Oil Boiler Servicing, Breakdowns, Repairs, Tanks and Installations

DCR can provide none bias advise for your home or buildings energy use. We specialise in a number of different energy technologies such as heat pumps, solar PV, hydrogen fuel cell, LPG, natural gas and oil and do not have any sales targets for either technology. DCR will provide honest advice for whichever technology would suit your home and lifestyle the best.

 

In some properties oil is the most efficient and practical fuel. The future of oil is now even more likely to stay with the introduction of Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil (HVO) that can used in domestic oil boilers.

 

HVO is a premium quality second-generation biofuel made from renewable, sustainable raw materials, such as used cooking oils. Field trials run by the European Heating Industry and European Oil Heating Association in homes across Europe back up the results of UK industry testing which confirms that HVO can be used in new and existing oil heating systems with only minor modifications required.

 

According to MCS data from 2019, estimates show the cost of converting a standard efficiency oil boiler for HVO use would be around £600, compared to an average heat pump installation at over £10,000 and a biomass system at £16,000. Converting a condensing boiler for HVO would cost half that again at just £300.

 

Crucially, independent evaluation confirms that HVO run in a high efficiency condensing boiler offers the greatest carbon saving potential of all low carbon solutions currently available – including heat pumps and biomass.

 

So, it’s difficult to see why this option has so far been excluded from decarbonisation policy, especially given the poorly insulated building fabric of many rural homes.

 

According to the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS), over 65% of oil-heated properties in England alone fall into the lowest EPC bands, E-G, and would require serious investment to bring them up to the standard necessary for effective heat pump use.

 

Rural consumers also typically have lower disposable incomes and little or no savings, and suffer significantly deeper levels of fuel poverty. Even with the support of welcome initiatives such as the Green Homes Grant scheme, most still won’t be able to afford the level of action required for heat pump and biomass installations.

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More than most, rural households need decarbonisation solutions they can practically afford to implement.

 

Even the National Grid, which you may assume would back the use of electric heat pumps for off-grid homes, states in its Future Energy Scenarios 2020 report that biofuels – both liquid and gas – will be essential to transition rural homes to net-zero heat due to the high cost of upgrading the rural network.

 

HVO will most certainly be a fuel that is used to help reduce our carbon footprint. DCR is working alongside a number of manufacturers and suppliers to ensure our engineers are trained and ready to provide this fuel option to our customers if this is either through a burner upgrades or new oil boiler installation.