Decarbonising Heating: Government Urged to Avoid ‘One Size Fits All Approach’ as Poverty Levels Rise
by David Blevings (OFTEC Ireland/Irish Times) … In RoI, the government is offering a grant of up to 50 per cent off a deep retrofit. However, the average cost of these works is €56,000, which leaves a large bill for the home-owner to finance, and we don’t see how the savings offered will cover the remaining payments.
Similarly, England has offered a £5000 grant towards an air-source heat pump. But the total bill (including installation costs and any extra insulation works) is expected to be between £15,000 and £20,000.
At a time when households are feeling the pressures of rising costs, it would be unrealistic for Stormont to expect a similar approach to incentivise households to decarbonise.
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Heating oil is currently used in more than 500,000 homes in Northern Ireland. A recent analysis by the AECOM engineering company showed that biofuels in home heating could achieve similar emission reductions to retrofitting, quickly and at a much lower cost.
The current biofuel being promoted as the replacement for kerosene is hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO) that offers an immediate 88 per cent reduction in carbon emissions.
Our message to Stormont would be to examine every option available, and to keep low carbon options and no regret pathways on the new Assembly’s agenda when considering the heating consultation later this year. READ MORE
