Energy Crunch

[silent majority]

There is a basic confusion between ENERGY and ELECTRICITY in this thread.
They are not the same.
https://ourworldindata.org/energy-mix
Gas is about 24% of the UK Energy mix. The increased cost of gas can only be mitigated by finding new supply sources, or Treasury intervention via consumer price support.
https://ourworldindata.org/electricity-mix
Change the settings on the graphics to UK from World.

Longer term, the UK can move some of the gas consumption to electricity from renewable sources. Home heating is a good example, where heat pumps can replace gas boilers.

A heat pump multiplies each unit of input so that it provides 3 or 4 times the output. Basically, it is a fridge in reverse. The downside is the extra cost of installation, which needs to reduce.

As Sydney says, insulation of homes is a pre-requisite. The people disrupting roads around London have a point, although their tactics are dubious.

Heat pumps are not a straight forward replacement for gas fired boilers.

The cost alone is a major disincentive, but when you factor in the low flow temperatures, the difficulty in heating domestic hot water and having to replace all your radiators for much larger ones to supply the same level of heat they are not going to catch on very easily.

However heat pumps for new build coupled with hydronic underfloor heating is a good solution.

Most boilers in the UK will need to be converted to run on hydrogen.

[albie]

SM,

I agree with the point about the difficulties of replacing gas boilers with heat pumps, and certainly all new build should include ground source heat pumps.

Your last comment about hydrogen is well off the mark, IMO.
It is not a matter of converting existing gas boilers alone.

Over the next 10 years, hydrogen can only play a small role. See point 4 in this twitter thread from Jan Rosenow on UK possibilities;
https://twitter.com/janrosenow/status/1427512726985879553

Introducing hydrogen into existing networks is a costly operation itself.
See this piece signed by leading academics on the use of hydrogen;
https://www.rechargenews.com/energy-transition/hydrogen-for-heating-and-road-transport-is-not-efficient-and-does-not-make-economic-sense/2-1-1069478

The box at the bottom of the article summarises some of the difficulties!

[drfchound]

Albie, I’m not sure that ground source heat pumps will be the norm for typical new build properties.
A standard ground source installation generally requires two and a half times as much land as the square footage of the house.
So a 1500sq.ft house requires 3750sq.ft of available land.
Given that a regular new build give about as much garden needed to swing a cat then ground source heating isn’t a realistic option.
Some other ground conditions and the presence of trees can also have an effect and should be taken into consideration.
Air source heat pumps on the other hand would be a better alternative.

[River Don]

How effectively are air pumps?

I was lead to believe ground pumps are much better.

Either way our insulation has got to improve a lot.

[SydneyRover]

break it back even betterer

[drfchound]

How effectively are air pumps?

I was lead to believe ground pumps are much better.

Either way our insulation has got to improve a lot.

My next door neighbour had air source installed about 18 months ago and he rates it highly.
His wife was ill throughout last winter and he had the heating on 24/7 for four months and told me his overall energy bills were still quite a bit less than they had been in the previous winter.
One of my ex customers is a specialist air source and ground source installer and says that ground source is better but lack of land space restricts where it can be utilised.

[albie]

Ground source HP are better, but difficult to add after construction.
That is why I said for new build, so you do the excavation and pipework before construction proper.

Rather than for single properties, developers could provide for a number of houses on a new estate, for example.

Air Source HP are the best retrofit to existing housing stock, but are more costly than a gas boiler.
If you factor in the savings on energy bills when running, you get your money back, but you need to have the purchase price up front.

Some form of subsidy scheme is likely, if the UK is serious about moving on from fossil fuels.
I reckon there will be an announcement soon, before the climate talks in Glasgow.