BEIS poised to shift policy costs onto gas bills.

Verdigris

spot1034 said:

Taking out a gas boiler and installing a heat pump sounds like a significant building job for two or more people, quite possibly stretching into days rather than hours and involving major disruption to the householder including redecoration afterwards, and you'll be sent a bill quite possibly into five figures. 

Quite apart from the question as to where all the workers to do this are coming from, how many people who've got heating systems that work well and they're happy with, will want to play along with this?

That's why I suggested upgrades when properties change hands.

Shame we sent all those Polish plumbers home. Still, taking back control! Blue passports!

worrywart_3

Verdigris said:

I agree this won't be without pain but it has got to happen, one way or another, and time is of the essence.

Being as our economy seems to be founded mainly on house price inflation, perhaps changes of ownership/temancy would be a good point to have housing brought to higher energy efficiency? Instead of Stamp Duty perhaps the property would have to be brought up to an EPC of C, or above, before it could be occupied?

What about all the period properties ?

DiseasedBunny

worrywart_3 said:

Verdigris said:

I agree this won't be without pain but it has got to happen, one way or another, and time is of the essence.

Being as our economy seems to be founded mainly on house price inflation, perhaps changes of ownership/temancy would be a good point to have housing brought to higher energy efficiency? Instead of Stamp Duty perhaps the property would have to be brought up to an EPC of C, or above, before it could be occupied?

What about all the period properties ?

Only a problem once a month? 🤣

Ectophile

worrywart_3 said:

Verdigris said:

I agree this won't be without pain but it has got to happen, one way or another, and time is of the essence.

Being as our economy seems to be founded mainly on house price inflation, perhaps changes of ownership/temancy would be a good point to have housing brought to higher energy efficiency? Instead of Stamp Duty perhaps the property would have to be brought up to an EPC of C, or above, before it could be occupied?

What about all the period properties ?

Knock them down and build new energy efficient houses?

Verdigris

They did that with the back-to-backs in many of our industrial cities. They were period properties!

More seriously, I imagine there would have to some sort of exemptions for Listed buildings, depending on grade. The National Trust seem to managing to green up their properties.

Armengar

EV?  Ive spent less on cars in the last 20 years than a comparable mondeo estate sized EV.

Heat pump? I wouldnt see the ROE in my lifetime.

Nice for new houses, pointless in older village houses like mine.

brewerdave

Armengar said:

Heat pump? I wouldnt see the ROE in my lifetime.

Nice for new houses, pointless in older village houses like mine.

The crazy thing is that are throwing all these dates around for replacing existing installations with ASHPs at vast expense but they are still allowing the major builders to put gas boilers in brand new builds without bothering with solar panels either. 

brewerdave

spot1034 said:

Taking out a gas boiler and installing a heat pump sounds like a significant building job for two or more people, quite possibly stretching into days rather than hours and involving major disruption to the householder including redecoration afterwards, and you'll be sent a bill quite possibly into five figures. 

The bill will be comfortably into 5 figures for the installation with pump, pipework ,controls and tank(s) and to make it work "efficiently" the standard of insulation on most homes will have to have a significant uplift. Maybe totally new windows, doors ,wall insulation , roof insulation ...the list (and the costs) go on....

Liku

Yeah my mum's house is definitely not suitable. Doesn't even have double glazing. 200 year-old poorly insulated house with wooden window frames and while it isn't listed, it does have some historical significance. Previous owners wanted to knock it down and build something new and they said no.  But mains gas isn't available either so it's LPG or oil.
My house has a heat pump (no gas here either) and tbh it isn't anywhere near as cheap to run as I thought and it takes forever to heat up. I rent though so it's not my responsibility. Don't know if LPG/oil are cheaper than this in an adequately insulated house.

tghe-retford

I'm guessing the Government finally realised that replacing the gas network with hydrogen is a complete non-starter and unviable.

In terms of heat pumps, they're more realistic but I can tell of the recent situation involving council homes I pass on the way to work who did not have a gas supply and were reliant on coal and oil for heating. The council installed heat pumps as the future, a clean, renewable and cheaper form of heating they were promised. The second the gas supply came to their homes, all the heat pumps were decommissioned and every home now uses gas. And when the heat pumps were there, I still saw the coal supplier delivering coal to their homes.

Now they like everyone else will face an effective "gas tax" for having the most efficient and cost effective form of heating. The Government's energy policies are a joke and a source of mockery for the world to behold on the stage of the UN.