Come to our EcoCounts Mondays workshop on the topic on Jan 19th – sign up here on Eventbrite.
Our EcoCounts data shows that domestic gas usage makes up on average about 20% of our carbon footprint. Here’s how to get off gas, if you can.
You need to know the difference between a gas boiler and a heat pump. A heat pump is nothing new – it’s the same machine that runs your fridge or your air conditioning. It “pumps heat” to where you want it, or away from where you don’t want it, and it runs on electricity, so if you have a low carbon electricity tariff with your electricity provider, you could heat your home without raising your carbon footprint.
A heat pump can heat any home that a gas boiler can, but to be more affordable than gas, certain conditions must be met. If your home is highly insulated, you could minimise your heating bill. In fact, if you had batteries, solar panels or signed up to a community energy scheme, you could probably reduce your heatings costs to zero for much of the year.
Even if you don’t own your own home, you don’t have to resign yourself to gas forever. There is a compelling business case for landlords right now: the government is offering a £7,500 grant (Boiler Upgrade Scheme) that significantly lowers the installation cost, and heat pumps help future-proof properties against looming Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) laws.
But there are caveats! The domestic heat pump industry is young, and finding skilled installers takes time. Worse, the gas industry is lobbying hard to save their own skins, producing all sorts of headline-making stories to try to scare people away from heat pumps.
EcoCounts is running an EcoCounts Mondays workshop on Jan 19th where you can learn more on the topic and how to persuade your landlord to take the plunge.
