Our houses will be uninhabitable when the boilers that heat them are outlawed

SIR – The government move to make gas boilers illegal by 2035 (Business, June 8) will not solve the cost-of-living crisis, but make it worse for homeowners. Many older properties will become unviable.

I have a 100-year-old detached house. I have investigated the cost of conversion to an air-source heat pump, the only realistic alternative to gas at present. This is not as simple as just installing new equipment. It will also require enlarging all the radiators, with bigger diameter supply piping because of a lower water temperature.

Heat loss through the outside walls must be reduced if the electric running cost is to be roughly similar to gas. This will mean stripping off the plaster in every room, fitting insulation panels, then re-plastering.

The estimated total cost of the conversion is £100,000. We cannot afford this and very few families can – a proposed £5,000 reduction in the cost of installation will do little to help.

There must be a better way forward, maybe involving hydrogen boilers. Without this, there is a real possibility that all detached and semi-detached houses built more than 60 years ago will become uninhabitable. That will have a very serious effect on the housing stock available.

Andrew Robinson

Ecclesfield, South Yorkshire

SIR – Outlawing domestic gas boilers is not the only measure that Sir John Armitt, the chairman of the National Infrastructure Commission, advocates. But he fails to address the key issue: that one cannot rationally support electrifying life without considering where the electricity will come from.

The National Grid is fundamentally dependent on gas-fired generation. First, gas provides some 40 per cent of output. Secondly, it is the dependable element, the backup when wind and sun fail. Thirdly, it gives the ability to increase output almost instantly as load increases or supply falls.

There is nothing in prospect which can replace gas-fired generation as a major element.

And since it takes three units of gas to deliver one unit of electricity, a corollary is that high gas prices inevitably mean high electricity prices. So the essential need, if we are to reach net-zero, is to find some replacement for those three functions of gas. What are we doing towards this?

In the meantime, if I replace my gas boiler with a heat pump, we simply burn gas in a power station instead of in my boiler – perhaps less efficiently. Mike Keatinge

Sherborne, Dorset

SIR – I have a trusty warhorse, a cast-iron Rayburn from the year 2000. It heats the water and many radiators, and cooks and bakes to perfection.

I live in a rural area and I am not in a position to invest in an alternative at the moment. What can I do? I’m careful with how I use it, as it isn’t cheap, but, though 22 years old, it is expertly serviced and will, no doubt, outlive me.

It will certainly add to my “cost of living” if I have to replace it.

For goodness’ sake, can someone get real about all of these bonkers suggestions before it’s a done deal? Avril Wright

Snettisham, Norfolk