Don't let the greenwashing fool you, buy a gas boiler before they are banned!

For most of us there is no viable alternative at the moment.  (Air source) Heat pumps are not working aswell as advertised, especially at lower temperatures.  Ground source can be effective but again has limitations as you need the deltaT, also huge installation costs and this is crucial for their effectiveness.

The boiler in my house is over 30 years old and still going strong.  But I am worried when it fails I might not be able to buy a gas boiler replacement.

well, where we are now, is that it is gas heating in new build houses that will be phased out from 2025, and replacement boilers in existing housing from 2035 onwards. That in turn suggest to me that most older houses will still be running gas fired heating until perhaps the mid to late 2040s as the last decade or two of installations start to fail beyond repair, though a sharp rise in gas price may lead to the switch off of working systems.

I think you have a good while to organize a replacement, and if you wish to stay with gas (and if you already have it I would at the moment) then there is at least a decade or so to do so.

Mind you this is govt policy we are considering, so it may be cast aside at any point, but I'd be surprised if the dates go much nearer, I'd not be at all surprised by a slight delay when the deadline gets closer.

Mike.

Yes thats true, I think the 2025 date will stick for new builds but the way things are going with targets and so called called climate crisis the farther away dates may yet come in!  But hopefully common sense will prevail and they will realise there is no viable alternative and scrap it.

I'll buy a replacement before they are banned so will be running a gas boiler in my house at least until 2060, or until the gas supply is off or I am deed.

Weeell, there is a viable and very cheap alternative - but it certainly involves a drop in living standards and possibly lifespans- and that is not to heat houses very much at all.  This would revert to where we were before central heating - there is a reason for all those sleeveless jumpers in old photos, after all,- but we have had at least one generation, probably two,  that know nothing else but instant warmth, and would certainly struggle to adapt to that.

At the moment folk talk about choosing to eat or heat, as if both are equally essential, while really to some degree food fuel and clothing can be interchanged, but then some folk think electricity and or the internet connection is essential too..... 

It really depends how it pans out - even if climate change does not get us, the gas fields running flat certainly will at some point, so some adjustment will have to happen. If it is not planned, then simply being priced out  will do it, but just waiting for that to happen is not an outcome I would favour.

Mike.

mapj1 said:

that is not to heat houses very much at all

Modern houses should not need to be heated very much at all, which is why electric heat pumps may suffice.

When I was a lad, many people did not heat their bedrooms and there would have been a coal fire downstairs. That's no good at least in England now.

This year we have managed to get our gas consumption down to 60 MWh. I don't think that there is currently a viable alternative to gas.

mapj1 said:

that is not to heat houses very much at all

Modern houses should not need to be heated very much at all, which is why electric heat pumps may suffice.

When I was a lad, many people did not heat their bedrooms and there would have been a coal fire downstairs. That's no good at least in England now.

This year we have managed to get our gas consumption down to 60 MWh. I don't think that there is currently a viable alternative to gas.

Indeed - that coal fire would have been lucky if it was equivalent to 2 or 3 kW when well made up, and there would have been ice on the bedroom windows inside in the morning in winter - the only time a bedroom fire was lit if some one was really ill. - I recall that time too, but I was young..

Of course if it is the same temp inside and out, there is not a lot of  point in double glazing either.

I'm not advocating for this by the way, quite the reverse, but I wish to make it clear where I think the 'do nothing' scenario ends up.

We can change the designs of future houses of course, the problem is more the rows and rows of hundred plus year old solid walled terraces that are the majority in many older cities. In the newer ones, the gas might have been original for lighting and then electricity was added at some point, then a phone line, and now in the next hundred years or so, for sure,  the gas is going to end.

Mike.

Thats a really good point actually, better insulation and building standards mean less heat loss and thereby less demand for heaitng appliances and heat pumps can be more effective.

But the flip side of that would also mean less gas consumption required!

Plus if you factor in global warming (not that it really is much warmer in the winter) then there should be higher temperatures and again less heat demand, in theory at least.

mapj1 said:

In the newer ones, the gas might have been original for lighting and then electricity was added at some point

Probably neither when our place was built in around 1902. The gas lighting seems to have been put in when the house was extended circa 1923, but there was no mains gas available at the time so it would have been only for lighting.

Coal consumption would have been several tons per year then, about 5 cwt now.

According to hansard The average coal use per household in 1950 was "a little over two tons at 90 shillings a ton" The actual debate linked is discussing the fact that at the time miners were being partly paid in coal rather than just in money, and therefore mining households burnt quite a lot more than the average household, and if in a time of austerity and needing to import coal from the USA, this was the fairest way to do things.

According to my reference texts burning typical coal is 7MW hours per metric tonne  and more like 9 for 'best quality steam coal'  so the two tons was probably about 15-18 megawatt hours, but I bet more than half of that went straight up the chimney.

Mike

Brilliant!

Yes, a lot of heat must go up the chimney, although some of that might heat the bedroom above. (Clutching at straws!)

Step-daughter and husband have recently had their self-build signed off. The pressure test required that the ventilation for the rooms with open hearths (3 of them) be blocked up. And of course the windows have to be closed.

90/- per ton! I paid >£900/ton for my last load. That is an increase of 20000%

Average wage 1950s: £10/week. Now: £670. A 6700% increase. So in real terms, coal is 3 times as expensive. Mind you, gas went up about 3 times recently!