News
Oil-fired heating – correcting misleading
information
THE PUBLICATION OF THE CLEAN GROWTH STRATEGY IN OCTOBER 2017 SIGNALLED A NEW COMMITMENT BY THE UK
GOVERNMENT TO DECARBONISE THE COUNTRY, INCLUDING THE HEAT SECTOR
A
mongst a wide range of proposals, it
contained a commitment to ‘phase
out the installation of high carbon
fossil fuel heating in new and existing homes
currently off the gas grid during the 2020s,
starting with new homes’.
“Oil and coal – though curiously not
LPG or mains gas – were singled out as
the fuels considered to be ‘high carbon’,
presenting a serious challenge to our sector
and a major opportunity for oil’s competitors,”
writes Malcolm Farrow, marketing and
communications manager at OFTEC.
“A SERIOUS
CHALLENGE TO OUR
SECTOR AND A MAJOR
OPPORTUNITY FOR OIL’S
COMPETITORS”
“Already, some are seeking to take
advantage of the situation and, perhaps
predictably, a few are straying well beyond
what is factually accurate.
OFTEC has acted to correct a misleading
article in the trade press by Calor, which
claimed the Clean Growth Strategy means
‘homeowners using heating oil will have to
switch to a different system to provide heating
and hot water...’
“In fact, it says nothing of the kind!
OFTEC has also written to another trade
organisation about overly-optimistic claims
of cost savings that could be made by fitting
an air source heat pump compared to a non-
condensing oil boiler – even though these can
no longer be installed in most cases.
“While claims of this kind are obviously
unfair, the risk is that homeowners may
believe them, which while damaging our
industry would be even more disastrous for the
household concerned.
“OFTEC’s concerns have been echoed by
Mike Foster, CEO of the Energy and Utilities
Alliance, who called on the Energy Savings
Trust and Each Home Counts implementation
“WHILE CLAIMS OF THIS
KIND ARE OBVIOUSLY
UNFAIR, THE RISK IS
THAT HOMEOWNERS
MAY BELIEVE THEM”
board – which both have a remit in this area –
to ‘root out these bad apples in our industry’.
“OFTEC will continue to monitor for and
challenge all false claims it becomes aware
of. More constructively, it will work with other
industry bodies to establish some ground rules
to enable fair and meaningful performance
comparisons to be made.
“Perhaps most importantly, OFTEC will
engage with other stakeholders in the liquid
fuel sector to present credible alternative
energy efficiency and decarbonisation options
to government, while remaining constructively
critical of the government’s current preference
for electric heating.”
Doing the rounds
N
olan Oils was very pleased to help Bicester Round Table support their local community with its annual Father Christmas float collection for
charity.
Assisting managing director Mark Nolan were transport manager Paul Tulley, driver Adrian Simms with sales co-ordinator Sadie Sutton
as Santa’s helper.
The photograph was taken just before Oxfordshire saw considerable snowfall last month.
Share your charitable events with Fuel Oil News – [email protected].
4 Fuel Oil News | January 2018