By Paul Homewood
Heat pumps are too expensive for ordinary families to install and run, the Energy Secretary Claire Coutinho has been warned by MPs.
The Government must urgently make low-carbon heating systems cheaper if it wants to reach its goal of net zero emissions by 2050, according to a report by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC).
Almost all of the UK’s 28 million households must ditch their gas boilers and decarbonise their heating systems for ministers to achieve their goal of net zero emissions.
Nearly a fifth (18pc) of all UK greenhouse gas emissions come from heating the nation’s homes, the vast bulk of it from burning natural gas.
The Government wants to phase out gas boilers by 2035 and the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) has a target for Britain to be installing 600,000 heat pumps per year by 2028, up from just 55,000 in 2021.
But high costs for households mean uptake has so far been slow and the Government is not on track to meet this target.
The PAC report said: “The cost of buying and running heat pumps is a substantial barrier to take-up for most households, at a time when incomes are already stretched.”
An average heat pump costs £11,600, four times more than a gas boiler.
The Government aims to reduce heat pump installation costs by 25pc by 2025, but so far they have only fallen by 6pc since 2021.
The PAC report said: “Costs need to come down much quicker.”
Heat pumps are also more expensive to run than traditional boilers because they use electricity, which costs more than gas, the report said.
The costs are so high that government grants are likely only being used by rich people.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2024/05/26/heat-pumps-too-expensive-ordinary-families/
What is most significant in this latest report is that MPs are now admitting that running costs for heat pumps are also higher then a gas boiler, something I have been pointing out for years.
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The Most Revolutionary Act 
Funny, this story should pop us as the building that I am currently living in, the boiler was turned off that heats the building, and we have a baseboard heating unit. Well, when the boiler was turned off, it turned off the hot water. These people are so stupid, that they’ve not figured out how to adjust the boiler so that it only heats the water and not the entire building, and I had to get the maintenance men to come and shut off the heat access valves in my apartment because it is the end of May and was hot as hell in here. Everyone else is going to either suffer this summer with the heat on, ALL SUMMER, or run the AC unit, relentlessly. This mess goes from bad to worse. The landlord “supposedly” pays the heat and so I can only imagine how many apoplectic fits the landlord is suffering right now.
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Sadly, just surviving has become extremely complicated for all of us Shelby.
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