Storage heater alternative.... Infrared vs lpg vs Air source heat pump

Phil3822

Interesting topic. I am wondering also about heating options as I read in the details of the UK’s sixth Carbon Budget text, 10 point plan and 78% reduction in emissions paper that oil boilers will cease being installed from 2025. My own oil boiler is 15 years old and limping on. My house is a C EPC. The government literatures talk all about heat pumps and aims for 600k installations a year for off grid properties etc. I also however read from OFTEC that bio heating oil is in production and research but does not seem to have much government support. The biofuels would be able to operate with existing boilers with a minor upgrade so cost effective and renewable. Anyway the lack of concise and consistent advice means I struggle to form a plan and for me I would need to really save for an ASHP and plan ahead of time. An oil boiler would be far cheaper and even better if it has a future compliance. For now I will save money and await updated guidance. 

Gerry1

Phil3822 said:

I read in the details of the UK’s sixth Carbon Budget text, 10 point plan and 78% reduction in emissions paper that oil boilers will cease being installed from 2025.

Do you have a link for that?

My understanding is that fossil fuel boilers will be banned by 2025 but only for new builds, and that the advisory body wanted a ban on the sale of oil boilers from 2028 but that this has not been agreed.

Reed_Richards

The problem with biofuels is that they displace food crops and, as a whole, the world is not brimming-over with food.  A quick trip into the countryside and you will find large numbers of yellow fields where oil-seed rape is being grown.  I found a document from the NFU that states that in 2016 40% of this crop was exported to the EU for biofuel production https://www.nfuonline.com/assets/81065 .

shinytop

Gerry1 said:

Phil3822 said:

I read in the details of the UK’s sixth Carbon Budget text, 10 point plan and 78% reduction in emissions paper that oil boilers will cease being installed from 2025.

Do you have a link for that?

My understanding is that fossil fuel boilers will be banned by 2025 but only for new builds, and that the advisory body wanted a ban on the sale of oil boilers from 2028 but that this has not been agreed.

I think oil boilers will become the heating equivalent of diesel cars. Reliable, cheap(ish), usually better that the alternative but banned.  

Gas will last a bit longer but the writing's on the wall there too. 

coffeehound

It looks as though their present schedule for eliminating fossil is a triumph of optimism over harsh reality.  Just considering one aspect, if there is a dearth of competent heatpump installers now, is there going to be the huge number required in four years' time?  About 465 new homes are built per day, so about 1500 installers required?.

shinytop

Maybe. There will be a period of shortage as the gas boiler trade learns about ASHPs/bull$h1ts their way through but they'll get there.  It's the design (which can be standardised for new builds) that's the difficult bit; most of the work involved is the same as for gas CH.  It's older houses/replacements that will be the problem.

Reed_Richards

My ASHP has a buffer tank and a second pump for the central heating.  Otherwise the plumbing is the same as for any other form of central heating.  I suspect the most difficult bit is learning how to put the correct inputs into the software that does the heat loss calculations, as required for MCS accreditation.  

lohr500

The most worrying aspect for me over a move to having electricity as the main energy for heating in the future is the monopoly that the generating and distribution companies will have over the pricing. (Assuming that biomass, private wind/solar will be too expensive or impractical for most households) . Even more so when we are all forced down the route of electric vehicles as well.
At least there is some choice today with mains gas, LPG, oil and electricity.

coffeehound

shinytop said:

Maybe. There will be a period of shortage as the gas boiler trade learns about ASHPs/bull$h1ts their way through but they'll get there.  It's the design (which can be standardised for new builds) that's the difficult bit; most of the work involved is the same as for gas CH.  It's older houses/replacements that will be the problem.

A further complication will be the clamour to get gas systems installed and commissioned ahead of the gas drop-dead date, so RGIs will be in even more demand than usual.  There will be rich pickings, so most will want to do gas work up to the wire before learning the ways of the heatpump.  Cue a backlog of thousands of new homes awaiting C/H installation . .

supastar72

There is so much disinformation about space heating, it makes amusing reading. For example, gas central heating boilers are quoted with efficiencies of around 90 - 95%. That would be the case if the boiler were in perfect condition and running continuously at full load. But that is not the real world. Boilers run intermittently according to heat demand. They heat themselves up, provide heat for a while, then switch off and cool down. Inefficient. They run to heat up just one living room but are still pumping heat around the distribution piping with attendant losses. Using the gas boiler in the summer, just to heat domestic hot water, for example, is more expensive than using an electric immersion heater. And what about the subsidiary costs? Radiators must be bled. Inline filters cleaned.  Boilers must be regularly serviced. All time and on costs. And breakdown insurance. Boilers also make a noise and emit fumes. Radiators are hot and are a danger to the very young and elderly. They take up wall space so limiting furniture placement. They are also great dust gatherers.  And the temperature profile they produce in the room gives you a warm ceiling and cool feet. And this does not take into account the capital cost of installing a central heating system in the first place. The hassle with an existing building, the need for the pipework etc. etc. So all is not as simple, nor as cheap, as the gas industry would lead you to believe.