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With the future uncertain in terms of what fuel if any shall be heating our homes, we have tried to compile some information regards to what we know so far that may help you to make the important decisions for preparing for such time.

As per legislation bought in by the government in order to stay on track for net zero by 2050 the sale of gas burning boilers will end by 2035 with gas cookers and hobs to come much sooner by 2025. This is having a huge impact and increasing uncertainty and even anxiety on people deciding on what to do now when replacing boilers that are beyond repair.

Despite what is constantly being pushed through media channels it is worth taking stock of all current information and make a decision for yourself, every property is different, the people living in them are different, we have old properties that have no thermal insulation installed with poorly designed heating systems or we may have homes where the owners are suffering with a illness and requires the house to be at a set temperature 24-7. On the flip side of this we also have newer properties that will suit the move over to current Greener heating along the lines of heat pumps or electric heating. We cannot avoid that our planet needs to be treated well and certainly the way to do this is absolutely to reduce carbon emissions but in the future it will not be a one size fits all approach, we shall have homes on the same street even that are all being heated by different sources of heat.

There is a huge amount of conversation being had now regards to heat pumps, they are a great bit of technology that is improving all of the time, will they work across all types of properties? unfortunately not, but maybe in the future. There is also a lot of concern around noise pollution however this too is a variable dependent on manufacturer of unit and where it is to be installed. It is designed to run at a lower temperature which suits underfloor heating very well but radiators? not so much. When retro-fitting a air source heat pump to a property with radiators through out it is very common for all of the radiators in the property to be increased in size, this is because we have to increase the amount of heat being emitted from them as they will no longer be reaching the temperatures they once did running on a gas boiler. Customers can also expect to upgrade the insulation in the property to improve heat retention which should be a must anyway. As human beings we have got a bit soft in terms of the colder weather, maybe we do need to reacclimatise a lot ourselves to get used to having our homes at lower temperatures during winter but we do need to be aware of this before we get sold a all singing all dancing heat pump.

Electric heating is also something that has improved hugely over the years but with a lot of the same reasons above running costs can be very expensive, the government are very much reliant on the electricity prices coming down to make this a viable heat source or alternatively people investing more in PV solar panels to offset the electricity required, however this is not likely to happen until a lot more people have jumped ship and made the change, just be prepared to pay a premium for making this choice so soon. It's also worth baring in mind that your property may not be facing the correct orientation to maximise the potential of the solar panels. All sounds quite expensive though...

Lastly we shall highlight Hydrogen and in my opinion my personnel favourite but there are a lot of if's, but's and maybe's. There have again been huge advances in this particular fuel, seeing as we have not seen hydrogen in this volume used for heating homes since town gas everyone out of the know are all a little concerned, most people when spoken to about hydrogen will instantly think of Zeppelins and the huge fires that followed, thankfully the future plans are not to store the hydrogen in cows intestines so we can rest assured that it shall be far far safer. In fact it is considered safer than mining Lithium which is used in all modern batteries nowadays.

Currently there are 688 test homes and a primary school up north that have been connected to a blend of 23% hydrogen and 77% natural gas without having to change any components within their existing boiler, this is very promising however to move towards net zero we need to do better than that Most of the large gas boiler manufacturers have been successful in developing 100% hydrogen boilers and are waiting on the governments green light to move into production. So whats the delay? Currently the countries infrastructure is deemed unable to handle 100% hydrogen within the miles of gas pipes installed in the ground and will take a vast amount of time and money to roll out across the country, there are talks that this will likely start at the distribution terminals and move outwards. It's a long way off... but closer than we think. In Middlesborough currently they are working on a disused section of the gas network to test working procedures with hydrogen at 100%, it's all very promising.

Well there you have it our views on whats next, so if you have been patient enough to read to the end the only advice we can give you is do your research thoroughly and not to jump ship too soon, Until the government have provided definitive plans on viable heat sources and its support for hydrogen in the future we really cannot make a informative decision with what we currently have. And in terms of emissions we need to focus on bringing CO2 down in manufacturing before we can reduce it on a domestic level as otherwise we gain nothing in creating emissions to produce something to reduce them.