Consultation on Fossil Fuel Boiler Ban from 2024 in Scotland

NEW BUILD HEAT STANDARD (NBHS)

Scottish Government Proposals to Ban Building Warrant applications from 1 April 2024 which include Direct Emissions Heating (DEH)

The Scottish New Build Heat Standard (NBHS) Consultation is well underway and is expected to further expand on reductions in CO2 causing activity at the energy source.

What that means is that Gas and oil heating systems together with Biofuels are to be banned from 2024, so whats the options and how does this affect my newbuild, self build or Conversion. ?

Scotland is targeting NET ZERO CO2 for 2050, in order to play Scotland's part in the current climate emergency reduction and omission of Co2, there are a number of key elements that need to be considered and implemented.

The Government proposal is to become regulatory, although the finer details are yet to be fully realised and incorporated in the draft.

The Scottish Net Zero C02 target is accepted as being incompatible with current standards and has led to the consultation being sought to roll out a new approach to deliver the output of zero greenhouse gas emissions.

The primary fuel type is acknowledged to be fossil fuels currently and therefore significant reductions and changes are requried in order to meet the Scottish targets.

The changes will have significant effect across all new and altered homes including conversions, those converted for self build or general alterations, where for example dwellings having heat introduced for the first time will be required to comply with the new regulatory compliance conditions.

What types of energy systems are likely to be Compliant and permitted by the NBHS regulation introduction. ?

• Heat Pumps (Air / Ground source and similiar)
• Heat Networks (Licensing conditions permitting)
• Solar thermal and solar thermal storage systems
• Electric storage heaters
• Electric boilers
• Fuel Cells
• Direct electric heaters (including electric panel heaters, electric fan heaters, thermal fluid filled radiators, and electric radiant heaters).

The Scottish Government are promoting flexibility within the delivery system to allow for the variability of site conditions and or availability of equipment.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) have confirmed that no new boilers using fossil fuels are to be installed after 2025

https://IEA.org/reports/net-zero-by-2050

There are 2 favoured technologies which are No/Low regret options

• Heat Pumps
• Heat Networks The above are exclusive of other energy efficient options such as insulation improvements, electrical storage and so on and it is expected that the above will form the basis of the major alterations.

It is noted that a 100% Hydrogen options are being considered although requries more real world data in order to clarify the long term viability.

It is considered that Bio Energy systems would not be considered given the propensity for emissions of carbon dioxide (co2), methane (ch4) and nitrous oxide (N2O).

The Committee on Climate Change (CCC) recommendation that bioenergy does not have a significant long term role in providing heat in buildings as it emits greenhouse gases at the point of use is a further driver toward Clean at source energy provision.

It is considered that only a finite amount of biofuels are available and mass uptake is not viable for many reasons, some of which relate to the sustainability and demand for its use and subsequent emissions at source.

Whilst a significant proportion of the CO2 emissions are produced by transport, with the highest proportion emitted from power generation and industry it is fair to say that a multiple pronged approach to dealing with the adverse effects of climate change is necessary to reduce the impact and help minimise the advised temperature increase to 1.5 degees C by 2050.

So it really is time to think "sustainable" and reduce CO2 with all that we do.