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UK government scraps plan to ban sale of gas boilers by 2035 | Green building
(www.theguardian.com)
this post was submitted on 28 Jan 2025
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UK Politics
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Still banned for new builds, however anybody whose boiler breaks won't be forced into moving to a heat pump.
Bad for net zero, good in that people who may not have the money won't have to potentially uproot their entire house's heating system (adding even more cost and downtime) if their boiler breaks.
I'd hope that grants on heat pumps are good enough that they're a competitive choice over going for a new boiler when someone's old one packs in, but I've not looked into it.
Heat pumps still need to get much cheaper to be viable for most people.
It's not just the cost that prevents heat pumps from being viable, there are other costs too. In order to have a heat pump the house needs to be fully insulated, not just loft insulation. Radiators need changing, and there needs to be sufficient space for the heat pump unit.
There are plenty of houses with solid brick walls rather than cavity, which costs a lot more for external/internal insulation installation. Older houses were never built with the idea of heat pumps in mind, and so I think there needs to be a much more realistic and viable solution.
My house was built in 1800. The level of work needed to make it ready for a heat pump would ruin me financially, even if a heat pump were a suitable alternative to my combi boiler.
An electric combi would be a much more straightforward alternative - but I never hear anyone suggesting them when we discuss moving away from gas in UK homes?
Are electrical combis actually better than gas though? Sure there will be fewer emissions on the edge (the end user house) but it’s not nearly as efficient as a heat pump, which would put pressure on the grid, increasing the need for gas and coal power plants.
I’m wildly speculating here though, I have 0 data to back up this hypothesis.
The efficiency of heat pumps is dependent on the ability of the home to retain that heat. In the UK that's a huge issue.
But my point was really more that to get to that point (and to install heat pumps) would be ruinously expensive.