Boilers vs Heat Pumps – Will Gas/Oil boilers be banned from 2025?

The facts you must know!

Introduction

I am an independent multi skilled engineer and the below article is based on my professional opinion only. I live near Spalding in Lincolnshire, as such I have needed to be able to install many different kinds of heating systems as we are rural in this area. There are lots of different heating systems suited to different locations and properties are all vey different too in and around the Spalding villages. I feel I can provide a balanced view when a customer is considering various solutions, whether gas boilers, oil boilers or heat pumps as I do not install just one and do not need to convince a customer to install that just because that’s all I do.

I am qualified in mains Gas, LPG, Oil, Heat Pumps, Solar, Electrics and Air Conditioning, I am also a Domestic and Non Domestic qualified energy assessor. I have also been an assessor for an MCS accredited assessment body so know most regulations better than most and installed most systems you will be considering including some very large commercial systems you won’t!

I have been an accredited Green Deal Installer and have installed external wall insulation (EWI) and have seen many schemes come and go and know the reasons for their ultimate demise. I have written this article to help you decide whether you should consider changing your gas or oil boiler to a heat pump or just replace it with a gas boiler or oil boiler this time round. I endorse no manufacturer and am unbiased with what I write. I hope this article is of use, to some of you who may read this.

Author: Kev Wright (just an engineer)

Let’s discuss Gas first

Do I have to replace my gas boiler from 2025?

No, but it is likely that gas boilers will be banned from 2025 in all newly built properties, and the most likely heating source, as it stands when writing this article will be a heat pump. This is because new homes are super insulated and a heat pump will work well in this scenario, and we do need to get off fossil fuels, most of us know this. It is not so easy with older properties though….

Can I still replace my old gas boiler?

Yes, you can. You can replace your old gas boiler and you do not have to do this before 2025. There is some speculation that only gas-fired boilers that are “hydrogen ready” can be used, this is certainly not true, there is no legislation as yet and the government are yet to decide whether this is the route they will take.

Hydrogen Boilers – What does this mean to me?

Hydrogen boilers will mean, in its simplest of terms, that a mixture of different gases will be delivered in to the existing gas network, through your existing pipework, so there is little to be concerned about and no major changes or costs will be incurred if this is the route the government go down to lower the emissions for the mass housing stock that are on mains gas. It is yet to be decided what the government will do.

Heat Pumps – The Facts

Well Insulated Homes

Heat pumps are only really suited to very well insulated properties, this means newer properties in the norm. Older properties are not suited if they are not really well insulated, this is not just the roof, we are talking the entire structure, roof, walls, windows and floors!

Poorly Insulated Homes

With the majority of properties in the UK being less efficient, major improvements and cost, will need to be made to the poorly insulated properties for a heat pump to work efficiently.

FACT! Unless these improvements are made a heat pump can be a poor choice and may cost you a lot to run.

FACT! If you are on mains gas, a heat pump is also not financially viable at the moment.

Why is this?

1. A good gas boiler is around 94% efficient if fitted with smart controls and weather compensation (as well as a couple of more technical things)
2. A heat pump is 3 times as efficient (some claim more, but these are tested in lab conditions, so work with 3 times)
3. Electric is 3 times more expensive that gas is at the moment.

Therefore, a gas boiler will cost the same to run, but the heat pump will cost you 4 times the amount to install.

FACT! The caveat to this is of you want to go green, then cost is irrelative to you!

FACT! If you have the right property a heat pump is by far the best solution!

Many forums discuss heat pumps and some people say they are inefficient, they don’t work properly and the worse thing they have ever had. The fact is, the heat pump was never right for their property and wasn’t installed or set up correctly!

What if I have Solar Panels? [PV]

If you have a Solar Photovoltaic System (PV), heat pumps will cost less to run, but only if you schedule your heating correctly. This will mean heating in the day.

Will it be free to run the heating? No!

Remember, Solar PV panels do not produce any power when it’s dark, this is when you want your heating on the most.

Your PV system may not produce enough energy to run the heat pump system on its own either, so you will be buying electricity from the grid to top up the running power your heat pump will use. But it will be cheaper to run than it normally would without PV.

The thing to consider to lower the running costs in the evening, is to install solar battery storage, we will cover this in another article.

Now let’s discuss Oil Boilers

All of the above facts regarding well insulated and poorly insulated homes remain the same with oil boilers as it does with gas boilers.

Oil price varies throughout the year and is much more volatile in its price, especially in the winter!

Now let’s consider something else, the life expectancy of a Boiler vs a Heat Pump.

I would argue, as an engineer, they are around the same, anywhere between 12 and 15 years (if the system is maintained correctly!)

The difference in price in installing a new oil boiler vs converting your system to run on a heat pump will be around 2/3 times more for the heat pump. By the time we are mandated to install ASHP’s as opposed to replacing the oil boilers, in my opinion is some time away but it is coming, it has to.

RHI is a grant and is available that incentivises you to change to a heat pump BUT, if your property is not right, you won’t get it and worse than that, it will cost you a lot more to run the system.

This all may change if the government roll out another scheme to incentivise you to install and this may take several forms in my opinion.

If you have an old leaky property then stop before you consider a heat pump and get some solid professional advice. An energy performance assessment or EPC if you have one that reflects your property as it is today, will guide you, anything D or less isn’t great!

The only plausible solution is to insulate your home.

This could be external wall insulation, internal wall insulation and a variety of measures in between.

With gas, the biggest noise had been hydrogen as its replacement, with oil it used to be biofuel, but this has been talked about for a long time and nothing has come of it as yet. Oil boilers will be phased out, as petrol and diesel cars will so you will need to keep up to date as things change and government incentives will come and go, as they always do, mainly because they are poorly managed to begin with. Our advice is to keep an eye out for these incentives and be an early adopter when they do appear, as their budgets always seem to get capped or run out quickly, also a change in policy or government can see them get paused, or stop completely, you only have to read around the feed in tariff, EWI grants, warmfront grants, ECO, ECO1, ECO2 and on and on.

I hope this article has been useful.

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