New gas boilers banned 2025

[SteveG]

My Edinburgh house is 25 years old and still on the original gas boiled (though a bit like triggers broom in that pretty much all of it has been replaced over the years) but I think I'll replace it with a gas combi boiler while I still can, as the costs of converting it to effectively use an air source heat pump would be astronomical.

My cottage in the Highlands had a new oil combi boiler last year so should be fine for quite a while, which is just as well given I reckon it'd cost £30-35K to convert that to a ground source heating system (with a lot of that cost being very disruptive works in the house itself - insulation and underfloor heating) which isn't likely save more than a few hundred pounds a year (if that).

 

[Joe Hutch]

I'm fairly confident we'll see these targets slip ever further into the future as the practicalities hit home. And as someone said up-thread, (much) better home insulation would be far more cost-effective in reducing energy use.

 

[JensenHealey]

Yes and the annoying thing is a vertical flue can cost almost as much the boiler. It's the only option though sometimes. Got one elderly vaillant that I nurse along , mainly because it has vertical flue and expensive to replace

Tell me about it - we replaced our gas boiler 4 years and had to install a concentric double channel (input air & exhaust) flue up through 4 floors. The only saving grace was that there was an existing exhaust flue in place so fitters were able to drop a new inlet down through it. I shuddered at the cost - but the alternatives of trying to re-site a boiler to an outside wall would have been even worse! Even more fortunately there is access to the roof and chimney through a velux window so scaffolding was not needed!

 

[Cloth-Ears]

They can go away and boil their heeds. Gas boiler, a pot, I don't care. Take their pick. Fed up of their dishonesty and bs.

Lets look at electricity demand and production. The insanity of what they expect us to believe.

Right so the claim is right now there is difficulty or looming difficulty in certain places in supplying electricity to meet current usage. At the same time they say, there is an intention to burn less fossil fuels to make it. Also, an intention to burn less fossil fuels to power things directly and instead partly use electricity. ( ! )

Use Google. Have a little click around to see what sort of power demands would result in most cars being powered by electricity.
Now add in all that extra electricity needed to replace direct usage of fossil fuels for other things. Add in the stated intention to burn less fossil fuels in the production of electricity.

And remember, we are supposedly finding it difficult to supply demand currently.

So where is all this electricity coming from then ? Will there be an announcement that we have back engineered free 'zero-point' energy from captured flying saucers ? No ? Or are we going to build a network of fusion reactors ? No ? Nowhere near ready for one such yet.

So how ?

Will there be any room left for anything after all the windmills are put up ?

Or maybe we're being lied to. An example is over car usage. See I doubt we'll be able to charge up so many cars, not by overall demand and not logistically speaking either. Unless ......... its a plan that only a few of us will be able to have personal transportation. Hmm, yes I think that's the plan.

So get yourself down to that Cop26 environmentalbollox conference in Glasgow with some nice cheeky placards.

" STOP SPEAKING SHIT " would make a good placard. " F...ING IDIOTS ! " is another.

 

[narabdela]

They can go away and boil their heeds.

Correction: "They can go awa' an' bile their heids"

 

[Cloth-Ears]

Thank you. I'm not quite as Scotch as you, hence my poor version.

 

[Dozey]

Correction: "They can go awa' an' bile their heids"

.. gang awa'?

 

[the_bat]

Lets look at electricity demand and production.

You need to factor in time of day vs demand. Highest demand is during the day. Most EV charging is overnight so the additional demand won't be that high.

 

[darrenyeats]

Condensing combi boiler here now - uses noticeably less gas than old boiler with water tank.

Planning to improve insulation too.

Improvements that are practicable now are better than pie in the sky.

 

[Bob McC]

You need to factor in time of day vs demand. Highest demand is during the day. Most EV charging is overnight so the additional demand won't be that high.

You really think that won’t change dramatically?

 

[Si74]

A quote from Facebook:
"
The English government are encouraging people in England and Wales to replace gas boilers with heat pumps and offering grants of up to £5000 to cover costs, saying that pumps will cost between £7000 and £13000.
They cite the use of these pumps as common in Scandinavian countries, where winter's are much colder. My brother in law, who lived in Sweden for many years, sent me this recent price list for heat pumps. A good heat pump will cost you 16000kr (about £1350. They can cost as little as £500 and most can be fitted by the home owner.) The £5k grant could provide pumps for four households. I wonder which Tory party donors own heat pump companies and how many ministers have shares in these firms?"

. Sums it up for me that's just got 20 quids worth of petrol for 60 quid, the rest going straight to Rushi?
As to nonsense about demands/tariffs, every one magically finds 40K for an electric car, no fuel duty , no road tax? here in Fife they spend more on speed bumps than they do filling potholes as it is. Hence Elon would be better focusing on f--king Hovercrafts. Boon to local garages however who have never made as much money replacing springs and various other suspension components

 

[MUTTY1]

Being a DIY sort of guy, storage heaters have always floated my boat. Just one cable back to the consumer unit that can run two heaters. All the hassle of gas installation with the (remote) possibility your home might end up a pile of rubble has never appealed. I’m glad to see my forward thinking has now been recognised. Is there a smug imogi ?

 

[TalYWaun]

I wonder if the announcement of the government’s heat pump scheme is going to make people even more reluctant to get one in the near future. Kwasi Kwarteng has claimed that the technology will improve and costs plummet over the next decade which isn’t a great endorsement of the existing options and as heat pump technology isn’t particularly new, any improvements will be incremental instead of revolutionary and so have little effect of the cost of the unit. Looking at the current options the cost of an ASHP is between £3K and £5K which implies the majority of the cost is the associated building/heating work so my guess is the MCS-accredited installers (that you have to use to claim the grant) are going to prioritise the jobs with the highest building costs over the simpler installations. I could have an ASHP and it may even return an efficiency of about 300% but when electricity is about 6 times that of gas it doesn’t seem a cost effective option.

 

[Enfield boy]

A quote from Facebook:
"
The English government are encouraging people in England and Wales to replace gas boilers with heat pumps and offering grants of up to £5000 to cover costs, saying that pumps will cost between £7000 and £13000.
They cite the use of these pumps as common in Scandinavian countries, where winter's are much colder. My brother in law, who lived in Sweden for many years, sent me this recent price list for heat pumps. A good heat pump will cost you 16000kr (about £1350. They can cost as little as £500 and most can be fitted by the home owner.) The £5k grant could provide pumps for four households. I wonder which Tory party donors own heat pump companies and how many ministers have shares in these firms?"

. Sums it up for me that's just got 20 quids worth of petrol for 60 quid, the rest going straight to Rushi?
As to nonsense about demands/tariffs, every one magically finds 40K for an electric car, no fuel duty , no road tax? here in Fife they spend more on speed bumps than they do filling potholes as it is. Hence Elon would be better focusing on f--king Hovercrafts. Boon to local garages however who have never made as much money replacing springs and various other suspension components

Just wondering if you could provide a link to the website/list of prices so we can send our local Member an email asking the very questions you suggest, please.

 

[zippy]

At the moment, they do nothing more that enable people to see just how much energy they're using, which is often enough to encourage a change in behaviour.

Or in many cases, nothing at all - our smart meter has never worked since its installation** meaning that I have to manually read the meter every month and log the reading in my online account.

** apparently it doesn't work because its in a metal box - not sure why they didn't think of that when they installed it..

 

[MJS]

Are storage heaters any good these days? I hated them, they always seemed to be coldest when you needed them most.

 

[simon g]

Are storage heaters any good these days? I hated them, they always seemed to be coldest when you needed them most.

They're vastly improved. I have a couple of friends who use modern systems and they do seem to work well. Not sure on running costs.

Installation does require some dedicated circuit installation, but is far less of an impact than trying to use an ASHP.

If our gas boiler does require replacement I'll certainly consider storage rads. Article comparing new vs old:

https://21stcenturyheating.co.uk/advice/storage-heaters-differences-between-older-and-newer-models/

 

[Sue Pertwee-Tyr]

Upthread, somebody mentioned that ASHP heat gain ratio is around 1:1 at UK winter temps, so you might as well use the electricity to heat the building directly as you're getting nothing from the heat pump. Given that we don't use heating in summer, nor much in spring and autumn, it feels like a con to me.

GSHPs possibly make sense, given that ground temps don't vary by much all year round, and the subsoil retains some heat from summer over winter anyway, but ASHPs just feel irrelevant and a potential mis-selling scandal in the making. I suggest we need to take a look at who owns these companies offering ASHPs, and see if there are links to the Tory party and its MPs anywhere.

 

[Bob McC]

They're vastly improved. I have a couple of friends who use modern systems and they do seem to work well. Not sure on running costs.

Installation does require some dedicated circuit installation, but is far less of an impact than trying to use an ASHP.

If our gas boiler does require replacement I'll certainly consider storage rads. Article comparing new vs old:

https://21stcenturyheating.co.uk/advice/storage-heaters-differences-between-older-and-newer-models/

An article praising storage heaters by a supplier.
Very objective!

 

[Guinnless]

Upthread, somebody mentioned that ASHP heat gain ratio is around 1:1at UK winter temps,

You're not down to 1:1 unless you are about -10 to -15C. It does vary depending on the unit though so this is a typical range for European spec units.