Buying a house with no gas supply

FreeBear

eddddy said: For example, some people are investing/betting on hydrogen replacing natural gas. i.e. Hydrogen being pumped down the existing gas pipe infrastructure. Hydrogen doesn't produce any greenhouse gases when it burns, only water.

Two main processes for producing hydrogen - From natural gas, and electrolysis from water. The electricity used for electrolysis could come from solar, wind, nuclear, or more likely from a gas powered station. As long as you don't take the production method in to account, hydrogen is very clean...

But hydrogen does nasty things to the distribution pipes as well as many metals used in boiler construction - Look up "hydrogen embrittlement" for more information.

macman

You would need: supply routing in from street, trenching and pipework, meter install, new boiler and rads throughout, hot water tank unless you opt for a combi, programmer.
Electric rads will cost you about 250% more to run per kWh than mains gas CH, unless they are NSH's running on E7. So yes, it's well worth doing. The increase in the value of the property alone will cover the install costs overnight.
Since about a third of our leccy is generated from gas fired plant, what makes you think that gas prices will rise faster than electricity? 

macman

user1977 said:

dannychapman1984 said:

2: I have read somewhere and a little aware that by 2050 we (as a country) want to be net-zero and from 2025, new houses are not allowed to have gas boilers! So would transferomg back to gas be worthwhile?

I don't think that's confirmed, but it's going to happen at some point (some other countries have already stopped installing them in new homes), so I'd share your concerns about how worthwhile it is to install a new system if you can foresee having to rip it out and replace with something else (though I'd guess replacing gas boiler with an electric wet heating system might not be too expensive?).

Not sure about short term costs but I'd guess the difference between gas and electric prices is going to get smaller.

The only proposals so far have been to ban gas boilers in new builds from 2025. If that happens, you will still be able to retrofit them in existing houses, and to replace them in houses with existing gas boilers. So they will be around for decades to come, and will need to be, because we have no possibility to heat our homes from 100% electricity for decades to come either-the capacity does not exist, and cannot be built for years.
Yes, you could switch the boiler over using the existing rads, but an electric boiler will increase fuel costs by about 250%, so why would you?

Section62

macman said:

Since about a third of our leccy is generated from gas fired plant, what makes you think that gas prices will rise faster than electricity? 

Because the cost of domestic gas is increasing faster relative to electricity. Moreover, the government have signalled that they think this is something which needs to happen to get people to switch from gas to electricity more rapidly.

Only a relatively small part of the cost of domestic electricity is due to the cost of gas used for generation, whereas the wholesale cost of gas makes up a relatively larger proportion of domestic gas cost.

macman said:

The only proposals so far have been to ban gas boilers in new builds from 2025. If that happens, you will still be able to retrofit them in existing houses, and to replace them in houses with existing gas boilers. So they will be around for decades to come, and will need to be, because we have no possibility to heat our homes from 100% electricity for decades to come either-the capacity does not exist, and cannot be built for years.
Yes, you could switch the boiler over using the existing rads, but an electric boiler will increase fuel costs by about 250%, so why would you?

Because the cost of gas is going to increase more rapidly than the cost of electricity.  Even if not in the wholesale markets, the government will be making sure the balance tilts towards electricity for domestic pricing.

Gas boilers may be around for decades to come, but they will be (relatively) more expensive to buy, and to run.

There will be a tipping point - probably quite soon - where the default option for many people will be a heat pump rather than a replacement gas boiler.