roubaixtuesday wrote: ↑21 Mar 2023, 12:43pm
I do agree there are significant problems associated with retrofitting heat pumps, but it would be good to have a rational discourse rather than one mediated by Mail headlines or those pushed by the Barclay brothers.
offroader wrote: ↑21 Mar 2023, 12:09pm
Heat pumps are without doubt impressive. However, forcing an expensive heat pump installation into thermally inefficient old housing stock when electricity is both expensive and environmentally damaging just doesn't seem like the best solution to me.
If you (not you personally, the world in general) address the current shortcomings then people will choose heat pumps
For me the die is cast. A new gas boiler is on order. I will immediately reduce my carbon footprint and running costs significantly. In 5 years time the boiler will have nearly paid itself off leaving me in a position to reconsider my options. Maybe ill use the money not spent on an ASHP to add some solar power and carry out some thermal efficiency upgrades.
My experience in tech also leads me to believe that in 5 years time ASHP technology will have improved significantly, reducing the cost of installation and ownership.
It's not the immediate switch to zero emissions life which seems the only way to appease the green lobby. Its my pragmatic stepping stone
ANTONISH wrote: ↑20 Mar 2023, 6:46pm
Much of our existing housing stock was built to very low insulation standards - that should be a priority.
All of the above makes sense, to me. There has been something of a crazy polarization of opinion which doesn't make sense, likely spurred on by some HP installations by people who didn't understand what was needed and the threat from Government that gas boilers won't be allowed sometime sooner rather than later. Just as we moved from steam power to diesel, we're steadily moving from gas heating to electricity - like it or not!
Perhaps the single biggest problem is that we've spent decades heating our homes inefficiently and building them knowing this. Convection of warm air suits homes with low thermal mass which aren't occupied for most of the time and whose occupants aren't physically active, but it's less efficient (and less pleasant) than a mass radiating heat, or a mass conducting heat (directly to the body).
The ideal and most effective, most efficient method is heating a solid floor mass with either a heat pump or solar thermal vacuum tubes running on solar power for most of the year. With an engineered lag of four or five hours between maximum heat output from the pump/tubes and maximum heat output from the floor, the solar energy can be put to best use; a well-insulated house should be able to remain warm for a couple of days in the coldest weather after two hour of sunshine. Clearly in the very darkest weeks, Grid electricity/gas/wood will be needed.