Debate on fuel cost fear
Assurance has been sought that council tenants will not have their financial burden increased by having electric heating fitted in their homes.
At a recent meeting of Perth and Kinross Council’s climate change and sustainability committee, Conservative councillor Hugh Anderson expressed concern electricity was a more expensive means of heating homes.
He went on to ask if moving to greener energy could hit council tenants with even bigger bills.
The committee was asked to note progress with PKC’s annual climate change Public Bodies Climate Change Duty (PBCCD) Reporting submission when it met on November 16.
During the debate, Cllr Anderson raised concern about the impact on council tenants on PKC’s plans to remove oil as fuel for heating and hot water in its estate by 2030.
He added:“You’re also - I gather - removing new gas boilers from being installed by 2025. Is the council going to assist people on the estate with solar energy or biomass units to help reduce the cost of living. As electricity is possibly the costliest fuel you are left with according to this report. Have you ways of reducing that cost to the occupiers of council tenants?”
Divindy Grant, the council’s climate change and sustainable development team leader, said: “When you look at the Energy Saving Trust figures, oil is the most expensive heating fuel currently.
“And so if you were to be switching from oil to heat pumps it’s actually projected you would have a cost saving for residents.
“Where you make a more significant benefit is if you put solar panels in combination with a heat pump. They can really help residents with fuel poverty. Compared to a gas boiler it’s not comparable but with the current price of oil it’s not increasing the cost burden on them.
Energy expert Martin Mathers added:“We are just completing a study looking at retrofitting heat pumps combined with solar power to domestic houses which looks economically extremely attractive.”
He added:“We anticipate gas will become relatively more expensive compared to electricity and that would favour heat pumps more and more. But the wrinkle is that houses have to be of a good energy efficiency standard to make heat pumps work properly because they run at a lower temperature than gas central heating.
“Quite a lot of the council’s own housing estate is probably already at a sufficient standard to allow heat pumps to work effectively so that gradual retrofitting when gas central heating needs to be replaced with heat pumps combined with PV [Photovoltaic] might be a very, very sensible way for the council to be meeting its climate change obligations and making sure that tenants are not in fuel poverty.”