Do you want to choose how you heat your home in the future?
Renewable liquid fuels are a real opportunity for Ireland’s rural communities
The Government is proposing to change the way you heat your home
Current Government policy is focussed on the transition to electrification, mainly through heat pumps, to replace your oil, gas or solid fuel heating system. As part of its plans to reduce emissions, the Government has committed to installing 400,000 heat pumps by 2030.
While heat pumps are an excellent technology, they are better suited to new and energy efficient houses. Almost 700,000 homes in the Republic are heated by oil. That’s 40% of all households, which means we are twice as reliant on oil as our neighbours in Europe.
Is that a bad thing? No, anyone currently using oil is aware of its reliability, flexibility and efficiencies.
At the same time, we all want to play our part in using lower carbon heating solutions. The problem with moving to a heat pump though is that most homes using oil would not have the levels of insultation required for a heat pump to operate effectively or efficiently.
To make the house suitable for a heat pump it would require a deep retrofit, which could cost as much as €56,000. While grants are available for these works, they are roughly 50%. This means homeowners still need to fund more than €20,000.
Get Involved
Meet Michael and Mary
Watch the story of two homeowners on heating oil who want to reduce their carbon emissions. They explore and compare different solutions, with interesting results…
Is there an alternative solution?
Yes, the industry has been working hard to bring a low carbon fuel to the market that is a simple swap for the existing fuel used (kerosene). This means you could keep your existing heating system and avoid any disruption. The fuel is called hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO) and is made from waste and vegetable oils. The fuel is already available and is used as a replacement for diesel in transport. Whilst it is not yet widely available for domestic heating, it has been successfully demonstrated in around 150 buildings over a five year period.
So, is the Government interested in this alternative fuel?
Currently, the Government is not meeting its carbon reduction targets. In fact, they are quite far behind and recent reports suggest they will miss the targets by a substantial margin. There is therefore interest in alternative methods of reducing carbon in heating and, at present, a renewable heating obligation is proposed to start in 2027.
This legislation, if passed, will require fuel providers to include a certain percentage of renewable energy in the fuel. As proposed, it would require distributors of kerosene to include a 1.5% mix of HVO into heating fuel. However, this is at a very low level and will make minimal difference to the carbon reduction targets.
The industry has argued that a 20% blend is required to make any ‘real’ difference because if a 20% blend was deployed to all 700,000 homes in Ireland, this would be the equivalent of installing 160,000 heat pumps! This could be done in a single season.
Why Renewable Liquid Fuels?
No upfront cost
An initial blend with kerosene doesn’t require any boiler modifications
Convenience
The switch can be made as part of your normal fuel delivery
A straight-forward solution
The blended fuel is a simple drop in replacement
Reduces carbon emissions
The long term aim is a full switch to HVO which reduces emissions by 88%
No difference
Works just like heating oil but it’s odourless too
Existing infrastructure
You can keep using your existing OFTEC technician and fuel distributor
No upfront cost
An initial blend with kerosene doesn’t require any boiler modifications
Convenience
The switch can be made as part of your normal fuel delivery
A straight-forward solution
The blended fuel is a simple drop in replacement
Reduces carbon emissions
The long term aim is a full switch to HVO which reduces emissions by 88%
No difference
Works just like heating oil but it’s odourless too
Existing infrastructure
You can keep using your existing OFTEC technician and fuel distributor
Why is Government not listening to industry?
The government believes that electrification is the only way forward. That may change with all the attention now on the electricity required for data centres which are powering new AI tools. Where is this electricity going to come from to support heat pumps as well?
If everything is powered by electricity (cars, homes, data centres and more) we are going to need lots more of it.
This is inevitably going to require an upgrade to the grid, which is very expensive, and the government will have to prioritise where they strengthen the grid first. This will most likely to be in Dublin and the other major urban areas with rural areas being last in line.
If we replaced all the kerosene used in boilers with heat pumps, we would need an extra 3.1bn kwh of electricity. 3.1bn kWh is roughly 10% of Ireland’s total electricity consumption today. This would mean a doubling of rural electricity consumption!
How you can help us
Get involved and make a difference
It is important that consumers have a choice. If you have a liquid fuel boiler at the moment and enjoy the benefits that come with it, you could keep the boiler but switch to a renewable liquid fuel to cut your emissions once the fuel is made widely available.
If you are talking to your local councillor or TD, ask them:
- What is happening with current energy policy?
- Are you going to be forced to replace your liquid fuel boiler with an electric alternative?
- What they are doing about rural households needing options to replace their heating appliances with a low carbon liquid alternative?
What we are doing
Future Ready Fuel is a campaign led by the liquid fuel industry to give a voice to oil heated households. We have been working behind the scenes, engaging with policymakers, to ensure homes on oil heating are given practical and affordable solutions. We’ve had real success in ensuring renewable liquid fuels are firmly on the table.
Latest news
Future Ready Fuel launches in Ireland as households look for choice
The Future Ready Fuel information campaign has launched in Ireland. Its purpose is to ensure the 700,000 oil heated households have access to information about practical and affordable low carbon heating solutions for their home using renewable heating fuels.