Flexibility In Heating Homes Of All Sizes

How infrared heating, thermal storage, smart hot water and emerging finance models are opening up new decarbonisation routes for flats and smaller social housing properties. 

Host: Andy Cameron-Smith, Communications and Partnerships Director, Healthy Homes Hub 

Guests: Oliver Baker, Chief Executive, Ambion Heating; Pete McBride, UK Sales Director, Mixergy 

At a glance 

• Flats account for nearly half of social housing stock, yet a policy framework focused on heat pumps has left this property type without a settled decarbonisation solution, a gap compounded by the withdrawal of communal heating schemes following the regulated heat network regime that came into force in January 2025. 

• Thermal storage, including smart hot water cylinders, is increasingly central to the decarbonisation case: it enables load shifting, demand-side response, and grid balancing, and revised EPC proposals would allow direct electric heating combined with thermal storage to achieve EPC C in social housing. 

• Inclusive rent models, in which landlords guarantee a minimum thermal comfort standard in exchange for a fixed service charge, are emerging as a mechanism to combine private finance, low carbon technology, and energy market income to address fuel poverty, damp and mould, and carbon reduction in a single approach. 

The electrification of home heating marks a structural shift from matching supply to demand towards matching demand to supply, requiring heating systems capable of responding to price signals, grid constraints, and renewable generation rather than simply delivering heat on request. Time-of-use tariffs and demand-side response mechanisms are the primary drivers of this shift, and thermal storage is the enabling technology that makes the transition viable for occupied homes. 

Flats represent approximately three million properties within social housing, close to half the sector’s total stock, yet they sit awkwardly within a policy framework built around heat pumps and communal systems. The January 2025 regulatory regime for heat networks, which brought social landlords operatingshared heating into scope as regulated energy suppliers, has prompted widespread withdrawal of planned communal schemes and left housing associations seeking alternatives. For this property type, direct electric heating, including infrared heating systems and smart thermal storage, is increasingly the solution under consideration. 

As fabric improvements have reduced space heating demand across the stock, hot water has grown as a proportion of a home's overall energy use, and in some properties already exceeds space heating consumption. Smart hot water cylinders can address this by learning occupant usage patterns, storing energy during cheapest and greenest periods, and integrating with heat pumps, solar PV, and smart tariffs across successive phases of retrofit. In 2025, the cost of curtailing excess renewable generation exceeded £1.4 billion, representing stored energy that smart thermal systems could absorb rather than pay to turn off. 

Scaling retrofit delivery requires moving beyond case by case solutions towards agreed building archetypes with corresponding technology packages. Whilst full standardisation across all property types is not achievable, a framework matching archetype to solution, for example infrared heating with or without solar for flats and heat pumps for larger properties, would allow both landlords and the supply chain to work at speed and with confidence. Physical constraints in smaller properties, including limited cupboard space and single phase electrical supply capped at around 18.4 kilowatts, reinforce the case for compact, minimal disruption systems over those designed for larger homes. 

Private finance is entering the retrofit sector at several levels, from rooftop solar and batteries through to the heating and hot water systems themselves. Inclusive rent models, in which tenants pay a fixed service charge while landlords assume responsibility for a guaranteed minimum temperature, bring together private capital, demand-side response revenue, and low carbon technology in a structure that could address fuel poverty, damp and mould risk, and carbon reduction simultaneously. Data from smart systems will be central to making this work: landlords managing large numbers of connected properties require a single, actionable view of estate-wide performance rather than multiple parallel data streams, and the development of home energy management systems capable of coordinating all in-home technologies with grid signals is identified as the next significant industry iteration. 

Practical steps for housing providers 

• Map your stock by archetype before procuring heating solutions, distinguishing flats, small terraced properties and larger homes, and identify which property types currently lack a settled decarbonisation route. 

• Review your position on communal heating in light of the January 2025 regulated heat network regime and assess which schemes, if withdrawn, have left gaps in your decarbonisation plan. 

• Include hot water in retrofit design from the outset: commission an assessment of hot water as a proportion of energy demand across your stock, particularly in well insulated properties where space heating loads have already fallen. 

• When assessing heating technologies, ask supply chain partners for real world performance data from occupied social housing, not just laboratory or modelled outputs, and request evidence of how solutions perform under constrained or variable conditions. 

• Explore demand-side response and time-of-use tariff compatibility as procurement criteria, and consider how energy market income from grid flexibility could contribute to the financial case for retrofit investment. 

• Evaluate the resident engagement and ongoing technical support provisions of any proposed system: consider how residents will be trained before and after installation, and what remote monitoring and support capabilities are available to reduce the need for on-site callouts. 

• Examine emerging inclusive rent and guaranteed warmth models as a potential route to combining private finance, guaranteed thermal comfort standards, and reduced compliance risk around fuel poverty, damp and mould within a single contractual framework.