LONDON: Greg Barker, Minister of State for Climate Change, addressed a gathering of MPs, specifiers, government departments and heating industry organisations at a presentation in Westminster about passive flue gas heat recovery devices.

Talking at the event organised by Zenex Technologies and supported by the All Party Energy Group, the Sustainable Energy Partnership and BDR Thermea, Mr Barker said that the Government was committed to funding its green agenda.

He confirmed that £860m is available for the Renewable Heat Incentive and that the Feed-in Tariff would help hundreds of thousands of people over the coming years.

“We need to continue to back the drive for innovative new technologies for heating our homes, while addressing the challenge of reducing carbon,” he said.

“Government is battling to remove the barriers and products like passive flue gas heat recovery devices can help us find cost-effective ways towards a new scale of energy efficiency.”

Chris Farrell of Zenex, who invented the GasSaver, explained why these products are so simple "yet effective and affordable".

“The GasSaver is fitted above the high efficiency combination boiler and recovers any waste heat before it goes through the flue and is lost.

“It is a sealed-for-life unit that has no moving parts, no controls or settings and does not require any maintenance. The recovered heat is recycled back through the boiler, giving it a head start in heating up the water.

“The device provides annual savings of around 37% of the energy required to deliver hot water. These considerable fuel savings can help to address the issue of fuel poverty.”

A GasSaver installed with an A-rated boiler saves the equivalent of one Megawatt hour every year, which is equivalent to 1000 single bar electric fires running for an hour.

“These are impressive figures,” said Mr Farrell. “But, in order to generate maximum fuel and carbon dioxide savings, passive flue gas heat recovery devices need government support.

"We would like a full assessment by the Climate Change Committee and the Fuel Poverty Advisory Group to show the extent to which they can assist with climate change and fuel poverty.

“And, we would like to see a VAT reduction to 5% in line with other microgeneration technologies and promoted by the Energy Saving Trust as best practice.”