Octopus Energy founder Greg Jackson has today (14 September) announced the launch of its own heat pump, the Cosy 6, at its Energy Tech Summit with Wired in Central London.
“The heat pump is magic, it’s just got a couple of issues: they’re very expensive to build and very expensive to install, and traditionally there’s a view that they may not generate enough heat for a typical home without some fairly significant upgrades to insulation and radiators,” Jackson said.
Octopus had invested £10 million in building its own research and development centre for heat pumps, Jackson said, in order to make heat pump technology cost competitive.
“A year ago, I don’t think our company ever installed a heat pump,” Jackson continued, “I think we’re the biggest retrofit installers in the UK.”
“Today I’m really excited to be able to share the Octopus Cosy 6”, Jackson said, revealing the company’s new technology.
Octopus founder Greg Jackson says that the new heat pump could cost some customers nothing with the government’s £5,000 grant applied to it. pic.twitter.com/7uEGg79Uhp
— John Lubbock (@jwsal) September 14, 2023
Jackson says that a typical home would pay around £3,000 after the government’s £5,000 Boiler Upgrade Scheme grant, including installation and aftercare.
“And I think we’ve now paved the way to the thing we’ve been dreaming of, which is if a home already has a reasonably up to date hot water cylinder and a reasonably well looked after heating system, some people will be able to get this for free after the government grant,” Jackson added.
The new heating system consists of the Cosy 6, the Cosy Hub control system, room sensors called Cosy Pods, and a bespoke tariff.
“In the same way as so many of the innovations we saw for the internet paved the way for democratisation of information in rich countries and poor, so I hope this is one of the major components in moving towards a truly clean energy system faster and cheaper than anyone expected.”
