“Heat pumps are not the solution. What we should be focussing on is the fabric,” the air conditioning and housing tycoon, Lord Willie Haughey has said. “The number one thing is insulation. Let’s insulate, especially the old stock - and then the modern stock is easy.”

The businessman and vocal critic of heat pumps reiterated his concern over Scottish Government plans which put the technology at the centre of decarbonising heating and mitigating climate change.

His chief point is that the efficiency levels often given for heat pumps are exaggerated, or don't tend to be seen in real homes.

Lord Haughey, founder of City Facitilites Mangement, has been selling heat pumps for 40 years. “I was selling them before most of the people who are out evangelising for them knew what a heat pump was. I probably sell more heat pumps than anyone in Scotland.”

The heat pumps he sells are not units for heating, but air conditioners which are essentially the same technology. “I have not sold one heat pump,” he said, “to anyone who wanted to use it for their heat source in their home."

Last year, comments by Lord Haughey hit the news when, in the Herald on Sunday and on BBC Radio Scotland,  he criticised, the technology - offering a preferred solution of an electric boiler. Headlines drew attention to the fact that he said that heat pumps did not work in cold climates.

At the time, Patrick Harvie responded that the technology was “tried and tested” and that the highest use of heat pumps is in countries that have the coldest winters such as Norway, Sweden and Finland,

But talking this week, Lord Haughey said that the question of how well they work in the cold was not his chief issue.

"In my spat with Patrick Harvie, he kept saying that they work in Scandinavia, so they’ll work at the low temperatures in the UK. But the cold temperatures was not my big complaint. It was that you did not get the efficiencies that people were saying you did.”

Heat pump efficiencies are measured according to what is called their seasonal coefficient of performance (SCOP) which relates to the amount of heat produced per unit of electricity. For instance a SCOP of 3 means that for every 1kW, the heat pump actually, by extracting heat from the outside air, produces 3kW of heat.

Lord Haughey is sceptical about some of the high SCOPs that some people have been claiming. “People have just got on the bandwagon because the Scottish government was saying we should have heat pumps. They started saying, burn 1kW of energy and get 4kW. I was at a convention where I saw a stand where they talked about 7. It's absolute nonsense. I would tell everyone in the world to buy a heat pump if I thought that was the case."

Even heat pump manufacturers, he pointed out, are not claiming the very high efficiencies. “You go to the seven largest manufacturers of heat pumps in the world and get their brochures. None of their brochures will claim what the people who are selling them claim.”

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A number of studies have collected data on real home installations. One, by Energy Systems Catapult, found that had a median SCOP of 2.8, indicating that whilst some people were getting greater efficiencies, others were getting less. Some were getting as low as 1.6, whilst a tiny fraction were achieving above 4. Given the current ratio of electricity to gas prices (4 to 1), at a SCOP of 3 and above, energy users will be paying the same or less than gas boilers for their bills.

Among Lord Haughey's concerns is that to get the system to work financially, it’s necessary to get more than just a heat pump.

“The main thing for me is that there’s better ways of putting people into debt. The people selling the heat pump started to say that it’s not just the heat pump you need. It’s the solar panels, it’s the battery, it’s the insulation. Instead of it costing £7,000, now it costs £30,000. People are getting into nearly £30,000 debt and I’m saying there’s a much better way.”

The Scottish Government has set up schemes to reduce this homeowner debt. Grants and interest fee loans are available for some of these measures from Home Energy Scotland, including the £7,500 heat pump grant.

The Herald: Another criticism is that electricity is not yet zero carbon: “People say that a heat pump is a net zero appliance. What does a heat pump run with? Electricity which is not zero carbon. So I’m saying that the claims made about heat pumps are wrong and exaggerated.”

Scotland’s electricity is part of the national grid that also covers England and Wales and which is still powered by some gas-fired power stations. However, the equivalent of 113% of Scotland's gross electricity consumption was generated from renewable sources during 2022. 

What Lord Haughey wants, he said, is more debate. “We don’t need Boris Johnson or Patrick Harvie to tell us we had better get a heat pump,” he added. “We need science. I’m saying everyone who is jumping on the heat pump bandwagon are people who are trying to sell heat pumps and solar panels and everything else.

“I’m happy to have a debate with anybody that is saying heat pumps are giving three times and four times the output. There may be a situation where that is happening. Someone could prove to me they’re much more efficient in bungalows and standalone houses. But they will never be the answer for flats. Never.”

The reason for this, he said, is because of how far the piping would have to stretch. “The outside unit is either on the roof or on the ground. That means the piping will have to go 30 m in the air or to the ground, and the length of the pipeline reduces the efficiency of the heat pump.

Other complaints he has had about heat pumps are how noisy they are. “I’m building 356 apartments in the Gorbals. If I was to put a heat pump in every one of those apartments, I would guarantee you that SEPA would come along and close me down because of the combined noise of 356 condensing units.”