Sue Bright lives on her own in a detached three-bedroom bungalow in the small, rural village of Radwinter in north-west Essex, near the Cambridgeshire border. Her home, like many others in off-grid areas, relies on oil heating. Her boiler was installed around 8-10 years ago and she has a 20-year-old oil tank, all working perfectly well.
The bungalow is in good condition, with insulation in the loft and walls and modern windows. But Sue, who is now retired at 75, has found herself feeling left out by the government which is pushing for rural homes to switch to electric heat pumps. The unique character of her home makes the installation of a heat pump expensive and technically difficult.
She was advised by a technician that her home didn’t have sufficient insulation and had no underfloor heating. As a result, the temperature produced from a heat pump would be too low to warm the radiators up and it would be more costly to run. She would also have to remove a perfectly good oil heating system.
“Installing a heat pump here would be hugely disruptive and costly. It’s just not a realistic option,” she says. Sue still uses an open fire to keep her heating costs down and believes rural people need heating solutions that match the unique challenges of their homes. She is supportive of the switch to low carbon solutions, but wants a choice that is practical, affordable and, most importantly, will create minimal disruption for her.
That’s why Sue wants the option of switching to a renewable liquid fuel such as Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil (HVO). Through Future Ready Fuel, Sue learned how HVO can replace kerosene and drastically reduce her carbon emissions with just a small modification to the boiler. It also aligns with her environmental values and offers a low hassle route to decarbonisation.
“I want to do my bit for the planet, and switching to HVO makes that possible. It’s the right thing to do and it should be supported by the government.”
Sue has even written to her MP, previously Kemi Badenoch and now James Cleverly after constituency boundary changes, to highlight the importance of supporting HVO for rural households. She has received responses from both, but feels that more needs to be done to give rural communities a fair shot at meeting net zero targets. With Labour winning the last election, Sue is urging the new government to support the policy.
“It often feels like we’re forgotten. First it was poor transport, then broadband and now it’s heating. We’re being offered one-size-fits-all solutions that don’t fit.”
Sue also questions the fairness of current energy policy, pointing out that when HVO is used for home heating it doesn’t benefit from the lower rate of duty when it’s used for transport. “It doesn’t make sense,” she says. “If the government is serious about cutting emissions, they should back fuels like HVO.” Until she has better options, Sue will continue to use her oil heating system.
For residents like Sue, renewable liquid fuels offer a simple, viable alternative to heat pumps and one that can help the UK meet its climate goals without sidelining rural households.
For more information about renewable liquid fuels visit www.futurereadyfuel.info.