The Government’s Plan to Install Heat Pumps in Homes They Won’t Work In is Branded “Desperate” and “Unethical”
A Government plan to relax rules to allow heat pumps to be installed in uninsulated homes they will fail to heat properly has been branded “desperate” and “unethical”.
Faced with a widespread boycott of the pricey technology, ministers are hoping that they can kickstart uptake by removing the requirement that properties be adequately insulated before gas boilers are removed.
Campaign group Net Zero Watch criticised the decision. Director Andrew Montford said:
The insulation requirement was put in place to ensure heat pumps were only installed where they were likely to work. Removing a key consumer protection is hardly going to help the Government’s cause.
Mr. Montford points to a recent study of heat pump economics, which shows that, even in a well-insulated property, most heat pump installations do not give lower bills, let alone justifying the substantial capital costs. This is because electricity is four times the price of gas.
Mr. Montford said:
The contradictions in Government policy are becoming clear. Renewables are incompatible with heat pumps because they make electricity so much more expensive than gas. In their desperation to persuade consumers to switch anyway, ministers are proposing steps that would be foolish, are arguably unethical, and would certainly be counterproductive. This is a brand of fanaticism as dangerous as Mr. Khan’s Ulez obsession.
Yet another green technology being rejected by consumers because it is overpriced and doesn’t do the job.
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“Removing a key consumer protection is hardly going to help the Government’s cause.”
Well, one could be forgiven for thinking that their cause is not a “green” future but the impoverishment of the people. So many of the govt’s plans in this and other areas are so obviously stupid and not going to work that it’s hardly credible that they’ve not noticed it.
How many people would be stupid enough to have a heat pump installed in an uninsulated home?
About the same that walked round in masks, locked themselves indoors, lined up to get experimental mRNA injections with no thought of safety, to protect from getting a Cold and despite them being exposed as not effective and not safe, went back multiple times.
And… those that still think ‘Our’ NHS is envy of the World, staffed by underpaid, overworked, unsung heroes.
That enough?
I don’t actually mind if it financially destroys that sort of person.
But those poor NHS diversity managers with so much to do…
A very important point: People who have chosen to be on board with all of this will buy stuff said to be ideologically correct and suffer the consequences willingly if they’re not too extreme. Heat pumps might be a step too far, though. Most people not only haven’t ever been in the cold inside in winter, they’re even unused to moderately cool environments.
“Our’ NHS is envy of the World, staffed by underpaid, overworked, unsung heroes.”
Some might take issue with that or was it tongue-in-cheek?
If the government is willing to subsidize that, landlords will probably buy them as the consequences won’t affect them directly.
“How many people would be stupid enough to have a heat pump installed..”
That is all that needed to be said.
There’s some top thinkers in the Conservative government. Next, they’ll be making electric vehicles mandatory for all resdents of blocks of flats…….
😀😀😀
And you could ask a bookie (or maybe an insurer) what the odds are of a block of flats with basement car parks catching fire with those things parked there!
The government are doing this because a survey conducted by a “charity” called Nesta “an innovation agency for social good” surveyed heat pump owners.
Nesta wrote a report claiming that 92% of heat pump owners were highly satisfied, and this was true even if the owner lived in a draughty Victorian house.
I haven’t been able to find the source for the 92% statistic.
It’s from the same academic source that found that that over 64% of people who travel by car die.
Just rechecked my figures: it seems that greater numbers of people who have ever travelled in ICE powered cars than electric powered cars die.
“The contradictions in Government policy are becoming clear. “ Not really, it’s been as clear as day since the beginning that heat pumps are not a viable option in our Northern European climate. They just didn’t like to talk about it.
It is currently, they can fix that however… and the solution won’t be to lower the price of leccy
By generating electricity using gas fired power plants. I should get a job in Government!
‘You will accept heat pumps or we’ll nudge the Pirola variant scare even more to imprison you in your home and freeze you to death!!’
Currently 65% of the cost of a litre of petrol or diesel is tax. For an EV driver they pay 5% tax. I heard a chap on the Today programme saying that EVs were cheaper to run than ICE cars, this is only true due to taxation policy & the ability to use your domestic supply to charge your car.
It’s the same with heat pumps. Affordability is wholly dependent on taxation, however, at least with EVs they work. Heat pumps for most will be inadequate. Why the Government haven’t mandated them in new houses for the past 15 years is a mystery. We could by now have had 3m (10% of all dwellings) or so providing consumer familiarity & trade competence rather than now pushing everyone towards a cliff edge.
“Why the Government haven’t mandated them in new houses for the past 15 years is a mystery”
No mystery. If these had been mandated 15 years ago every man and his dog would have been aware of the scam and the rest of the population would have told the government to do one.
They do pay 5% if they charge at home, where the charge current is (at present) on the same 5% rate as everything else. However, if they charge elsewhere, the full 20% VAT rate is applied; part of the reason why it’s more expensive that way.
It is the same with renewables and fossil fuels where you hear global warming proponents who will bend every bit of truth to suit their silly fantasy (or maybe they actually believe the stuff). They claim “renewables are now cheaper than fossil fuels” ——-NOPE THEY ARE NOT. If there is a level playing field then coal followed by gas is the cheapest way to produce electricity. It is only when you distort the free market with subsidies and mandates that renewables appear cheaper. It is amazing how these people fall for this stuff and actually really seem to believe the nonsense they are coming out with when all they need to do is look at their electric bill since the climate change act in 2008 act forced us in law to use wind. We now have the highest electricity prices in Europe —–So much for all the FREE WIND
Off topic but this is seriously worth digesting
https://odysee.com/@Happy:9/Europa:bcb
Government targets are almost aways a bad idea, leading to perverse incentives like this. ‘We must install X heat pumps by year Y’ – what are politicians going to do, be seen to fail, or install heat pumps in unsuitable buildings? Remember the N Irish farmers being paid to heat empty barns by burning imported woodchips? Unfortunately the whole of Net Zero is a series of government targets.
I suppose there is a third way (as Blair would say), statistical manipulation aka lying – very Blair. But I think that’s going to be harder for governments to get away with in future.
They are not really “government targets” ——-They are UN and WEF targets that our own governments pander to. The current set of squirming parasite politicians are all UN and WEF lackeys who sit in these globalist meetings discussing how to carve up the worlds wealth and resources and use climate bollocks as the excuse for their own citizens and are prepared to have all sit in the cold so they can get a little gold star on their lapel from the UN for PRETENDING TO SAVE THE PLANET. This is eco socialism with nothing whatsoever to do with planets.
Here’s a new target for them: when 75% of MPs have installed and maintained heat pumps at all their private properties AT THEIR OWN EXPENSE, I might be prepared to listen. But until then…
Heat pumps and no other source of heat.
Schapps was apparently having one fitted at his house even though he admitted live on GB news that he didn’t know if they are any good
I’ve said it before but just for the record: a chum rents a 3 year old 2 bed semi, directly south-facing, double glazed and heavily insulated, but with a heat pump. I live in a nearly 300 year old, heavily shaded stone cottage more than double the size of hers, built directly onto the rock below & partially below ground level on one side. Her fuel bills are double mine, if not more. The heat pump is noisy, smelly and in need of almost constant attention. My gas boiler gets an annual service and the chimneys an annual sweep. There is absolutely no comparison in terms of cost, convenience and efficiency – so in terms of ‘saving the planet’ I win hands down.
Plus you get to be warm adding to your well being, good health and life expectancy
I keep reminding people at every opportunity about Grant Schapps interview on GB News about a month ago where he was asked “Are heat pumps any good”? ——–I shall put his reply in capitals. —-He said “I DON’T KNOW”. ——-How can the Net Zero and Energy Security Minister “NOT KNOW”? —–He has now been given another job at defence by has mate Sammy Davis Sunak. I wonder if he knows if tanks are “ANY GOOD”.
Heat pumps work really well. We all have at least one in our homes – they’re how fridges work. However, in the case of fridges the bottom temperature is set. Once the fridge/freezer is cold enough, no more heat is pumped out. The problem arises if you set the higher temperature ie you’re using the heat pump as a source of heat rather than a fridge. When heat is transferred from a source it gets colder. If heat flows in to replace the heat that’s been taken out, it’s not too great a problem, but ground is an insulator. So the heat doesn’t easily flow into the ground source to replace the heat taken out, so it gets colder and colder. The electricity used is proportional to the temperature difference. Double the difference, you double the mount of electricity. The heat pump is working just as efficiently as before. You’re just having to pay double for the same amount of heat. And by the way the ground is getting iced up. Air sources aren’t a lot better as the heat density is less and air is also an insulator. So great in theory, but really can’t work in practice unless… Read more »