Thank you for this Rob Lyons and Steve Jordon. That is a very helpful clear explanation of what heat pumps can and cannot do. Pushing them clearly makes no sense, so we then have to ask why the obsession with them?
Spot on about madness of this Net Zero idea. Unless wearing a hair shirt (or, more likely, having others wear one for them) is their thing, then only someone who hasn’t a clue what this means in practice would advocate it. It’s not just points around infrastructure, efficiency and the practicality of the idea (which have well made in this article), it’s about aspirations.
I grew up in an all electric house in the 1970’s. It was always freezing cold in winter and we lived in the relatively mild climate of the coastal plain in south east Wales.
There was ice on the inside of the windows when we woke up so we used to leave our clothes within reach at night so in the morning we could grab them and get dressed in bed before summoning the courage to leave the warmth of the blankets.
The new fangled storage heaters, which had been charging up overnight on Economy 7, just about started to give off some heat as we left for school and they continued to heat an empty house for the rest of the day. By the time we got home from school, the stored heat was exhausted and the house began to cool down again so we huddled around a fan heater in the living room to keep warm while watching Mike Yarwood, Benny Hill or Dave Allen on TV.
The contrast between that and comfort and convenience of a house with gas-fired central heating is, like, well, the twenty first century and the 19 fucking 70’s!
Slow heat? No thanks! Low heat? No thanks! Been there, done that. It wasn’t anything to aspire to, then, certainly nothing to aspire to now!
Thank you for this Rob Lyons and Steve Jordon. That is a very helpful clear explanation of what heat pumps can and cannot do. Pushing them clearly makes no sense, so we then have to ask why the obsession with them?
Spot on about madness of this Net Zero idea. Unless wearing a hair shirt (or, more likely, having others wear one for them) is their thing, then only someone who hasn’t a clue what this means in practice would advocate it. It’s not just points around infrastructure, efficiency and the practicality of the idea (which have well made in this article), it’s about aspirations.
I grew up in an all electric house in the 1970’s. It was always freezing cold in winter and we lived in the relatively mild climate of the coastal plain in south east Wales.
There was ice on the inside of the windows when we woke up so we used to leave our clothes within reach at night so in the morning we could grab them and get dressed in bed before summoning the courage to leave the warmth of the blankets.
The new fangled storage heaters, which had been charging up overnight on Economy 7, just about started to give off some heat as we left for school and they continued to heat an empty house for the rest of the day. By the time we got home from school, the stored heat was exhausted and the house began to cool down again so we huddled around a fan heater in the living room to keep warm while watching Mike Yarwood, Benny Hill or Dave Allen on TV.
The contrast between that and comfort and convenience of a house with gas-fired central heating is, like, well, the twenty first century and the 19 fucking 70’s!
Slow heat? No thanks! Low heat? No thanks! Been there, done that. It wasn’t anything to aspire to, then, certainly nothing to aspire to now!