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    UK government scraps plan to ban sale of gas boilers by 2035
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    UK government scraps plan to ban sale of gas boilers by 2035

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    17 Comments

    2. zeusoid on

      Inevitable it’s a very nice target to have when we have a lot of money to spare.

      It’s impractical when people are broke and on a global scale it’s pissing in the wind

    3. LostnFoundAgainAgain on

      I saw this one coming for a while.

      I do agree with what the goverment has said even if I disagree with this move, the reality is that most of our current homes use gas boilers with little motive to swap over to more eco friendly boilers, especially during the current economy where gas boilers are significantly cheaper.

      Just from a quick Google:

      Gas boilers prices can range from £580 to £5,000 depending on the system the minimum can go up.

      Heat pump prices can range from £1,500 to £28,000, some of the more complex systems are extremely expensive, but most people would be looking at around £1,500 to £3,500

      -Please note that these are quick googled prices, not including installations.

      During a time when people don’t have much money, they are going to choose gas systems, and builders are likely going to do the same as they can save quite a lot when builder a large number of houses / apartments.

      I would definitely like to see more support towards eco-friendly methods of heating our homes, reducing the cost and allowing eco-friendly methods to be a better choice, but even if the government did implement support, I still don’t understand this move, a delay of an additional 5 / 10 years would have been a lot better and would politically sit better, because the reality is modern system will be eco-friendly, and this will become the norm one day.

    4. Worried_Ad4237 on

      There needs to be an alternative fuel or an economical heating source for homes relying on gas/oil boilers before they can just ban their sale.

    5. MrSpindles on

      I’m a council tenant and I’d love to get rid of my gas bill and be entirely electric, however I’m not sure that the current non-gas heating solutions are economically viable either for the cost of installation or the cost of running. As a kid we had the old electric immersion heater, which everyone ditched for more efficient direct heating gas systems that are much cheaper to run,

    6. SinisterPixel on

      Honestly disappointing. We need a government that’ll stop dragging its feet on net zero already. We need meaningful change. But every time a goal is set, the goalpost is just moved again and again. It’s exhausting. Asking for some commitment from our government shouldn’t be a big deal

    7. Professional-Bat4134 on

      It was always going to be impossible without significant grant funding.

      Not withstanding the amount of retrofit required to get a large proportion of properties up to standard in terms of insulation.

    9. eyupfatman on

      Until electric is cheap, we’ll keep using gas.

      I don’t quite understand why electric prices are pinned to gas prices (or however it works), but that needs sorting. We have so many renewables and the chance to build more nuclear. Electricity should be really cheap.

    10. Worth_Tip_7894 on

      “However, minimum standards for energy efficiency in newly built properties under the rules will preclude the installation of gas boilers.” at least is good, but we can bet housebuilding companies will lobby hard to get this watered down too. It looks like they already won on solar panels on new homes.

      I do think central government bans will be less effective than proper incentives to move behaviour.

      What we need is to close the “spark gap” of the relative prices of gas and electricity.

      Electricity is 4:1 the price of gas, which means a heat pump energy usage needs to be 4 times lower than gas to become an economic incentive. While some very good heat pump installs appear to meet or even exceed that, it’s right at the top end.

      If the artificial levies and taxes were removed from electric and added to gas, and it was clear the spark gap would remain at 3:1 long term, then heat pumps would become a money saving scheme for most people. This would incentivise the move. Clearly this would need to happen over time to allow people to move over slowly, and the vulnerable would need support.

      It seems a proper install by competent installers is needed too, but lower spark gap would reduce the risk for homeowners of not having a highly optimised system.

    12. Salaried_Zebra on

      Am I right in thinking that heat pumps require a great huge tank to store preheated hot water in?

      Good luck with that, there’s nowhere to put one of those in our house anyway, and most people have got shut of their tanks too

    13. SlayerofDemons96 on

      Here we go, the start of Labour backtracking on everything and using the same excuse “it was the tories fault”

      The economy is absolutely going to crumble under its knees under starmer, and nothing is going to get better

    14. Adorable_Pee_Pee on

      Will the government learn from this not to set arbitrary unrealistic green goals for itself, ? Will it hell

    16. RedFox3001 on

      It would really help if those of us that use gas heating had them installed well in the first place. Boiler plus, open therm, heat loss surveys, correct rad sizing.

      Getting a proper decent heating engineer will massively improve efficiency, lower costs and make your house more comfortable

    17. lollipoppizza on

      At least entirely new homes still won’t be able to have gas boilers. Genuinely bonkers that brand new homes are being built with gas heating today.