Homeowners will have to turn down radiators by 10C if Britain is to hit climate change targets
Homeowners will have to turn down radiators by 10 degrees for the country to hit targets, it has emerged. The Government has set a target of 600,000 heat pumps being installed every year until 2028 to replace current gas boilers to bring down emissions. The pumps, which look like air conditioning units on the outside of buildings, suck energy from the air and use it to heat homes and are more efficient than using fossil fuel technologies. But in order to run efficiently, they operate at lower water temperatures with Government advisors the Climate Change Committee saying they believe the technology will run at 50 degrees, rather than a gas boiler's 60 degrees, the reported. It means families may have to splash out on larger radiators to get the same warmth or invest in other technologies such as under-floor heating and better insulation. Caroline Abrahams, Charity Director at Age UK, warned this could impact on older Britons. She told MailOnline: 'As we scale up our efforts as a country to combat climate change it's really important that we do it in a way that is affordable for our older population and that allows them to stay adequately warm in winter - and cool in summer. 'Hopefully new technology really will help, but if it's to gain widespread public support it will have to be both technically effective and within the financial reach of anyone living on a low fixed income. 'We'll shoot ourselves in the foot if we shift to new approaches that provide admirably clean energy but which don't enable our growing older population to keep sufficiently warm, since this is a big risk for them health-wise through the winter months.' Nathan Gambling a consultant specialising in training heating engineers, meanwhile told the : '[A heat pump] is a low temperature heat system. It's an advantage, but can be seen as a disadvantage. 'Ideally all our heat systems in our home should be low temperature, for a number of reasons. 'Low temperature is a healthier form of heating.' Making the nation's homes greener is one of the Government's main targets and ministers want as many existing homes as possible to have an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) of Band C or better by 2035. Last year it was reported gas boilers will be banned in all new-build homes within the next three years. The ban on boilers comes two years earlier than had previously been planned and is part of the 'future homes standard' which will mean all new homes must have low-carbon alternatives, such as electric heat pumps. Experts say the heat pumps can cost up to 10,000 including installation with a fully modified home paying out as much as 18,000 for the likes of under-floor heating. Speaking in 2020 Jim Watson, professor of Energy Policy at University College London, said: 'I suspect we won't get anywhere near 600,000 heat pumps a year under current policies. 'It would make sense for the Government to bring in a ban on gas boilers for a certain year in the future, just as they have done for petrol and diesel cars. 'People might then be more likely to switch to them, and it could increase the small number of firms accredited to install heat pumps and scale up manufacture of the pumps.' Only around 250,000 buildings in the UK currently have heat pumps, including commercial buildings, while around 22 million have gas central heating. According to the Telegraph, the UK is almost half way to reaching its target of net zero emissions but the next stage will require Britons to make personal changes such as to the way they travel and heat their homes. However one of the Government's flagship plans to support homeowners in going green last month fell flat, when ministers . The 1.5bn programme offered households grants of up to 5,000 or 10,000 to put in insulation or low-carbon heating. While the initial uptake was good, with more than 123,000 applications for the grant by the end of February, only 28,000 vouchers were issued. And of those, only 5,800 energy efficiency measures had been installed. Red tape was blamed as one of the reasons for the failure of the scheme. MPs on a select committee last month urged a , which they described as 'nothing short of disastrous'. Earlier this year ministers pledged to build 'the world's first low-carbon industrial sector' under plans for 1billion of spending to reduce emissions from businesses, hospitals and schools as part of the PM's 12billion 'green industrial revolution'. Business and Energy Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng published the Government's Industrial Decarbonisation Strategy last month as part of plans to reverse the climate crisis. It was billed as a major blueprint to help reach the target of reaching net zero by 2050 and is also aiming to create 80,000 jobs across the UK over the next three decades as part of a wider 12billion plan. The 1billion of funding detailed was announced last year, but ministers have since set out how it will be spent in a bid to cut emissions by two-thirds in 15 years. Some 171million was being allocated to nine green tech projects in Scotland, Wales and northern England to study the rollout of infrastructure such as carbon capture and storage. Local authorities across England were being allocated 932 million to fund green upgrades to public buildings including schools, hospitals and council buildings. It comes after Prime Minister last year announced a 10-point 'green industrial revolution, which he says will create 250,000 jobs and cut Britain's carbon emissions. One of the most ambitious elements of the proposal is a plan to produce five gigawatts of hydrogen by 2030 - even hoping to heat an entire town with the low-carbon fuel by the end of the decade. The proposal would see 25million gas boilers replaced with hydrogen or 'hydrogen-ready,' boilers over the next 20 years - at a rate of 600,000 a year by 2028. External pipeworks that deliver the hydrogen to homes and boilers will need to be changed, because hydrogen is a less dense gas - and it is often compressed and stored under high-pressure so it has sufficient energy content for processes. The UK has a legal target to cut greenhouse gases to net zero by 2050, requiring huge cuts to emissions and any remaining pollution from sectors such as aviation needs to be 'offset' by measures such as planting trees. There is also pressure to set out ambitious action to tackle the climate crisis because Britain is to host a United Nations environment summit which was delayed by the pandemic and is now taking place in Glasgow in November 2021. The Prime Minister has a longstanding passion for green issues and has been encouraged to push the Government further in that direction by his fiancee Carrie Symonds, who works as an environmental campaigner. Mr Johnson, who drove a 15-year-old diesel car before entering government, said: 'Although this year has taken a very different path to the one we expected, I haven't lost sight of our ambitious plans to level up across the country. 'My ten-point plan will create, support and protect hundreds of thousands of green jobs, whilst making strides towards net zero by 2050. 'Our green industrial revolution will be powered by the wind turbines of Scotland and the North East, propelled by the electric vehicles made in the Midlands and advanced by the latest technologies developed in Wales, so we can look ahead to a more prosperous, greener future.' In a further push towards reducing carbon emissions, last month the Chancellor announced plans for 'green growth' in his Budget. Rishi Sunak heralded a new national infrastructure bank in Leeds with 12billion to finance a green industrial revolution and 15billion of new green gilts this year. There were also changes to the remit of the Bank of England so it reflects the importance of environmental sustainability and the shift to net zero emission. Further plans included allowing UK savers to invest in a green National Savings and Investment product, and new funding to upgrade ports to support offshore wind. Also revealed was 88million for two separate UK competitions to develop floating offshore wind demonstrators and long-duration energy storage technology.