The recently announced £450 million Boiler Upgrade Scheme proposes that households can benefit from grants to help them install low-carbon heating systems as they replace their boilers over the next decade. The grants that will be up for grabs are £5,000 for air source heat pumps and biomass boilers and £6,000 for ground source heat pumps.
We conducted a poll on the HIES LinkedIn network asking whether people thought that £5,000 was enough money to incentivise consumers to switch to low carbon heating. In total, we received over 125 votes.
Poll results
The poll revealed that 88% of respondents thought that £5,000 wasn’t enough money to incentivise consumers to switch to low carbon heating whilst only 12% thought that it was enough.
Our thoughts on the results
Our records show that an average air source heat pump installation costs between £12,000 and £14,000, which is considerably higher than the £5,000 grant that Government will make available to consumers for an air source heat pump installation. Although prices do vary depending on certain factors such as the size of the home and whether the house is well insulated, the average price still sits at considerably more than the grants offering.
Most respondents believe that £5,000 is not enough money to encourage consumers to switch from their current fossil fuel boiler to the renewable technologies, air source heat pumps or biomass boilers. However, a minority do believe that the grant will incentivise homeowners.
We do hope that the grants will help ease the transition for homeowners to install an air source heat pump in replacement of their fossil fuel boiler as this will greatly contribute to us reaching the Government’s target of net zero by 2050.
More information on the Boiler Upgrade Scheme should be released prior to the go live date and we will update as and when we receive further information.
Do you have a question?
Call us on 0344 324 5242
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communications@hiesscheme.org.uk
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