Is your oil or gas boiler nearing the end of its life? In a growing number of cantons, you will not be able to replace it like for like: the MoPEC 2025 requires you to install a renewable-energy system at the point of replacement. Here are the rules, the solutions and the available support.
What the MoPEC 2025 changes
The MoPEC is the model set of energy provisions that the cantons incorporate into their own law. Its 2025 version confirms a direction already taken in several cantons: when a fossil-fuel heating system (oil, gas) is replaced, the replacement must be a renewable solution.
This is not an overnight blanket ban on oil: as long as your boiler works, you are not obliged to change it. It is the point of replacement that triggers the obligation.
Which renewable solutions?
Heat pump
The most common solution for a detached house. Air-to-water (the simplest to install) or on a geothermal probe (higher efficiency, drilling required).
Wood heating
Pellets or logs, worth considering depending on the layout and the storage space available.
District heating network (CAD)
Where a district heating network exists, connecting to it is often the simplest and least space-consuming solution.
Supplementary solar thermal
For domestic hot water, alongside a heat pump or a wood boiler.
How much does it cost, and what support is available?
Replacing a fossil-fuel boiler with a heat pump is a higher investment than a like-for-like replacement, but it is subsidised. The federal and cantonal Buildings Programme supports the replacement of fossil-fuel heating systems; several cantons add their own support.
Plan ahead rather than react
Replacing a heating system in an emergency — in the middle of winter, with a broken boiler — leaves little room to compare solutions and put together a subsidy application. It is better to plan ahead: energy assessment, choice of system, application for support.
It is also a good moment to look at the bigger picture. If you are eventually considering an extension, an added storey or a major renovation, the sizing of the new heating system and the opportunity to install rooftop solar depend on it. Knowing what your plot allows prevents you from installing equipment today that your projects will make unsuitable tomorrow.