A housebuilder is celebrating the speed of its thermal installation, having done so years ahead of legal requirements.

British housebuilder Pye Homes, which builds homes across Oxfordshire, has been installing low carbon air source heat pumps (ASHPs) in its buildings three years early.

Andrew Cockroft, head of technical at the company, said it has been "achieving a high EPC rating" in its homes and is prepared to continue doing so under new regulations set to be introduced in 2027.

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He said: "At Church Farm, on average we have improved the current building regulations level of carbon emissions by as much as 60 per cent as a result of adopting air source heat pumps combined with the photovoltaic panels that we installed in the homes."

ASHPs, a kind of reverse-refrigeration system that extracts heat from the air, will be a standard feature in all of the company's future developments.

The systems have potential to be up to 400 per cent efficient, compared to gas boilers' 98 per cent efficiency.

Nigel Pearson, customer liaison manager, said: "A lot of housebuilders are still putting gas boilers into their new build homes, and while you can hit current building regulations with a gas boiler and solar combination, we’re targeting carbon reduction, and hopefully our residents can see the benefit of that."