Table of Contents
At the beginning of 2019, the UK government took a very radical decision and announced that they wanted to launch the "Future Home Standard" plan. This environmentally friendly program will be applied to start from 2025, although it has not been signed and accepted into the law yet.
According to this program, gas boilers will be banned from 2025 due to high carbon emissions. However, the UK public is confused about what exactly the government statement is. People wonder what they will do if they still don't have a greener boiler by 2025. In addition, although many people support the environmental side of the decision, they doubt that it can reach the goal within the given time.
In today's article, we want to clarify all these confusions and illuminate all the dark spots about the UK gas boiler ban for the public!
Although no legal law has been adopted about this, for now, it has been stated that gas boilers will be banned in new buildings by 2025, with the decision taken by both the previous and the current government. However, the decision does not end there. The program also includes that new boilers will no longer be sold by 2035.
These approaches, which are the first steps taken as part of the Heat and Buildings Strategy, plan to motivate people to replace their old boilers with new, low-carbon-emission boilers. Moreover, the government underlines that it will support up to £5000 to make the change happen in order to speed up the process and help people with the installation.
There are several reasons why the UK wants to ban gas boilers. The most important two factors are the high carbon emissions of the island and the fact that gas-based heaters' time is to be up. It is also thought to have economic and, although not officially disclosed, political reasons.
To list other reasons, we can take a look at the following factors:
The thing that confuses people the most about the ban is whether they should replace gas boilers before the deadline if they already have one. However, the gas-boiler ban only means that newly built houses should be built with a heating system that does not include gas instead of a boiler from the deadline onwards.
The UK government has not yet officially declared a requirement for gas boiler replacement. However, various incentive plans are currently underway for those who start work on renewable energy heating systems. In fact, Renewable Heat Incentive has already begun paying quarterly.
In November 2019, Prime Minister Boris Johnson declared the UK's net-zero carbon emissions program, which is intended to be applied step by step by 2050. In order to achieve this, he announced to the public a 10-item "Green Industrial Revolution" plan, which is closely related to both the next governments and the very public itself in terms of laws and lifestyle.
Under this plan, by 2025, all newly built homes must be designed without gas boilers. Although the initial date was thought to be 2023, the government had to postpone its plans until 2025 due to pressure from the heating sector.
However, although the plan to shape a greener future has been delayed, the UK government says it wants to implement the newer and greener measures under the Future Homes Standard as soon as possible. According to the government spokesman, the current plans are more of a promotional purpose than a certainty. It is also stated that the actual and definitive plans are on the way.
Of course, there are. In fact, the main reason for all these gas bans is to direct people to the use of greener alternative energy sources. Using old versions of energy sources makes the world a ticking time bomb, as the damage done by fossil fuels such as gas and coal becomes to the earth as a greenhouse gas. However, it is possible to use sustainable energy sources instead of these harmful sources. In particular, when we consider the advancing technology and the wonders that humanity has created in difficult situations, we will be able to obtain energy more effectively from solar and wind energy over time.
Let's take a look at some of these alternatives together!
As the most likely replacement for gas boilers, electric alternatives can easily find their way into our lives, such as bar fires and other portable heaters. We can examine electric-based heating systems within two groups: heaters and heat-pumps.
Electric heaters operate on a 100% efficiency basis and convert almost all of their electricity-based energy into heat. Heaters include storage heaters, fan heaters and electric fires. The heater-based heating systems can also be designed as electric floor heating and water heating through immersion heaters and electric boilers. However, they can cost you a bit much more.
Instead of generating heat like heaters, heat pumps meet the heating need by carrying the heat from one point to the desired point. Thus, the hot water and room temperature you need are met. There are two types of heat pumps. ASHP (air source heat pumps) utilizes the heat from the outside air and moves the heat to a point. GSHP (ground-source heat pumps), on the other hand, extracts the heat from pipes laid in the ground.
District heating systems have been implemented more widely worldwide as the importance and effectiveness of environmental energy sources are understood. With hot water from a central geothermal power plant to all streets and buildings, the heating need is met, and the need for hot water can be satisfied.
One way or another, the UK government seems quite willing to use more environmentally friendly energy sources while giving up fossil fuels, both for the good of the world we live in and for the more effective use of energy resources. As Zara Heating, we will continue to meet your heat needs by improving ourselves and adapting to new situations, whether or not the process affects you until the deadline period.
