TV STAR George Clarke has helped Chester Zoo show off its new way to heat the popular attraction’s butterfly house.

The Amazing Spaces presenter, who is also an architect, teamed up with the zoo courtesy of Mitsubishi Electric, who has installed an air source heat pump at the venue.

It is the second new heat pump to be installed at the zoo, with the Rhino House also getting an upgrade recently.

A YouTube video showing George introducing the new heat pump has been released.

The indoor butterfly habitat at Chester Zoo is a purpose-built space which is home to an array of butterflies, stream frogs, anoles and millipedes, mainly from South America and Southeast Asia.

These species require a very warm environment, kept between 22°C and 25°C, whatever the weather outside in Cheshire.

The habitat, which is 471m2 and around 10m at its widest part, was previously heated with a liquified petroleum gas (LPG) heating system but is now entirely heated by an air source heat pump system from Mitsubishi Electric.

Chester Zoo, which is a world-leading conservation and education charity, has developed ambitious sustainability plans that will help the zoo reduce carbon emissions and achieve net zero.

“Our mission is to prevent extinction and raise awareness of conservation and environmental challenges around the world, so we know that we can’t be part of the problem that we’re trying to solve,” said Jennifer Kelly, head of sustainability at Chester Zoo.

“That’s why we are looking to reduce our reliance on fossil fuel heating across our site, and why we are partnering with Mitsubishi Electric.”

All the heating for the butterfly house is now provided from renewable Ecodan air source heat pumps – a sustainable heating technology.

Seven heat pumps work in a cascade system to deliver a tropical environment that visitors can wander through as the butterflies free fly around them.

Chris Newman, Net Zero Carbon design manager, said: “The zoo has a brilliant M&E project team who we have worked with to look at how we could apply heat pumps to the butterfly habitat.

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“It’s part of the longer-term process of decarbonising as much of the zoo as possible.”

Chester Zoo is aiming to be carbon net zero in its scope 1 and 2 emissions by 2030 and carbon net zero in its scope 3 emissions by 2050 at the latest.

As part of this, it is actively working to reduce its reliance on fossil fuels across the 128-acre zoo site.