The liquid fuel heating industry has announced a second phase of its fossil fuel replacement demonstration converting 200 homes and businesses across the UK from oil heating to renewable fuel Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil (HVO) this winter.
It amounted to an initial investment of over £800,000, announced OFTEC and UKIFDA.
The demonstration will see properties immediately benefit from an 88% reduction in carbon emissions. The conversion requires minimal changes to the boiler and storage tank at a cost of around £500 and takes less than an hour to complete, the organisations said.
The initiative follows a trial last winter across 20 homes, from Cornwall to Scotland, which demonstrated there were no technical limitations to using HVO as a direct ‘drop-in’ replacement for kerosene.
This second phase will broaden the geographic spread and test the logistics of transitioning. OFTEC registered heating technicians will carry out regular checks on the appliances to monitor performance.
In a joint statement the CEO’s of the trade associations, Ken Cronin of UKIFDA and Paul Rose of OFTEC, said: “We know from our research carried out over the last 12 months that oil heated homes want to decarbonise in a manner which causes the least disruption and offers the lowest cost of change. The drop-in fuel being used in our demonstrations, HVO, represents the most practical and cost-effective solution to both of these requirements.”