The survey found firm support for net zero within schools, with 90% of estates managers who responded agreeing that net zero is a priority, a sentiment echoed by 78% of consultant engineers and contractors.

99% of the school estate managers surveyed reported having a net-zero plan in place. Experience and satisfaction with low-carbon heating systems within schools were also high, with 95% of school estate managers having previously replaced a fossil fuel boiler with a heat pump in their buildings.

97% of all school estate managers (87% of all respondents) viewed heat pump performance and operating costs favourably.

Despite the strong support for low-carbon heating and net-zero in schools, the study also uncovered significant challenges respondents faced when installing a low-carbon heating system.

The most prominent barrier to deployment was technical difficulty. With 36% and 39% of school estate managers, consultant engineers, and contractors identifying the challenge, there may be a skills gap that can stall decarbonisation projects.

Both groups also agreed that additional electricity capacity needed for low-carbon heating solutions was a challenge, with 36% of consultant engineers and contractors outlining this as a barrier to decarbonisation.

School estates managers identified other core challenges, including the financial and technical feasibility of school heating system changes, infrastructure requirements, and the length of project timelines, as any major refurbishment projects are typically restricted to the fixed window of time of the summer holiday period.

Additionally, the UK’s electricity pricing is persistently preventing those who are leading the charge to decarbonise state schools from doing so.

The study did identify potential solutions in the form of hybrid heat pump systems and prefabricated packaged solutions. 

Among Baxi survey respondents, hybrid heat pumps are a popular solution, with a slight preference for this technology over a standalone heat pump system.

80% of the consultant engineers and contractors surveyed would likely recommend a hybrid system, and support for hybrids among school estates managers increased with school size.

This could be attributed to several factors, including costs, integration with existing hydronic systems, and the shorter installation timeframes required to install a hybrid solution versus converting to a standalone heat pump system.

However, despite strong support for the technology, grant support for hybrid heat pump solutions under the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme (PSDS) is limited.