Helping people to move away from gas boilers

Sir – The answer to the reluctance of people to install heat pumps (“Failing heat pump rollout puts net-zero goals at risk, ministers warned”, report, March 19) is surely to have them install an electric boiler in place of a gas one. Its footprint is tiny in comparison to a heat pump or a replacement gas boiler.

The one we had fitted cost just over £4,000 in 2019. It was installed as a direct replacement for our old gas boiler, without disrupting or having to replace the central heating system. Yes, the running cost is more expensive than gas, but our Victorian terraced house emits no carbon dioxide from our heating and water, and we run it on renewable energy.

Bristol

Sir – Thankfully government sources have finally understood that the general public do not consider air-source heat pumps to be a good investment. People will not change their minds until the technology is improved to provide the same effective heating of home and water as gas boilers, without forcing residents into a hermetically sealed home, with most of the existing plumbing ripped out and replaced with less effective hardware.

The price of gas is relatively secure, being based on discrete market conditions, with our gas selfsufficiency now ensured through North Sea supplies. The price of electricity, by contrast, is a purely political construct, which includes massive subsidies and contractensured profits for unreliable wind farms. These are becoming more expensive each year. Depending on electricity is a real economic risk for most households. Mike Ostick

Upton-upon-severn, Worcestershire