Malcolm Wicks is the Energy Minister. He has called for evidence on the best way to “decarbonise” the way we heat our homes. He is specifically asking for evidence about existing technologies mentioning combined heat and power, renewable heat, heat from waste and district heat.
I shall be responding to his call for evidence in terms that the lowest carbon way forward is solar thermal systems for water and space heating and that the best way to incentivize this will be a long term council tax discount.
I suggest that no one holds their breath for too long while Mr Wicks is making up his mind; we are already stuck with the almost unused LCBP offering of a £400 grant (which costs most households £600 to qualify for), and because hardly anyone uses it we shall be stuck with it for some years to come.
I have plenty of things to do so I have to approach answering this call to evidence with some reluctance. It is not my experience that the Government takes much notice of any evidence offered in these exercises. It is a bit like the consultations which end up gathering dust on shelves while governments and civil service blithely pursue their pre determined agenda. I would love to be proved wrong, but I fear I shall be right.
Answering these calls to evidence it is the sort of thing that I would like to see the solar thermal trade association, the Solar Trade Association doing. The call for evidence has been out for over a week, with a relatively short time scale, but I have not heard anything from the Solar Trade Association about it, which is hugely disappointing.
If there is anything you think I should include please either email me, write to me or leave a comment here. I will collate all the replies and add them in one submission. Specific examples of what you have done, or what you have installed will always be helpful. If Mr Wicks takes notice (and we in the solar thermal business have some compelling evidence) it will be very good for the environment, and good for the consumer.
Filed under: carbon emissions, climate change, energy, global warming, heat, malcolm wicks, microgeneration, solar energy, solar panels, tax | Tagged: consultations, decarbonising heating, energy minister, home heating, incentives, LCBP, low carbon building programme, renewable heat
Hi Henry
I think that having your own wood lot and using the wood is a no brainer but you have to make sure that you have a great smoke filtration system or a smoke washing system which you keep maintained otherwise you’ll affect air quality.
You must be in great shape chopping up all that wood!
regards
Robert
Hi, I would like to say that I have been successfully heating my home now for over 5 years with wood. It truly is an awesome way to save money on heating costs. I would advise anyone considering a wood furnace or some type of wood heating device to have a good free source of your own wood though, preferably your own wood lot.
Simon’s comment (first) is interesting; we penalise people for installing microgeneration, instead of incentivising them!
everyone who installs microgeneration is not only saving pollution and carbon emissions for the general good but they are saving the whole country expensive infrastructure either in its building or in its maintenance.
I think local authorities mean well, but there is no joined up thinking with one department being out of touch with another and no common thread of policy to link their planning objectives with their environemtnal objectives.
No one can accuse Ashford of knowing what they are doing when it comes to sustainability!