Skirting Board Heating for Heat Pumps
ThermaSkirt H2O is designed to operate at 35–45°C flow temperatures, making it the most efficient skirting board heating emitter for air source and ground source heat pumps. At low flow temperatures, ThermaSkirt retains 48% of its rated output compared to 30% for conventional panel radiators, improving heat pump COP by 0.4 to 0.5 in real-world installations verified at the University of Salford Energy House 2.0.
PhysicsWhy Heat Pumps Need Different Emitters
A gas boiler delivers water to your radiators at 70–80°C. An air source heat pump (ASHP) reaches its maximum efficiency (COP) when it delivers water at 35–45°C. To emit the same amount of heat into your room at these lower temperatures, your heat emitter must have a significantly larger surface area. The physics is non-negotiable: halve the temperature difference between your emitter and the room, and you need roughly double the radiating surface.
If you keep your existing standard radiators, the heat pump will struggle to warm the house, or it will be forced to work harder at higher flow temperatures, ruining its efficiency and driving up your electricity bills. Many installers compensate by fitting enormous Type 33 double-convector radiators, which dominate your wall space and look deeply unattractive.
ThermaSkirt solves this by turning the entire perimeter of your room into an aerospace-grade aluminium heat emitter. A typical living room has 12–15 linear metres of skirting board. That's 12–15 metres of continuous radiant surface, far more than even an oversized radiator, delivering the necessary heat output without sacrificing a single square centimetre of wall space.
+0.4 to 0.5COP Improvement
Tested at the University of Salford Energy House 2.0, showing significant improvements to Seasonal Coefficient of Performance (SCOP) versus standard radiators at identical flow temperatures.
48%Output Retention at dT20
At ultra-low 40°C flow temperatures (dT20), ThermaSkirt retains 48% of its rated output. Conventional panel radiators retain approximately 30% under the same conditions.
Real Output at Heat Pump Temperatures
The following figures are independently verified by BSRIA (Building Services Research and Information Association) under controlled laboratory conditions. They show the heat output of ThermaSkirt BM2 profile per linear metre at typical heat pump flow temperatures.
| Flow Temp | Output (W/m) | Typical Application |
|---|
| 35°C | 31 W/m | Well-insulated new build / Passivhaus |
| 40°C | 44 W/m | Post-2010 build / solid-wall insulated retrofit |
| 45°C | 58 W/m | Pre-2000 semi-detached / cavity wall |
| 50°C | 72 W/m | Older property / hybrid heat pump+boiler |
Source: BSRIA test report, ThermaSkirt BM2 profile, room temperature 21°C. Full output tables available in our technical data section.
InstallationA Clean Retrofit - No Digging Up Floors
Underfloor heating is the default choice for heat pumps in brand new builds. However, retrofitting UFH into a Victorian terrace or a 1970s semi-detached property is expensive and highly disruptive, requiring either digging up concrete slabs or raising the entire floor level by 15–20mm, which means re-cutting every door, re-fitting every threshold, and often losing months of habitable living space.
ThermaSkirt installs cleanly above ground, connecting directly to your existing 15mm or 10mm microbore pipework. Your heat pump installer removes the old radiators, extends the pipes to skirting board level, and fits the 20mm-deep ThermaSkirt profile. A typical 3-bedroom house can be fully installed in 2–3 days with minimal disruption. You keep your floors, your doors, and your sanity.
This matters for the Boiler Upgrade Scheme (BUS). The £7,500 government grant covers the cost of the heat pump itself, but the emitter upgrade is a separate cost. ThermaSkirt keeps that cost dramatically lower than UFH while delivering the low-temperature performance the heat pump needs to satisfy the grant conditions.
Energy PerformanceEPC and SAP Improvements
Switching from a gas boiler with standard radiators to a heat pump with ThermaSkirt doesn't just lower your bills, it directly improves your home's Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) rating. A typical 3-bedroom semi-detached house (90m², 6,000 kWh/yr heat demand) gains approximately 4 SAP points from the emitter improvement alone, which can be enough to move from a D rating into a C.
The SPF (Seasonal Performance Factor) improvement of 0.4–0.5 is registered in the SAP 10.2 calculation methodology used for EPCs. This means ThermaSkirt isn't just more comfortable than radiators, it is officially more energy-efficient in the government's own assessment framework.
