When going green hits a red light

◆ Ilona Amos is keen to get on board with the heat pump revolution but her journey to a more sustainable energy future is halted in its tracks when a few unwelcome home truths leave her ticketless...

The Scottish Government has set out plans for all homes and properties to begin replacing climatepolluting heating systems with eco-friendly alternatives from 2028 in its new Heat in Buildings Bill, with full switch-over by the national 2045 net-zero deadline.

The date will apply to both off-grid buildings and those on the gas network, with some exemptions for premises that cannot be made compliant.

The journey to that new green frontier has already begun. However, it seems that I may not be travelling.

And it’s not because I don’t want to get on board. It seems I just can’t get a ticket.

Why? Well it’s not me, apparently, it’s the property.

This sorry tale began last week, when my trusty old boiler spontaneously sprung a major gas leak.

And now, following in-depth investigations and fruitless searches for obsolete parts, it has been condemned.

Yes, you probably could have told me so.

I inherited the boiler when I moved to the flat around 17 years ago, and it has been doing its thing fairly reliably ever since.

It was top-quality at the time, the engineers tell me, but that was about 30 years ago – the model was discontinued in 1997.

It’s fair to say the device has been on death row for a while, but that hasn’t made its demise much easier to accept.

I had long been mulling the pros and cons of getting a heat-pump system, so now seemed the logical, if inconvenient, time to take that next big green step – especially since the government is handing out grants to help encourage uptake.

So I called up the shiny new heat pump branch of my energy supplier to arrange a survey and quotation, just to see what I would be in for.

After a few questions about the property – such as its age, whether it was a house or a flat, the number of rooms and radiators, plus any energy efficiency measures in place – I got an installation figure of £14,299, of which up to £7,500 would be paid by the grant.

Forget going green, I turned white.

But it turns out the company will not come out to even assess the job if your energy efficiency measures are not up to scratch, like mine.

I live in a listed Georgian tenement flat, built in the 1800s out of stone, with 10ft-high ceilings and big sash-and-case windows, so no loft or cavity-wall insulation, and only singleglazing.

That was the first problem. Then came the dealbreaker.

To actually install the heat pump you need to have a privately owned outside area big enough to site the device, which was fine for me

as it’s a ground

The journey to that new green frontier has already begun. However, it seems that I may not be travelling

floor flat. However, that firm’s fitters will not carry it through your home to get it to the back garden, so you need to have an alternative access route.

Aha, I thought, through the communal stairwell and out the back door. But alas no, it’s too narrow – any door or gate needs to be at least 1m wide to get the hulking great thing through.

Just like that, my eco credentials have gone up in smoke. As I presume will be

Off the green agenda: Ilona, pictured left, lives in a Georgian tenement, but unfortunately its listed nature and layout mean it is unsuited to many sustainable measures, including her desire to install a heat pump the case for most tenement dwellers in Scotland’s main towns and cities.

As I write, the engineer has just left the premises after measuring things up for a new “dirty” gas boiler, and seemingly not a care in the world about my draughty old home’s energy efficiency standards.

So it looks like I’ll be continuing to pollute the environment for the time being. If I don’t freeze to death first, that is.