Central heating use plummets as public seeks alternatives

Swathes of people are turning off their central heating and switching to alternatives such as electric heaters or wood burners to heat their homes.

A government survey reveals a 21% year-on-year decrease in the number of people using gas central heating as the main means of heating their homes.

It has led industry experts and fuel poverty charities to raise concerns about affordability, health and the environment.

The government’s annual Public Attitudes Tracker for Winter 2022 reveals that the main system for heating homes in the UK remains gas central heating (57% of respondents). However this is considerably lower than the 78% of people who said they principally used central heating to heat their homes in the Winter 2021 survey.

The decreased use of gas central heating was observed in both rented households (from 72% in Winter 2021 to 54% in Winter 2022) and owner-occupied households (from 82% to 60%).

Instead, more members of the public are turning to portable electric heaters as well as fuel and wood burners.

The number of people using portable electric heaters as their main method of heating their homes has more than tripled year-on-year (from 3% in Winter 2021 to 11% in Winter 2022), with the use of solid fuel and wood heaters increasing seven-fold (from 1% to 7%). Meanwhile the number of people using natural gas heaters increased from 1% to 4%.

Matthew Cole, chair of the Fuel Bank Foundation, said that the figures suggest that the public needs better educating on the cost of running appliances such as electric heaters.

“We see in the Fuel Bank network the issue highlighted: when money is tight our clients have explained how it can at times appear logical to simply stop using gas, and to start to heat a home with electricity. Only having one meter to top up – and to worry about – can be seen to be better than having two to juggle,” Cole said.

“Unfortunately the fact that the cost of heating a home with gas may often be cheaper than heating with temporary plug in electric heaters is not properly known or understood, highlighting the need for intensive, forensic support for those families who are in or who are approaching acute fuel poverty, or fuel crisis.  Sometimes the most logical decision isn’t the always the cheapest or most sensible in the long run, and it’s only after the event that you find out.”

The attitudes tracker suggests that the move away from central heating to other alternatives “suggests a shift in behaviour from a heating method that heats a larger space to those that can be used to target smaller spaces for heating”.

Caroline Flint, a former Labour MP who chairs the Committee on Fuel Poverty, agrees that may be the case but warns that it could have dire health consequences.  “This survey suggests people heating one room rather than the home and turning off heating for longer hours. This isn’t necessarily a false economy when trying to save money but there is a real danger that people’s health is endangered if their homes become too cold,” Flint said.

Meanwhile, Energy UK deputy policy director Charles Wood said that electric heaters and wood burners were not an efficient long-term solutions and urged the government to focus on building efficiency to achieve net zero goals. Wood burners, in particular, are damaging to the environment with government data published earlier this revealing that they account for 17% of all the UK’s small particle pollution.

Wood added: “Temporary solutions to high prices, including the use of wood fires and electric heaters, will not deliver a long-term solution for consumers.

“Reducing the amount of heat we lose from leaky buildings will help protect consumers from future volatile gas prices and will reduce the amount of gas we need to import. Accelerating the transition away from natural gas heating using low-carbon technologies like heat pumps will further the transition to a cheaper, more secure net-zero energy system for all.”

The survey also reveals that almost three-quarters of people (73%) said they were paying attention to their heat consumption to minimise the amount of money they are spending on heating their homes. That is up 11% compared to the winter 2021 survey.

The public’s motivation for changing their heating system has also swung in favour of financial implications.

In the winter 2021 survey, the main reason cited for changing heating system was to become more environmentally friendly (53%). In the winter 2022 survey, that figure has dropped to 37% and has been replaced by the possibility of saving money on energy bills as the public’s main motivation for changing heating system. In total, 57% of respondents now cite financial reasons as their main reason for switching, a 17% increase on the winter 2021 survey.