Gas boiler ban brought forward.

So WTF am I to do in my 300 year old listed building?

(Currently oil, and wood when we feel like it)

Andy

Make it look like it caught fire accidentally and let it burn down.

I was rather more impressed by the story that he's going to fund the first fusion power station

FFS is he actually clinically insane?

"People never lie so much as after a hunt, during a war or before an election"

Otto von Bismarck

And I expect it was built for that purpose. And probably not on a tight budget.

I've had both the same thoughts (although only 250 years old, and with gas and wood).

There is actually one precedent for a relatively quick change of technology, and that that was the London Clean Air Act of 1956 (four years after the big 1952 smog). As a kid, out two main coal fires were replaced with Rayburns burning smokeless fuel, one with a back boiler. That, with the new galvanised hot tank with immersion heater replaced the open burner "geyser" in the bathroom too. Actually, I don't see why it should be particularly difficult to design an air source heat pump to run a modern wet plumbing system although it is going to be quite a bit bigger than a modern 24 to 36 kW gas boiler. You can potentially hang quite a lot of the "works" outside with the heat exchanger, of course. As with diesel cars, it makes more sense to let existing boilers "wear out" rather than having a use ban date.

But in a normal house, it would require a ground sourced heat pump - air sourced becomes much less effective at low outside temperatures and will not be able to heat most existing houses during parts of the winter months.

They also require larger radiators or underfloor heating (due to lower water tmperatures) - another big expense and disruption ... particularly for a panic buy when the existing boiler fails.

They are slow to warm up, so will have to be on longer, before the house warms up in the morning.

They are only suitable for very well insulated homes and not for the majority of existing properties.

How many households would be able to suddenly afford the typical £13,000 to £20,000 cost of installing a ground source heat pump?

SteveW

It is an ideal election promise - calculated to draw in the gullible, far enough away in time that nobody is likely to remember he was responsible if it fails, but something that he will be remembered for, should it ever actually happen.

Current air source ones are optimised for AC rather than heating. I don't question that they will be more costly both to install and to run. For much UK housing ground source is simply not going to be available (short of drilling deep bore-holes, which might just be an option but not one I am keen on). I'm *not* advocating the idea, just pointing out that there are precedents. Remember, the heat will eventually make its way back to the atmosphere and in urban environments that may help a bit.

No it was a DIY conversion. It was expensive but included a lot of other work.

Not everyone is a piss poor whinging socialist.

Nicely inside just about every house in a town. And on every pavement an playground etc.

But I'd guess your wife has never been in a town?

FFS. In this time I'd expect they'd have had their car modified.

The market will still be there for replacements in millions of homes so until there is a decision to turn off domestic gas to the masses things will go on as normal. It may be in our drive towards a zero CO2 society the demand for "clean" electricity exceeds capacity and gas for CH will remain viable for much longer. If you listen to certain politicians all available land and foreshore will be covered with windmills and all gas and coal power stations will be closed in the next few years.

That's not how the system works. The money will come from a stealth tax on everyone else's energy bills in the same way that pays subsidies for solar and wind power.

Loans, equity grab and grants have been regular policy tools used to encourage various government heating and insulation schemes.

I'd expect a bump in direct fuel tax in the not too distant future.

That's because they are more efficient when the air is hotter therefore much better for cooling your home in the summer. They are more suited to hotter countries where AC is common place.

On a new build this is what needs to happen as on most modern estates houses have near zero garden area. A horizontal system may require in excess of 800 square metres. Ground sourced pumps need to be carefully designed to achieve a thermal balance and not to actually cool the ground faster than it can recover. There must be a limit to how many boreholes you can sink, for multiple houses on an estate, in a relatively small area.

And then there is the threat of ground water pollution, perhaps longer term, as these systems become old.