With a change in the weather, we know that heating season has well and truly arrived. I have no doubt you are all booked up and keeping busy right through until Christmas and beyond. We are certainly seeing the continued upward trend in interest in wood burning as people continue to grapple with the challenges of the energy crisis along with other household bills.

We are seeing from search trends that wood burning is back at the levels we saw in 2013 and the HETAS website has experienced record session numbers again. For September and October we have had over 200,000 sessions, with our searches for installers, retailers, sweeps and appliances all performing really well. We continue to work on website development and SEO to ensure our registered businesses are well represented when consumers search for such services. We continue our #getfiredup campaign across our website and social channels this month, raising awareness of the importance of correct appliance use, quality fuels along with maintenance and sweeping. A range of resources for stove users can be found in the Advice hub.

At the same time as being so busy it is pleasing to see businesses maintaining a continued high level of service when it comes to installing. The number of complaints received remains lower than in previous years despite the number of installations increasing. Having said that, we do still want to know about installations that do not meet the required standards, so we can support consumers in achieving a safe and compliant installation that they can enjoy. It enhances the reputation of our industry. Our support and complaints team work hard to support both our registered businesses and consumers when it comes to concerns and complaints, with most of the formal complaints being resolved amicably between the installation business and consumer. Our complaints policy is available on the website and our team is always happy to speak to anyone with concerns. We have more on this in this month’s newsletter.

This week we also published the latest Technical Bulletin. Edition 27, which focuses on pellet heating appliances, came about through the HETAS advisory panel. This working group is made up of various stakeholders across the industry to give everyone a viewpoint from industry to HETAS. HETAS Chair Kaye Welfare introduced the group last year and we have had some great representation and feedback through the panel. Of course, we speak to our stakeholders on a daily basis through calls, emails and through face-to-face meetings such as inspections. These Bulletins cover a wide range of technical topics and are often used to support industry in the day-to-day technical challenges. Our technical team can also be contacted throughout the week to help with daily enquiries, be it to do with an installation or a product related question. We do have a large number of calls and emails to this team and it’s pleasing to see great feedback on the service provided. Catch up on the latest Technical Bulletin here, or visit the Technical Hub for every Bulletin and much more.

We are seeing our sector influenced by global forces, this is impacting on the supply chain, both for appliances and fuels, at a time when demand is increasing. These trends aren’t just impacting the UK market, feedback across Europe and beyond is that these challenges can present problems. We will keep you updated on changes that may impact you, keep an eye on our regular newsletters and the HETAS website and social channels for regular updates.

In this month’s newsletter we also look at the upcoming carbon monoxide awareness week in November, a quick update on online notifications and getting everything installed notified correctly and a reminder on some of the free benefits you can make use of with your HETAS registration through our partnership with Prompt Payer.

As always, I wish you well for the upcoming month and trust that you are keeping well.