The ULEZ of rural life

[EffortlessDesmond]

There is a Government proposal to ban replacement oil boilers from 2026. Of course, it's important to shift away from fossil fuels, but this is going to affect rural houses disproportionately. The existing electricity grid is unable to support demand if there's a mass switch to heat pumps, and most villages don't have a gas supply.

Given the £15k installing a heat pump and its ancillaries, versus £4-£6k for a new oil boiler, how many more rural households are going to find themselves old and cold and damp in pursuit of Net Zero? The Countryside Alliance estimates the number at 1.7m.

It has been in several newspapers, yesterday and today, for anyone who hasn't already seen it.

@DougMLancs I agree with that statement completely. We'd love to have an ASHP, but as things stand it feels too soon for it to be a realistic and practicable solution. In a few years the issues of old draughty buildings and heat pumps might have been ironed out but I feel rural homeowners are being forced down a path that hasn't been properly thought through and tested.

@candycane222 My understanding is that they do work, but that either means the running costs are high or a lot of (expensive) work has to be done to reduce the draughtiness/heat retention of the building beforehand. It's less an issue of them not working, more that the costs associated with them working are unrealistic.

We have actually had a single ASHP in our open plan kitchen dining room for almost 20 years, which we use to supplement the OFCH when it's not on. We've also found that they don't last forever, but the fan/cooling function has been much appreciated in heatwaves. The house is south-facing so it gets hot. I have been biting my tongue at DH's refusal to consider solar panels when the original feed-in tariff was available. We would have been quids in by now!