As we approach what we all hope will be a smooth pivot away from fossil fuels to cleaner, more sustainable and indeed cheaper energy sources, we are reminded that we have changed our energy sources before in the twentieth century.
The way we were
The home I was born in was a tenement in Govan, Glasgow. It was a ‘room and kitchen’, heated by a coal fire in the ‘living’ room. The bedroom and toilet – we had an indoor toilet – had no heating except that which emanated from the solitary coal fire in the house.
The coal was kept in the lobby, by the front door. When we needed coal, the merchant would stop his van on the street and one of the guys would carry it up the stair and dump a sack full into a wooden box in the lobby. We had a curtain between the lobby and the living room. This was drawn before the coalman arrived in a vain attempt at keeping the coal dust out of the living room and kitchen that was attached at the back.
On a winter’s morning we had no heating until the fire was lit. The winter of 1962-63, known as the Big Freeze, was one of the coldest winters on record in the UK. The records now show that the temperature got barely above freezing for three months.
My parents wanted a warmer house. We got an electric fire, a huge investment at the time for a family living on one wage.
The switch to electricity
The switch from coal to electricity was transformational. I never again have lived with a solid fuel fire. An electric fire gives instant heat controlled by the flick of a switch; literally life changing. There was no hearth to clean out, no ashes to wrap carefully in newspaper to dispose of in the midden. It was and is still transformational to comfort and indeed human health. An electric fire emits no smoke or particulate pollution.
Health issues and heating our homes with solid fuel fires
Burning coal releases a mixture of products some of which are known carcinogens such as polyaromatic hydrocarbons. Exposure to in-home coal combustion is a classified lung carcinogen. Coal produces 30 micrograms of fine particles per cubic metre, five micrograms more than the World Health Organization’s recommended daily limit. The switch away from coal improved our comfort and our health. A double whammy.
Now we have widespread concern about the effect of woodstoves on health. Their popularity has grown rapidly in recent years perhaps as a cheaper way of heating your home. Kiln dried wood can be considered to be renewable energy. We can plant, grow and dry such fuel within seventy years, a measure of renewability. The problem with burning such fuel is the particulate matter emitted during combustion. Solid fuel poses dangers to all of us whether we have a wood burning stove or not. Indeed the Scottish Government has issued guidance (2024) to the general public on changing behaviour to facilitate an improvement in air quality for all of us.
Why we need to heat our homes in Scotland
The Energy Saving Trust recommends heating your home to between 18 – 21°C in the winter. Below 18°C can bring negative health effects including increases in blood pressure, and the risk of blood clots which can lead to strokes and heart attacks.
In Scotland this means that we need to heat our homes through the winter. 18 degrees gives us all a benchmark to make a judgement as to whether our homes and those of our family and friends are warm enough. The issue we now face is how we do this without oil or gas central heating?
Our energy future
We are on the brink of a new energy transition. We have a number of alternatives that are currently available to us. Solar panels, air source heat pumps and ground source heat pumps can provide heating for our homes. A national programme of renewal of our housing stock could bring every home up to a predetermined Energy Efficiency rating by insulating our houses as a national priority. This should be the scale of our ambition coming from an energy-rich country such as Scotland. Fuel poverty in Scotland should be like coal fires in our tenements, a footnote of history. Let’s read the 2026 party manifestos carefully. The Scottish Parliamentary elections can and should be a time for looking at this issue in greater detail.
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