Nearly 100,000 non-compliant boilers remain in operation in Czechia despite ban

Despite the ban, nearly 100.000 non-compliant boilers are still in use in Czechia as the main source of heat. Their number is gradually falling, as many of the units are nearing the end of their service lives. Companies therefore expect tens of thousands more non-compliant boilers to be replaced next year. Zdeněk Lyčka, president of the Association of Heating Technology Companies, told the Czech News Agency (CTK) 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 this September. At the time, people in Czechia were using nearly 150.000 non-compliant boilers as their main source of heat.

„Manufacturers and installation companies are, in the vast majority of cases, fully booked through the end of the year,“ Lyčka said, describing the current market situation.

The only exception, he said, is heat pumps, for which companies have seen a significant drop in demand. The association attributes this to households postponing investments.

Few new orders are coming in at present because of the heating season, Lyčka added. „Nevertheless, we can feel interest from potential customers, so we expect next year to be comparable to this year in terms of production and installations, with around 200.000 new hot-water heat sources with an output of up to 50 kW,“ the association’s head said.

According to the association’s statistics, there are more than 200.000 non-compliant boilers in Czechia, but probably fewer than 100.000 are now used as the main source of heat.

Manufacturers expect around 30.000 units to be replaced next year. „Many non-compliant boilers are already nearing the end of their service lives, which are 15 to 20 years. Older people and those on lower incomes in particular plan to replace them only once they have reached the end of their useful lives,“ Lyčka said.

He noted that the number of replacements will also depend on how municipalities approach their responsibility for overseeing compliance with the ban on polluting boilers. Fines for heating with an unauthorised source can reach 50.000 crowns and may be imposed repeatedly. Pavel Drahovzal, deputy chairman of the Union of Towns and Municipalities of the Czech Republic and mayor of Velký Osek, told CTK when the ban took effect in September that most municipalities were not planning blanket inspections. The priority, he said, was to inform households about replacement options. Sanctions, he said, should be a last resort. The union did not provide current statistics on detected violations.

The Ministry of the Environment collects data on inspections and penalties once a year, so it will not have the figures until September next year. „We do not expect municipal authorities to have started issuing fines on a large scale, as the ban only came into force recently,“ ministry spokesperson Veronika Krejčí said. Municipalities have received guidance from the ministry on how to conduct inspections, she said. They should take into account, for example, whether households are actively planning to replace a non-compliant boiler. „The aim at this point is not to issue fines, but to try to secure the replacement or shutdown of a non-compliant source at the earliest available opportunity,“ Krejčí added.