You’re not going to wake up one morning and rip out your entire heating system. But if you’re already pulling up carpets, knocking through walls, or adding an extension — there’s a window of opportunity most people miss.

We call it the lilypad approach. You don’t leap straight to a heat pump. You take steps that improve your home now, and each one lands you closer to heat pump ready — without the upheaval or the big upfront commitment.

The smartest lilypad? Rethinking your emitters. That’s where most heat pump retrofits fall apart.

The Radiator Problem

Energy Systems Catapult research for DESNZ found 68% of people who dropped out of heat pump installations cited disruption as the reason. Not cost. Not the technology. Disruption.

The biggest source? Upsizing radiators.

Heat pumps run at 45–55°C instead of the 70–80°C your boiler pushes out. At those lower temperatures, a standard radiator loses around 70% of its output. That neat 600×600mm bedroom radiator becomes a 2000×600mm panel. Your living room might need a 2400×600mm unit weighing 95kg filled, needing wall reinforcement, looking like it belongs in a warehouse.

Multiply that across every room and you see why people walk away.

Solve the Emitter Problem First

ThermaSkirt is an aluminium radiant heating panel that replaces your skirting board. 20mm thick — thinner than most timber skirting — and looks like an ordinary skirting board. But it’s doing the job of your radiators, distributing heat at low level around the room perimeter.

Radiators rely on convection — heating air that rises and circulates. Drop the flow temperature and convection collapses. ThermaSkirt emits radiant heat from the perimeter, creating a thermal envelope around the room. At heat pump temperatures, it retains around 48% of its rated output versus roughly 30% for a radiator.

BSRIA testing backs this up: 800W through ThermaSkirt produced less than 1°C temperature variation across the room. The same 800W through a K2 radiator? Up to 5°C variation.

What You Get Right Now

This isn’t buying something for later. ThermaSkirt delivers on your existing boiler today.

Lower gas bills. More surface area means same heat output at lower flow temperatures — typically 50–55°C instead of 70–80°C. Your condensing boiler actually condenses (most don’t). Up to 20% savings without changing your boiler.

Wall space back. Every radiator removed gives back 600–900mm of wall. Furniture goes wherever you want — radiant perimeter heat isn’t blocked by what’s in front of it.

Quieter, cleaner rooms. No clicks, ticking, or gurgling. Radiant heat moves far less air than convection — less dust and allergens churning through your rooms.

Safer. Lower surface temperatures, nothing protruding from walls. 86% fewer radiator impact injuries (RoSPA data) — mostly affecting under-5s and over-65s.

Why Renovations Are the Moment

You’re already dealing with disruption. You’re already spending. You’ve probably already got skirting boards off the wall.

ThermaSkirt connects to existing pipework like a radiator — including microbore, which 4.1 million UK homes have. 70% of installations are retrofits. Most domestic customers self-install with video guides. A room takes a day or two. No floor excavation, no screed, no drying time.

It fits renovation scenarios where radiators struggle: extensions with bifolds where there’s no wall space. Loft conversions where you can’t lose headroom to underfloor heating. Kitchen-diners where every wall is cabinetry — ThermaSkirt comes as a colour-matched kitchen plinth.

Install room by room. Keep radiators elsewhere. Each room is another lilypad.

When You’re Ready for the Heat Pump

Your ThermaSkirt stays where it is. Already running at heat pump temperatures. No emitter replacement, no redecorating. Your installer fits the heat pump, connects it, done.

For rooms still on radiators that fall short at low temps, Add2Rad connects ThermaSkirt in series with the existing radiator to top up output. Under an hour per room, a fraction of the cost of ripping out and replacing.

The Maths

£500–£1,000 per room — comparable to designer radiators, but you’re getting the radiator and the skirting in one component, plus the efficiency gains and future-proofing. 85,000+ systems installed over 18 years. BSRIA tested, 10-year warranty.

The worst move is renovating a room, putting standard radiators back in, then ripping it all out again when the heat pump conversation arrives. The lilypad approach means every room you touch is already heat pump ready — and a better room to live in today.

ThermaSkirt is manufactured by DiscreteHeat Ltd in Manchester. Free quotes at www.discreteheat.com or call 01942 880066.