Taking the Long Term View
Jeremy Hawksley – Director General of the Oil Firing Technical Association (OFTEC) looks at future for oil heating in the UK.
Out with the old, and in with the new. The conservative and liberal democrat coalition wasted no time after the election making new policy statements, including the announcement of a new Energy Bill for 2010. As yet, the details are unclear, but what is certain is that we will have more legislation designed to improve energy efficiency in British homes and businesses and to promote low carbon energy production.
One of the items on the agenda is the so called ‘green deal’ to deliver energy efficiency to homes and businesses. This would incentivise both energy suppliers and households to become more efficient by using a ‘pay as you save’ approach.
We can reduce our carbon emissions from heating in a combination of ways; by increasing home insulation, by using more efficient heating systems, and by using renewable forms of energy. Around 1.8 million customers in the UK and Ireland use oil for their heating, and about 86% of those are single family homes. Over three quarters of those homes were built before 1978, and are likely to have poor insulation. By improving this, we would straight away use less energy for heating, and this has been addressed in part through incentives such as the Warmfront scheme.
The average age of an oil boiler is over 15 years old. Designed to last, oil boilers are some of the most robust on the market, but figures show that modern condensing boilers are up to 18% cheaper to run than conventional models. Householders should be looking to update their existing heating systems, which is an ideal opportunity to make the system more efficient, cheaper to run, and more environmentally friendly.
OFTEC envisages that we will gradually reduce our dependency on fossil fuels, but that liquid fuels will remain important - especially in rural communities. The first way to cut carbon emissions will be to combine oil heating with renewable technologies. In Germany, almost 60% of oil condensing boilers installed in 2008 were oil/solar hybrid solutions. Solar provides heat when available from natural resources, but requires backup from an alternative fuel. Also our homes could be heated by multi-fuel hybrid heating solutions such as oil and wood pellets working together.
Secondly the fossil fuel content of kerosene – the fuel used in domestic properties in the UK and Ireland – will come down as new bio-liquid heating oils become available. OFTEC and others have developed a fuel that is a blend of 30% Fatty Acid Methyl Ester (FAME) made from waste oil and 70% kerosene. This has been included in the proposals for a Renewable Heat Incentive. Government figures show that the CO2 emissions of this fuel are 28% less than that of 100% kerosene, and the same as that for natural gas.
Thirdly the installation of more sophisticated heating controls including TRV’s and smart meters will ensure that each room is heated appropriately and the system is not producing unnecessary heat.
The advantage of a multi-fuel hybrid solution is that you have security of supply. By purchasing a tank of fuel or a supply of wood you are not susceptible to sudden increases in the cost of your heating as has occurred for gas and electricity users. When solar or wind is available to use, liquid fuel consumption will decrease. Multi-fuel systems are also ideal for buildings with existing oil heating, most of which are single family homes with roof space for solar.
We can take immediate action to save energy and reduce carbon emissions by installing high efficiency oil condensing boilers as part of a hybrid solution with solar thermal panels. In addition, we can insulate buildings to reduce energy demand.
However, the key to shifting householders into renewable heating will be government financial incentives and availability of good technical advice to the customer. OFTEC is confident that for homes now running on oil these prerequisites will be in place within a year.