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New gas boilers banned 2025

hifinutt

hifinutt
Must say I am rather in panic over this latest report that says no more gas boilers after 2025

There are thousands in fuel poverty and how are they going to afford alternatives ? Apparently the alternatives cost a lot of money and seem rather difficult to implement.
 
They won’t be banning existing boilers only new installations of natural gas boilers.

Anyway I reckon it’ll go the way of smart meters.
Weren’t we all supposed to have been on these by now years ago?
 
This is a suggestion, not yet implemented. Anyway - it would not mean that existing boilers would be illegal - only that you could not replace with a new one. The report does not say you could not have an oil boiler - which could be sort of feasible for a lot of folks.

By that time you would hope that renewable energy was plentiful enough that we would run various alternatives. For us in a listed house in a conservation area in a town centre, the option of, say, an air sourced heat pump would be a joke - it is just not feasible to install underfloor heating at any reasonable expense. So we would probably have to go an electric boiler and retain the radiators. Local planning have already nixed any suggestion of solar panels too.

In reality we will have moved to another house for our old age before we get to that point, so it will be future problem as our gas boiler is only 4 years old now.
 
What do smart meters actually do wrt energy saving?
What’s the alternatives to gas boilers for central heating for the mass market?
Genuine questions by the way.

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.
 
It's a proposal and a creditable one - too much vested interest and too much political division in my opinion so the can will be kicked down the road I reckon...
 
What do smart meters actually do wrt energy saving?
What’s the alternatives to gas boilers for central heating for the mass market?
Genuine questions by the way.
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.
My thoughts are that it's so when the Government lose £xBn in fuel duty they can easily see when everyone's charging an EV at home overnight and a special, higher rate 'EV charging tax' can be applied. A smart meter will easily show when a multi-kW load for something like car-charging starts at midnight and goes off 5 hours later.

There are, as far as I can tell, no real benefits to anyone for having a smart meter, however they'll start tilting tariffs further and further toward 'smart-only' when adoption isn't high enough.
 
What do smart meters actually do wrt energy saving?
What’s the alternatives to gas boilers for central heating for the mass market?
Genuine questions by the way.

Smart meters for now do nothing - just hopefully raise awareness. In the future they could evolve to demand-pricing or even demand switch-off periods.


As to alternatives to gas boilers: here are some I can think of: I am sure there are others.

Oil
Hydrogen - it is being tested now - more to check that the pipework and infrastructure is OK with it.
Air source Heat Pump
Ground source Heat Pump
Sea-source Heat pump
District level heating
Direct Electric Boiler
 
I can't see it happening. There really aren't any realistic alternatives on the near horizon.

An interesting discussion (on R4 again - sorry folks), a couple of weeks back when the BLINDINGLY obvious was pointed out. The gas network was installed to comfortably cope with any demand, which obviously includes winter heating, no matter the weather. The electricity grid was installed with a moderately constant demand in mind, the biggest challenge being the demand for boiling of kettles at half-time of various sporting events.

If you want to replace gas by electricity, the whole of the grid will have to additionally take all of the energy currently provided via pipes. Add into that replacing all of the energy currently provided by filling stations. Even if it were possible to fit every home with heat pumps, there would still be a large increase in domestic electricity demand.

Sounds like most of Britain underneath a cobweb of pylons and overhead lines.

I did also hear a comment from a "representative" of the electricity generation industry stating that things were in process. But then again, generation and distribution are two VERY different things entirely.
 
That was not my finding when I changed supplier last month.

Borderline legal if it were otherwise.

I have offered to let them fit a smart meter numerous times, so long as I don't have to take time off work for them to fit it. No takers as yet.

Smart meters are gimmicks to all but the geek. Of neither use nor ornament to me.
 
My supplier (well, telephone advisor fella) was gently pushing me to accept a smart meter again earlier this month, and suggesting the industry moving towards the better deals requiring one. I haven't accepted one yet but may do at some point, as although I struggle to see any advantages I also can't see any disadvantages in having one now and it would stop them bothering me.

We don't have mains gas supply to the village I live in, so most people seem to have oil and a few use bottled gas. I'm currently running a solid fuel (wood) boiler system but I'm rather bored of the endless routine of ordering and moving logs around, and lighting/emptying/cleaning the boiler stove. I'm still thinking of changing to a regular wood burning stove supplemented by electric radiators as the cheapest option to install, if not to run.
 
FINALLY!!!! I have found figures for UK domestic electricity and gas consumption. 3_Metered fuel consumption.docx (publishing.service.gov.uk)

Average UK households use between 3 and 4 times the energy as gas, as they do electricity. So just to cope with AVERAGE consumption, the electricity grid capacity would have to be better than trebled. Figure in winter heating - anyone want to guess? Peak ten times average? So the capacity of the UK electricity grid would have to be increased something like 30-fold to be able to replace gas with electricity without new technology appearing.

NO prob's, a mere inconsequential amount of money, hassle............................. etc.
 


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