Czechs still use 100.000 old boilers; manufacturers expect replacements to accelerate in summer

Despite the ban, around 100.000 environmentally unfriendly boilers are still operating as the main source of heat in Czechia. Only hundreds of them have been replaced this year, mostly because they had reached the end of their useful life. Manufacturers expect the market to pick up and replacements to accelerate in the summer. Zdeněk Lyčka, president of the Association of Heating Technology Companies, told the Czech News Agency (ČTK) in response to a question. The ban on boilers that do not meet the requirements for emissions class 3 or higher has been in force since last September. At that time, people in Czechia were using almost 150.000 non-compliant boilers as their main source of heat.

"Virtually nothing has changed since the end of 2024," Lyčka said, describing the current situation.

At the start of the heating season that has just ended, there were more than 100.000 non-compliant boilers in Czech households, according to data from the association.

"In the first months of 2025, only a minimal number of new orders were recorded; there is now a slight recovery. This applies to all types of hot-water heating sources with an output of up to 50 kW," the association’s head said.

The market is therefore slowly returning, he said, to the period before the Covid-19 pandemic and the energy crisis. "That is, orders from the previous year are completed in the first half of the year, the market picks up during the summer holidays, and in the second half of the year companies cannot keep up," Lyčka said.

Most of the non-compliant solid-fuel boilers still in use will therefore be replaced gradually over the next two to three years, he said. "Unless there is greater pressure from the authorities," Lyčka added.

According to the association’s statistics, households planning to replace an old boiler most often enquire about gas boilers. Interest in pellet boilers and wood-fired boilers is also gradually increasing, it says. Demand is also rising for systems that combine combustion-based heating with lower-output heat pumps.

Municipalities have generally not yet carried out blanket checks on the ban on class 1 and 2 boilers. The Union of Towns and Municipalities of the Czech Republic said in recent months that municipalities usually conduct checks based on conditions in their area and information they have gathered. The union says their priority is to inform households about replacement options. They want to address breaches of the ban first through discussion and guidance, with any penalty as a last resort.