The gas-powered boilers heating nine out of 10 British homes will soon be a thing of the past as the Scottish and UK governments work on plans to replace them with something more eco-friendly

Such as?

Heat pumps are currently the favoured option, though keep an eye out for hydrogen boilers coming up on the inside. Heat pumps come in two forms, air and ground source, and work by extracting the potential thermal energy therein, compressing it (which creates heat) and pumping it into your home. The systems do need a small amount of electricity to function, but they are still an efficient and relatively clean way of heating homes. Amazingly, they work well even in climates such as ours.

And hydrogen?

An equally exciting innovation, though the technology currently lags a little behind that of heat pumps. Hydrogen can be made using water and renewable energy, and therefore becomes a clean way to power homes. In November 2020 it was announced that in the first scheme of its kind in the world, hydrogen will be used to bring zero carbon heating to 300 homes around Buckhaven in Fife by 2023.

What are the government plans?

The headline-grabbing one ahead of the start of the United Nations Climate Change Conference is that by 2035 all new heating systems be low carbon or carbon-neutral (not the same thing as zero carbon). As a financial incentive, the UK government this month unveiled its Heat And Building Strategy, which includes a £450 million Clean Homes Grant slush-fund. So from next April homeowners in England will be able to apply for grants of up to £5000 to upgrade their boilers. The Scottish Government, meanwhile, aims to make the nation a net zero emitter by 2045 and points to a range of grants currently available north of the Border. According to a Scottish Government spokesperson, these amount to “up to £7,500 per household, in addition to a further £6,000 of grants for energy efficiency improvements as part of the Home Energy Scotland Loan.”

Good news?

Yes and no. The change from fossil fuel to low carbon, zero carbon or carbon neutral forms of heating is necessary given the climate emergency, and the grants are welcome. However they’re not enough to move the UK’s population lock, stock and gas-powered boiler to a cleaner alternative. They will fund around 30,000 conversions a year, whereas 660,000 conversions a year is needed. And the slower the process, the harder it will be to meet the UK’s mooted environmental targets – British boilers emit twice the amount of carbon as all the UK’s gas power stations combined, which is why the Confederation of British Industry has called for gas boilers to be banned from 2025. Currently the UK sells and installs fewer heat pumps than per household than Poland, Slovakia and Estonia, while boasting (if that’s the right word) one of the oldest housing stocks in Western Europe.