Close The Gap Campaign

The Future Homes Standard is the Government’s latest proposal to improve energy efficiency in homes. Homes account for 20% of greenhouse gas emissions in the UK, which makes domestic energy efficiency an important area for improvement. The Future Homes Standard is still at the consultation phase (which is before it is put into law). For new build homes the proposals focus on better insulation measures so as to reduce the requirement for heating to an absolute minimum and phasing out gas boilers from 2025.

The proposed new standards for existing homes attempt to address some of the long standing problems in domestic heating that lead to inefficiency, however not at all effectively. Whilst boiler oversizing is recognised as a problem, the regulations do not phase out gas boilers that have a minimum kWh output higher than the maximum heat requirement of most UK homes. In other words, boilers with a '1:3 modulation ratio' are likely to always be oversized.

The current regulations require all boilers to be A-rated and all new combi boiler installations to be fitted with an advanced energy saving measure (usually an ‘advanced’ heating control) under the 2018 regulations known as Boiler Plus.

Whilst Boiler Plus attempted to improve efficiency, the regulations were diluted with the inclusion of basic on/off controls that are not appropriate for modern ‘modulating’ boilers. There are no proposals under the proposed regulations to ban on/off controls or to extend the regulations to other boiler types.

The current regulations also fully ignore the role correct heating system design and setup plays in achieving A-rated efficiencies at all. To put it another way, condensing boilers are not A-rated ‘out of the box’.

In 2009 The Energy Saving Trust reported on a 12 month field trial of 30 A-rated condensing combination boilers and 10 A-rated condensing regular boilers. With an average efficiency of 83% for combi boilers and 80.3% for heat-only boilers, the report concluded that “the in situ performance of the boilers is significantly less than the rated SEDBUK seasonal efficiency” (SEDBUK is how we measure boiler efficiency in the UK).

This does more than just raise questions over the integrity of boiler labelling for consumers. SEDBUK efficiencies are still used for EPC reports. For non-condensing boilers owners, an EPC report will recommend upgrading to a condensing boiler in order to move up an energy band, but in reality the uplift actually achieved is likely to be marginal.

Installer training is at the heart of getting this right. Yes we need strong regulations and effective ways of monitoring efficiencies, but we are completely reliant on installer skill to bring it all together correctly in the home. In many ways installers have been as badly let down as consumers and the vast majority do not know they should be working very differently. Installers need support, effective training and boilers and controls that work together effortlessly.

In 2011 the Carbon Trust reported on a field trial of 27 A-rated condensing system boilers. The research found that “a significant number of them [boilers] were found to be substantially over-sized for the properties in which they were fitted and this is believed to be common practice in the UK”.

The report highlighted market failures that encouraged oversizing when it identified that “the average peak heat load of UK houses is around 6kW, but the size ratings of new boilers typically range from 10kW to 30kW”. Such is the practice for oversizing that consumers and installers often push for bigger boilers, just in case. Sadly the opposite is true and the bigger the boiler, the less efficiently it can operate all year round.

Much of this comes back to a complete lack of knowledge that is leading 99% of installers astray. This is only made worse by the prevalence of combi boilers where the focus is on ever bigger capacities for hot water production at the expense of heating system efficiency. A 2016 EU report into heating and cooling in Europe stated that “The technical lifetime for small gas boilers with a thermal capacity of below 25 kWth is 22 years”. According to a number of boiler manufacturer websites, boilers are expected to last 10-15 years, but we know consumers are advised to replace from as early as 7 years due to problems early on.

Whether our culture of premature replacement is a result of 1) mis-advice to replace rather than repair or 2) irrecoverable damage caused by poor setup, is yet to be quantified. What we do know is the UK has one of the highest turnover of boilers in Europe as boilers are replaced twice or even three times in a 22 year period instead of once at the end of 22 years.

A high level view of the UK boiler market shows it to be highly competitive and market share strategies take precedence over ensuring the correct setup of condensing boilers. A more collaborative approach would result in a market where all boilers worked with all compensation controls and manufacturer training included correct heating system design as a vital competent to achieving A-rated efficiencies from their boilers.

1.7 million boilers are fitted each year in the UK, around 950,000 of which go into privately owned homes. This is a huge and lucrative market and attracts a lot of interests from inside and outside of the industry. Alongside long-standing operators such British Gas and Help-Link, companies as diverse as the AA and Utility Warehouse that have entered the market and a great deal of city money has been ploughed into setting up new online boiler quote companies.

There are also many ‘lead generation’ companies that collect customers’ details online and sell them on to other lead companies or directly to installers. Boiler manufacturers have their own market share battles. Some have grown exponentially as a result of the huge sales in condensing gas boilers. In an battle to retain market share, boiler manufacturers have offered longer and longer warranties, now upto 14 years, and used financial rebates on boiler sales as a way to entice installers it fit their boilers exclusively. 

The heating controls market has also seen many developments. Third party developers such as Nest, Hive and Tado have entered the market with some great products, but they are rarely fully compatible with modulating boilers. Some boiler manufacturers have opened up their boilers to be compatible with third party controls - although not always successfully - whilst others restrict compatibility to their own products. Weak legislation in this area has not helped to force manufacturers to work together and in fact government lobbying from some sectors of the industry (but not all) to slow down the mandatory implementation of compensation controls shows that self-interest continues to win out over consumer interest.