It’s that time of year again! Last week, some of the Refresh team headed to the NEC Birmingham to exhibit at Installer Show, on behalf of the Heating Installer Awards. Not only were they manning the stand for the duration of the event, but on day two of the show, the winners of the 2023 awards were crowned.
As well as the awards, Installer Show is a key event in the Refresh calendar as it is the UK’s largest event for heat, water, air and energy technology professionals. It is a great opportunity to keep up to date with the latest conversations and innovations in the industry and network with industry professionals. Bigger than ever this year, we were delighted to see many familiar faces and some new ones and hear all about the advancements made in low-carbon technology over the last 12 months.
It was jam-packed few days so here are just a few of our highlights from the show:
Net zero solutions
If one thing is for certain, there definitely wasn’t a shortage of things to see and do at this year’s event, with over 400 exhibitor stands to visit and a wide range of live debates, seminars and interactive demos across the exhibition hall. Despite there being so much going on, they all seemed to have one thing in common, a focus on how we can meet tomorrow’s net-zero challenges.
Heat pumps were truly the star of the show this year, but other sustainable solutions were also on display including electrical vehicles, solar technology and water efficiency technologies to name a few. We were lucky enough to demo some of the latest cutting-edge technologies in the heating and plumbing industry over the course of the event and have to say that it’s incredibly impressive how much of a leap there has been in the last 12 months, towards net zero solutions.
It’s clear that the industry as a whole is moving in the direction of decarbonisation and a more rapid pace than ever before. We’re excited to see what will be achieved in the next 12 months!
Decarbonisation in homebuilding
On the subject of decarbonisation, we were pleasantly surprised to see football legend, turned property developer, Gary Neville making an appearance to talk about the challenges of building sustainable homes, including the amount of red tape that developers often need to get through and the cost of sustainable solutions. Gary shared his experiences as both a footballer and homebuilder and how these have impacted his views and actions around sustainability.
As an advocate for low-carbon buildings, he concluded that if we are to have any hope of achieving a net-zero future, sustainability needs to be made more accessible and affordable. He reeled off regulations with ease and provided food for thought by addressing challenges that we don’t immediately think of when thinking about building sustainable homes, including obtaining insurance for those built with sustainable features. Underwriters can often be hesitant to insure newer technology as there isn’t yet enough long-term data to assess the risk.
We also managed the catch glimpses of other famous faces around the event, including Paul Dickov and Stuart Pearce. You could have been forgiven for thinking that we were at a football convention…
Heating Installer Awards 2023 winners
Undoubtedly, the biggest highlight of the show for us this year was crowning the winners of the Heating Installer Awards 2023. The Refresh-owned awards has been running annually for eight years now and this year was the biggest year yet! The Awards received a record-breaking number of entries this year and the standard of the work entered was second to none.
We set up the Heating Installer Awards to create a positive talking point in the industry and to promote the excellent technical knowledge and customer service delivered by heating installers, which can often go unrecognised.
This year, the National Winner award was presented to James Bowen, followed by Nick Irlam as national runner-up. We also awarded the ‘Most Sustainable Installer’ title to Liam Barry during this year’s show and Sophie Maguire became our latest Rising Star.
Congratulations to our winners!
If you want to hear more about how you can get involved with the Heating Installer Awards, get in touch today.