Renew your heating system
By replacing older heating systems with green heat sources such as heat pumps, solar boilers or a connection to a heating network, you reduce your own emissions.
You tackle the following challenges:
This is how you tackle it
Old heating systems not only consume more energy - which leads to a higher energy bill - but also emit more harmful substances. Therefore, replace your old system with a sustainable heat source.
- First of all, make sure that you have to heat as little as possible by insulating your building well, replacing old radiators and setting your thermostat correctly. This will limit your energy consumption and emissions.
- Choose a sustainable heating system: a heat pump, a solar boiler (for sanitary hot water) or a connection to a heating network. For larger buildings or collective housing projects, a micro combined heat and power installation can also be interesting.
- As a government, you can also choose to ban the installation of new wood stoves or the use of old wood stoves. You can then phase out the old appliances, for example.
Learn more
The impact on air quality varies greatly depending on the type of heating system:
- Heating systems that generate heat without burning fuel emit the least air pollution: heat pumps, solar boilers, a connection to a heating network, etc.
- Heating with coal or wood is harmful to air quality. Even a modern wood or pellet stove emits more fine dust than a high-efficiency natural gas boiler, although a modern stove does have much lower emissions than older, less efficient models.
- Heating boilers on fuel oil or natural gas also cause air pollution, partly through the emission of nitrogen oxides (NOx). A new natural gas boiler emits 45 percent less nitrogen oxides than a new fuel oil boiler.
More information
- Sustainable heating and cooling (Milieu Centraal, Netherlands)
- Heating (Energiesparen.be, Flanders)
- Which heating appliances are the least harmful to the environment and climate (Energiesparen.be, Flanders)
