I live on a narrowboat myself, and there is to be no change to the current situation, whereby a boater has to declare a "split" when purchasing fuel, fuel intended for propulsion being charged at the full DERV rate and fuel used for heating, battery charging etc being charged at the red diesel rate.

Government response

4.6 Following consultation, the government has decided to maintain the entitlement to use red diesel beyond April 2022 for all commercial boat operating industries, including but not limited to the fishing and inland water freight industries.

4.7 The government has therefore decided not to change the treatment of private pleasure craft in Great Britain, where they will continue to be able to use red diesel and pay their fuel supplier the difference between the red diesel rate and the white diesel rate on the proportion they intend to use for propulsion.

Oh! Thanks for that info, I've not been able to contact my mate on the narrowboat.

This nis going to be a bit random as I cant remember all f the various contributions.

1st wood; we burn wood as the principal source of heat. The wood comes from the hedgerow around the field and I cut out the dead elms (they still grow to a reasonable size) and burn them in the Rayburn rather than having a fire in the meadow. Combustion of wood and the emission of particulates is the same but the heat produced keeps us warm (ish). We have a back up natural gas boiler that uses Calor as there isnt a gas main anywhere near. Use the Calor gas VERY sparingly as its so expensive.
Ref red diesel; I thought for heating you could change the burner set up and use 28 sec heating oil (as opposed to 35 sec which is diesel or gas oil; whatever you want to call it).
I saw once some sort of Heath Robinson device on a trailer for making gas from wood to drive a motor car engine. This was WW2 stuff and dont think cars that have been made in the last 50 years would cope but may give it a try some time.
If I remebererd more this would ramble on so breath a sigh of relief!

I cannot see how we can go green so quickly across a number of fronts as the country cannot afford it. In particular the poorer end of our society have a struggle as it is to feed and heat the property. We have to be sensible about this, the politicians down south are wealthy people and can afford it, many others are not so lucky. I’ve just ordered another builders bag of hardwood, it’s not kiln dried, if it was it would be more than £55 a bag, that I pay. Heating bills are going to almost double this year. We have to be sensible or the government will loose the people.

There are different interpretations of the split, and how much money should be given to HMRC when buying fuel.

Obviously when under way your batteries are being charged and the water in your calorifier ( a bit like a narrowboat immersion heater) is being heated up, but the question is "Is the battery charging and hot water a by-product of the propulsion, or is the propulsion a by product of the battery charging and water heating?"

The answer largely depends on the personal integrity of the individual boater. :}

Greta wont like this! :D Google searches for wood burning stoves are up 36% since the same period in 2020 due to sky high energy increases. :eek: https://airqualitynews.com/2022/01/1...-stoves-up-36/

I'm not surprised. I've always thought that houses with chimneys would start to command higher prices than the ones which have had them removed. :D

I have stoves in four rooms of the house. We're in a smokeless zone of course so will keep an eye on how the rules affect things.