Czech boiler ban sharply boosts demand for tradespeople, up 248% year on year

The ban on using non-compliant boilers, which takes effect in September, has sharply increased demand for tradespeople and new heat sources. So far this year, demand for tradespeople’s services related to installing suitable solutions has risen by as much as 248 percent year on year, according to data from the ePoptávka.cz online marketplace.

From 1 September, the use of boilers in Czechia that do not meet the requirements for emissions class 3 or higher will be banned. Fines for heating with an environmentally unfriendly boiler can reach 50.000 korunas and may be imposed repeatedly. The state supports replacements with subsidies. Eligible heating sources include biomass boilers, electric and gas heat pumps, and gas condensing boilers.

According to data from the request-for-quotes platform, interest in replacing non-compliant boilers has therefore had a significant impact on demand for tradespeople’s work and eligible solutions. Data for the first three months of this year already confirm the trend: demand was at the same level as for the whole of last year, or, more precisely, one percent higher. It continued to rise in the following months.

„Demand for installing new heat sources and related tradespeople’s work has remained consistently high since January this year. Year on year, it is 248 percent higher for the period from January to mid-August than in the comparable period last year,“ said Michal Boudník, manager of service teams at ePoptávka.cz.

According to the marketplace’s statistics, demand is highest in the Central Bohemian Region, which accounts for 15 percent of all requests. It is followed by the Moravian-Silesian Region, with a 14,7 percent share of the total. Prague is in third place, with ten percent. By contrast, demand is lowest in the Karlovy Vary Region, where the marketplace records just under two percent of all requests.

Despite the sharp increase in demand for tradespeople’s work related to boiler replacements, as many as 150.000 environmentally unfriendly boilers still remain in Czech households and must be replaced by September, Zdeněk Lyčka, president of the Association of Heating Technology Companies, told the Czech News Agency (ČTK) in early August. Manufacturers say interest in replacements has gradually grown since the end of the heating season, but owners often plan the work for late summer. They therefore expect a surge in demand after the summer holidays. Around 60.000 boilers should be replaced by the end of the year. According to a summer survey by Stiebel Eltron, more than half of the owners of environmentally unfriendly boilers have still not contacted a company about replacing them.