Tax, Benefits and Cost of Living Politics

Planned hybrid heat-pump requirement for boiler replacements

◆5 sources

The cabinet is working on plans to require many homeowners to install a smart hybrid heat pump when they replace their central-heating boiler from 2029. Under the proposed standard, a conventional gas-fired boiler alone would no longer be sufficient. Minister Elanor Boekholt-O'Sullivan, responsible for Public Housing and Spatial Planning, set out the proposal in a letter. The plan is intended to address what the cabinet describes as an insufficiently fast replacement rate.

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Politics

Planned hybrid heat-pump requirement from 2029

5 sources

The cabinet plans to require homeowners replacing their central-heating boiler from 2029 to install a smart hybrid heat pump, by tightening standards so that a conventional gas-fired boiler no longer qualifies. Minister Elanor Boekholt-O'Sullivan said in a letter to parliament that hybrid systems are intended as an interim step towards heating all buildings without natural gas by 2050. The minister said the requirement is necessary because households are not moving away from fully gas-fired boilers quickly enough, and promised that it should not impose unaffordable costs on homeowners. One report said the plan would also require action by parliament; another said the shift would place extra demands on the already overloaded electricity grid.