Some stats for you.

• Heating buildings in England accounts for 24% of fossil fuel demand in England.
• 88% of English homes use natural gas for heating
• 8% of English homes have electric heating
• 8 million buildings in England will need to switch from fossil fuel boilers to alternatives by 2035.

Which ever way you cut it, these are some major changes to how we as a nation currently operate.

The National Infrastructure Commission

The National Infrastructure Commission report dated 18 October 2023 calls for the UK Government to step in and incentivise households and businesses to make the switch away from fossil fuels. Recently the UK Prime Minister announced a 50% increase to the grants available to homeowners (to £7500), but without increasing the size of the funding pot. The original pot was due to support 600,000 installations, but this will be significantly less now.

The report then goes on to make some surprising statements.

“Buildings with an energy efficiency rating (EPC) D or above, which make up 90 per cent of English homes, are likely to have a peak heat loss rate that makes them suitable for heat pumps with minimal to no energy efficiency improvements.”

“The most common heat pump systems require a hot water tank which requires space. Around ten per cent of English homes may not have space to add a hot water tank.”

The National Infrastructure Commission, Oct 2023

We understand why the Commission has made these statements. But we strongly suspect that they are disingenuous.

A heat pump offers an alternative heating model. The heat pump is a form of low temperature heating. At its most efficient (a good well-balanced installation into a highly insulated home) a heat hump system can achieve 400% efficiency, with 300% being realistic for many homes.

However, a poor system – where the building is poorly insulated, the heat emitters are under-sized and the flow temperature is set too high (ie. above 50 degrees) – will achieve less than 300%, possibly as low as 200% efficiency.

As a minimum, this will make the heat pump expensive to operate – significantly more expensive than a gas boiler. But there could be other consequences. Some of these systems will actually struggle to heat the home adequately, and by calling for heat above their design parameters will likely reduce the lifespan of the heat pumps.

The combi boiler is so popular since it eliminated the need for a hot water storage tank. The UK already has some of the smallest housing stock in Europe. That space no longer exists for the hot water tank – either it has long since been converted to other uses or it never existed in the first place. For very many homeowners it will be a backward step to need to give up space to accommodate a hot water tank.

At Brimstone Energy, our message is clear and unambiguous.

• Insulation is a “no-regrets” investment. Homeowners will reap immediate and permanent benefits from upgrading the insulation in their homes. This is relevant no matter what heating system the home is using.
• All heating systems are more efficient when operating at lower temperatures. The efficiency of a gas boiler can be as low as 85% at higher temperatures, and as high as 96% at lower temperatures.
• Homeowners should take a progressive and incremental approach to upgrading their homes. Incremental improvements to insulation and upgrading heat emitters can be made over a period of years, getting the home “heat pump ready”.
• This approach delivers immediate & permanent benefits but spreads the investment out over a period of years.
• An existing heating system should not be replaced early. Existing heating systems should be run until they are at the end of their service life. This will be in excess of 20 years for most gas boilers.

The first step in this journey is a heat loss survey of your home. This will identify how to get your home ready for low temperature heating, and give you a step by step guide of how to improve the performance of your home.

Brimstone Energy – For the Green Energy Transition.