UK Energy

198 readers

2 users here now

A place to post links and discussions around the UK's energy production, National Grid, energy consumption, and green energy news.

See https://grid.iamkate.com/ for the UK's current energy production and sources.

Created 23/07/23

founded 1 year ago

MODERATORS

Emperor

UK scheme to spur take-up of heat pumps delayed after gas lobby pressure (www.theguardian.com)

submitted 8 months ago by Emperor to c/energy

4 comments fedilink hide all child comments

The government has delayed by a year its scheme for spurring the take-up of heat pumps, under pressure from the gas boiler industry.

The clean heat market mechanism is intended to force heating installers to fit more low-carbon heat pumps, to meet the UK’s net zero greenhouse gas emissions target and save energy.

But the scheme – which requires companies to install a gradually increasing proportion of heat pumps compared with the number of gas boiler installations or face a financial penalty – was inaccurately described as a “boiler tax” by gas heating companies and their lobbyists. Some boiler companies put their prices up by £120, which they said was in reaction to the potential scheme, but which one government insider told the Guardian was unfair price “gouging”.

The mechanism was due to come in this April but has been delayed to April 2025, the government said on Thursday. The energy secretary, Claire Coutinho, has also asked the Competition and Markets Authority to investigate the boiler market.

Reforms to the boiler upgrade scheme also announced on Thursday will mean households no longer need to upgrade their insulation to take advantage of government heat pump grants. Removing the requirement for cavity wall and loft insulation should save consumers about £2,500 on a heat pump installation, for which the government is offering a £7,500 grant.

top 4 comments

sorted by: hot top controversial new old

[–] HumanPenguin 5 points 8 months ago

At this point you can pretty much assume. Anything referred to as government delays. Translates to government refuses to upset anyone this close to an election.

Something like this will not win them enviromental votes by August. But could well lose a significant number of small company owners votes.

Delaying it means they can critisize a future labour gov no matter what. If labour do not invoke it. "Well we had a plan to improve heat pump didtribution"

If they do "Well you added to the cost of small businesses right in the middle of a cost of living crisis"

ATM its a tech that must be used more. It makes a huge difference to heating and cooling costs. 5x in the better estimates. Less when looking at the current cost of electricity over gas.

But when taking CO2 targets into account. And the advantages cost and procedure wise of moving the reduction efforts to electricity power stations rather then in home boilers etc. It is one of the biggest changes a government can make to household co2 generation.

[–] YungOnions@sh.itjust.works 4 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (2 children)

A couple of interesting points here:

'The energy secretary, Claire Coutinho, has also asked the Competition and Markets Authority to investigate the boiler market.'

Sounds like a good idea.

'Reforms to the boiler upgrade scheme also announced on Thursday will mean households no longer need to upgrade their insulation to take advantage of government heat pump grants. Removing the requirement for cavity wall and loft insulation should save consumers about £2,500 on a heat pump installation, for which the government is offering a £7,500 grant.'

This seems like a odd move. Surely this will result in retrofitted homes having poorer energy efficiency, which kinda defeats part of the purpose of the heat pump scheme - more energy efficient houses, requiring less of an impact on the national grid? I mean, don't get me wrong, more heat pumps is a good thing, but this seems like a odd caveat to remove as opposed to, say, increasing the grant to cover the cost of the insulation. Mind you, that'd require additional funding, so maybe I've just answered my own question, lol.

[–] HumanPenguin 3 points 8 months ago

I’ve just answered my own question, lol.

Yep. As I commented myself. Heat pumps are likely one of the biggest things a government can do to reduce household co2.

But all main parties are to a greater extent opposed to spending.

Unfortunately spending on UK housing and inferstructure really is needed. To prepare for an energy efficient future.

Or only the wealthy will be able to input a fair reduction.

[–] GreatAlbatross 3 points 8 months ago

Part of the aim, was to get the already-insulated houses on heat pumps, because they could accept them most easily.
A house with 300mm of insulation in the loft can accommodate lowering the radiator temperatures far more easily than a victorian terrace that the heating engineer set to 70' flow temperature to "make it work well".

I think if there was a good supply of the grants, it wouldn't be such an issue. But if there are more houses than grants, it definitely made sense targeting the properties where a heat pump could be most readily used.
There are separate schemes to get older houses up to insulation levels, and that should definitely be happening before heat pumps are installed.