Cleaner Heating

Cleaner Heat Cashback from GLA

The Greater London Authority has introduced the Cleaner Heat Cashback Scheme to encourage businesses in London to replace older gas boilers with cleaner heating systems - as a step towards reducing CO₂ emissions.

The GLA is also very keen to reduce NO₂ emissions, a key component of air pollution.

Air Pollution

Air pollution increases death rates from cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, including lung cancer. A 2016 report commissioned by the Greater London Authority found that there are 9,400 premature deaths a year from exposure to particulate matter and NO₂ in London alone.

Nitrogen Dioxide: NO₂

All combustion processes produce oxides of nitrogen (NO_x). In London, road transport and heating systems are the main sources of NOx emissions. NOx is primarily made up of two pollutants: nitric oxide (NO) and nitrogen dioxide (NO₂). NO₂ is of most concern due to its impact on health. However, NOx easily converts to NO₂ in the air, so reducing concentrations of NO_x is essential to control the levels of NO₂ in the air.

Replacing an old boiler with a new condensing boiler

If replacing an old gas boiler with a modern condensing boiler there are potential savings of fuel, and carbon emissions, of up to 22%.

However, the full potential saving may only be realised if the new boilers are running in condensing mode and this requires the return temperature of water to the boiler to be less than 55°C. This is unlikely to be the case unless an efficient low temperature distribution system is also in place.

Replacing an old boiler with a heat pump

If replacing an old gas boiler with a ground source heat pump the saving of CO₂ emissions will be 100% if green electricity is used. The NO₂ saving will also be 100%. If the heat pump draws electricity from the National Grid, then the CO₂ emissions saving will be 72% (if you take into account the CO₂ emitted by the Grid, assume a CoP of 3.4 for the heat pump and a grid carbon factor of 205 for 2018, as projected by BEIS).

Clean Heating

If your objective is to achieve Clean Heating in order to save CO₂ emissions and NO₂ emissions then the clear choice is to move away from combustion and adopt heat transfer: that means using heat pumps to transfer heat from the ground your building stands on in the winter (and transferring heat from your building down to the ground in summer to keep your building cool, at a faction of the cost of providing cooling with roof mounted chillers).

Renewable Heat Incentive

While a cashback from the GLA sounds attractive for replacing a gas boiler with a new condensing boiler, there is a a larger incentive payment from Ofgem called the Renewable Heat Incentive. The RHI is payable over 20 years for those who replace heating based on combustion with heat transfer based on heat pumps in commercial properties.

A Balanced Energy Network provides Clean Heating now – with no emissions of NO₂, SO₂, CO₂ or any other kind of gas or soot.