the precisely the kind of technology that the Green Party wishes to see extended to many more households and premises. Congratulations to Kensa Engineering for promoting this and for providing excellent employment opportunities in an area where skilled jobs are in short supply.'

ENDS
Photograph shows ..
For more information:
Euan McPhee 01209 212635 07523611961