Imagine a world where every home already has a heat pump. That’s just how heating works… Quiet, efficient, unremarkable. Your home is warm in winter, the air is fresh, the costs are stable.

Perhaps you’ve got solar panels or a battery, but either way, the whole thing just ticks along in the background. Nobody gives it a second thought – like turning on a tap, flushing the loo, or switching on the TV.

Now, along comes a “revolutionary” new invention: the gas boiler…

The pitch goes something like this. Forget using the clean electricity you already have. Instead, we’ll dig up fossil gas in some remote corner of the world, sometimes fracturing rock apart to get it. We’ll ship it halfway round the planet, often using more fossil fuels just to move the fossil fuel. Then we’ll pump it into giant storage tanks, and build an entire new network of pipes just to bring it into your home.

Once it arrives, you’ll set it on fire in a metal box in your cupboard. Yes, inside your own house. Don’t worry – we’ll vent the fumes into the street outside… apart from the bit that leaks into the air you breathe.

Of course, it only works while you’re burning fuel. Every single time. It’s packed with fiddly components that need constant tinkering. And the real kicker? By design, the boiler keeps us hooked on fossil gas – with all the price spikes and political shocks that come with it. True, UK electricity prices are still tied to gas today, but that’s changing fast. Electricity can be generated locally from renewables, stored in batteries, and shared across smarter grids. Gas will always be gas – imported from far away, burned, and polluting.

Would anyone buy this? Or would we laugh at the idea of building a whole new fossil-fuel system just to keep doing what clean electricity already does?

The truth is, gas only feels “normal” because it’s what most of us grew up with – but it’s actually a recent habit. Central heating with gas only took off in the 1960s and 70s. Before that it was wood, then coal, then gas – each step a bit cleaner, but never the final answer. The next step is obvious: clean electricity. The real puzzle is why we’re still romanticising a technology that – when you describe it honestly – looks more like a mad science project from 1910.

The story of home heating keeps moving forward. Want clarity on what the next step could look like for your home? Book a free chat with our team and explore what might best suit your home.