Who are you calling an old boiler?

Old heating systems are also extremely inefficient; they waste millions of pounds each year through heat escaping via the flue and from over-heating because of outdated or absent thermostats. Research by the Energy Savings Trust (EST) reveals that one third of British households heat their homes to 22-23C (72-73F). That's hotter than a sunny day on the Med. One in 10 homes (2.5million) is heated to 25C - the same temperature as an average day in the Canary Islands.

This underlines a trend in over-heating homes, with an average rise of one degree every decade in the temperature of the nation's living rooms, from 16C in the 1960s to 20.5C today.
he EST calculates that by switching to modern condensing boiler systems with proper thermostats set at 21C, we could prevent the release of 2.8million tonnes of CO\u2082 per year and the average household could save between £110 and £190 on its annual heating bills.

A condensing boiler works by capturing waste heat that normally escapes into the atmosphere via the flue. Condensing boilers cost between £800 and £1,500. That is £150-£200 more than a conventional boiler of equivalent make and output, so a condensing boiler will pay for itself within a year or so.
by Sarah Lonsdale

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Biofuels: Fields of dreams

We can run our cars on corn, sugar cane or wheat: limitless cheap energy grown on our doorstep. But are biofuels the answer to exhausted oil wells or just another nightmare scenario?
ohn Anderson is motoring with chip fat. Sir Rob Margetts swears by fizzy drinks and chicken feed. George Bush is banking on corn. Everyone, from pub to parliament, knows we’re going to have to do something about transport fuel. Oil prices have already passed the threshold of pain, and emissions targets for greenhouse gases will not be met unless we wean ourselves off petrol.

The solution is both easy and obvious. In place of fossil energy – the power of ancient sunlight – we can recover the solar energy locked up in field crops, which, unlike mineral oils, we can endlessly replenish. With plant oils in the tank, we will ride to work on sunbeams.

There are two kinds of biofuel – biodiesel, which is made from oil-rich crops such as rape, soy and palm; and bioethanol, which substitutes for petrol and is made from starchy crops such as sugar cane, beet, maize and wheat. The case against biodiesel is that virgin rainforest in Indonesia and Malaysia is being cut down to make way for soy and palm. Result: more CO2 is being released into the atmosphere by deforestation than is being saved by reductions in fossil fuel.

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High CO2 cars targeted by budget

Cars that produce large amounts of carbon dioxide (CO2) will be hit by new measures in Wednesday's budget, according to reports.

Chancellor Alistair Darling is expected to introduce measures to encourage the use of cars with low CO2 emissions.

Weekend newspaper reports say the Chancellor might introduce a levy on new, larger cars that could increase their price by £2,000.

The tax would hit new saloons, estates and people carriers the reports say.

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Winter price freeze costs SSE £400m in potential revenue

A DECISION by Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE) to hold out against industry-wide price increases this winter has cost the company £400 million in lost potential revenues, the Sunday Herald has learned.

But even as energy suppliers anticipate punitive Budget measures next week in response to consumer outcry over perceived excessive profits, Scotland's last remaining energy utility is expected to raise its prices later this month.

Pressure on the Treasury to deliver a windfall tax has mounted after average rises of 15% by ScottishPower, British Gas, npower, E.ON and EDF Energy were followed by stellar full-year profits from British Gas owner Centrica. Its residential arm saw a fivefold increase in pre-tax profits to £570m.

"Scottish and Southern promised not to raise its prices until the end of March when British Summer Time begins, but everybody expects it to increase its prices after that," said Angelos Anastasiou, an analyst at Pali Capital.

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