With autumn arriving, homeowners up and down the country will be starting to look at their thermostats in increasing frequency.
The decision as to when the central heating goes on has historically always been different in every household. Where some decide to heat things up as soon as they feel a bit nippy, others have always waited until the clocks go back at the end of October out of principle. In recent years, this decision has been further influenced by the extortionate increase in energy prices and cost-of-living crisis. The real question with all of this though is, how will it all change? This simplistic ritual of turning the heating on until summer may soon become a thing of the past. Sure, boilers and radiators aren’t just going to disappear from existence like that. But, The Future Homes Standard 2025 is ever approaching, bringing with it new legislation on the energy efficiency of new houses in the UK, demanding an 80% reduction in carbon emissions.
While many of us have some inkling of how this will change the heating of new properties, none of us really know for certain. Although yes, the most likely outcome seems to be that new houses will sport heat pumps and underfloor heating, uptake in the UK has been slow to say the least. Is this all really going to change overnight? Even if the demand does, there’s certainly no guarantee that this new heating industry will be able to supply enough heat pumps to keep up. Added to which, where do boiler bans and fines leave the majority of homeowners whose properties aren’t currently suitable for the changeover?
There’s a definite need for change in the sustainability of buildings in the UK, from both a planet saving and homeowner cost standpoint. But, a lot of the noise being made by government is fixated on just heat pumps specifically. Switching over to heat pumps is an easy snappy headline, but the reality of becoming net zero by 2050 is decidedly more complex than that. Airtightness, insulation, windows, building design, materials and much more are all set to play a role in the final building itself too, and we can’t forget about the emissions caused by the construction process itself either. As many of you will be able to attest to, this isn’t impossible. In fact, some of you may already be building net-zero ready homes yourself.
It’s not necessarily a bad thing that the Government is trying to get the UK interested in heat pumps. They are a fantastic developing bit of technology and could certainly revolutionise the way homes are heated. However, government may face a better reception if they took more of a bigger picture approach instead, and focussed on trying to help housebuilders, manufacturers and retrofitters navigate this sustainability change at large. Net zero 2050 need not be a one-size fits all solution. Just take a look at the lacklustre rollout of Biodiversity Net Gain to see what happens when new construction legislation is brought in without the right education and support for those in the industry.
This month’s sustainability & energy efficiency feature has no doubt inspired this First Word. From eco-friendly site power to heated glass, I’ve been lucky enough to read and write about a range of different solutions and methods in this topic. It just goes to show, there might be a bit more to net zero 2050 than boiler bans.
