Over a series of posts, we’ve been exploring the practicalities of getting to net zero. How will society look if we actually reach the UK’s target of zero emissions by 2050? What changes will we need to make, and how will these new habits change our lives?
Decarbonisation affects three crucial systems. We’ve already looked at the challenges involved in electricity and transport. Now let’s take a look at the third factor: net zero heating.
Everything is connected
Think of central heating, and you think of gas. While alternatives are gaining in popularity, the majority of British homes are still heated by gas. Natural gas is significantly cheaper than electricity for domestic heating, and it was the default option for so long that many houses still have working boilers installed.
In remote rural areas, meanwhile, many people depend on oil to heat their homes. Both gas and oil produce significant levels of carbon emissions. This means that, if we seriously want to achieve net zero, domestic heating needs radical change. But what’s the alternative, and how do we convince people to embrace it?
…not all homes are ready to have a heat pump installed… Putting in larger radiators, redoing pipe work and upgrading insulation can all add thousands to the cost.
No ban on boilers
Originally, the government planned to ban the sale of all new gas boilers by 2035. Like the upcoming ban on petrol and diesel vehicles, the intention was to force massive change and get closer to meeting the 2050 net zero target. However, the proposed boiler ban has now been dropped, meaning that new gas heating systems can continue to be bought and installed.
What is already in force, however, is an incentivisation programme. The Boiler Upgrade Scheme allows homeowners in England and Wales to apply for a grant of £7,500 towards an air source or ground source heat pump, or £5,000 towards a biomass boiler. The average starting price for heat pump installation in the UK is £7,999, making this a generous subsidy in theory.
However, not all homes are ready to have a heat pump installed. Heat pumps operate at a lower temperature than gas boilers, with higher flow rates and a greater water volume. Putting in larger radiators, redoing pipe work and upgrading insulation can all add thousands to the cost. Meanwhile, a biomass boiler, which burns wood pellets or logs, is cheap to run but expensive to set up. The average starting point for an automatically fed domestic boiler, including installation, is around £18,000.
Changing habits
If the heat pump roll out is going to be successful it has to work for everyone, and the key question is ‘is your house warm enough?’
Having a heat pump and using it efficiently means thinking about the heat you are using on a daily basis, deliberately controlling the temperature in the house more precisely than before. How cold people feel is based on a whole range of parameters not just the temperature in the room, so we may need to get used to wearing more layers a lot more than we’re used to.
What’s my motivation?
One additional issue is supply. While there’s been a marked swing towards heat pump installation in 2024, the supply chain isn’t yet capable of keeping up with demand. Getting a quote can take a long time, never mind scheduling an installation. That may be fine if your gas boiler is working and you can endure the wait. But if you need a new heating system urgently – and for households with elderly or sick members, it really is urgent – it’s difficult to justify holding out that long.
Finally, there’s the systematic aspect. To bring carbon emissions down to zero, we have to reach a point when gas is no longer supplied to UK homes. At what point can that safely be done, without leaving lower-income households stranded? And how can it be communicated?
Like transport and electricity, heating is a topic with real social and economic repercussions. Moving away from natural gas doesn’t just require finding new technologies. It also has to involve transdisciplinary cooperation across the sciences and social sciences, ensuring that everyone can be brought on board and nobody is left out.
