Consultation on improving boiler standards and efficiency

Views sought on proposals for domestic gas boiler efficiency, hydrogen-ready boilers and hybrid heating systems.

The Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS) has launched a consultation in response to their proposals on domestic gas boiler efficiency, hydrogen-ready boilers and hybrid heating systems.

The consultation seeks views on a range of topics, including:

• proposals to improve boiler and heating system efficiency through improvements to minimum standards
• proposals to mandate that from 2026 all newly-installed gas boilers are ‘hydrogen-ready’
• the potential role of gas boiler-electric heat pump hybrids in heat decarbonisation in the 2020s and 2030s

These proposals aim to reduce domestic gas consumption, thereby lowering consumer bills and carbon emissions, improving our energy security, and preparing for the transition to low-carbon heating.

The consultation will be of interest to stakeholders operating in the heat sector, business representative bodies, households, and those with a wider interest in the UK’s net zero ambition.

This BEIS consultation is aimed at Great Britain. However, the Northern Ireland Protocol (NIP) Bill was introduced in Parliament on 13 June 2022. The Bill proposes the creation of a dual regulatory regime in NI, which will allow businesses selling products in NI to choose between meeting UK or EU rules (or both). Once the NIP Bill has passed through the Parliamentary process and is in force, proposals on energy-related products could encompass the whole UK. This may, however, require amending Ecodesign legislation to extend regulation-making powers to NI.

Find out more about the consultation and how to respond.

First published 15 December 2022