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We recently moved in too a new build - gas. It's great.
The reserves aren't infinite - but we have gas reserves under our land and seabed for over 100 years.
Ideally we will get cracking on nuclear (see my manifesto thread) as that is key in my opinion.
There's oodles of it under 'unfriendly' countries like Iraq, Iran and Russia. The US likes to get in there and manage the resources for them. Rumaila is the latest acquisition in Iraq; super-giant field, billions of barrels, none of which Saddam wanted to release. Guyana is the latest poor country to have its arm twisted over the other way, lots going on there.Quote:
Originally Posted by Travs
When I went to University (to read Fuel Sciences) the known world oil reserves were around 20 years. Sixty years later the known oil reserves are higher than ever.Quote:
Originally Posted by Travs
It is a truism that nobody goes looking for what they cannot sell in the short term to get their investment back. Nobody drilled very deeply for oil when it came bubbling out of the sand in Arabia or Texas.
If I was concerned about natural resource shortages it would be with the future long term supply of rare elements that are needed for electric car batteries that tend to be mined in countries that are not particularly friendly to the UK.
And thinking about minds. I think the Gadarene rush to universal electric cars is mindless. When the head of Toyota said something similar he was sacked in a rerun of the "king's new clothes".
And gas? Well you can of course readily make gas from oil. That is the oil that will be needed by power stations to generate electricity for electric cars which are no longer allowed to run on...er... oil.
Here's a viewpoint from an admittedly rather abrasive Aussie engineer, and he's not to everyone's tastes and sensibilities with his presentation style. However, an engineering point of view he's spot on.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5ibnHDxRFA
For a more nuanced and polite, but extremely authoritative report see below by Michael Kelly ended his academic career as the inaugural Prince Philip Professor of Technology at the University of Cambridge. His main research focus was in new semiconductor physics and technology for ultra-high-speed electronic devices and the manufacturability of semiconductor structures at the nanoscale. He is a trustee of the GWPF. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society and of the Royal Academy of Engineering.
His paper points out the growing concern about the absence of a
proper cost-benefit analysis which stands up to scrutiny. To that end, he
asks important questions about why there has not been full transparency about the methodology behind the figures used by modellers, which in turn drive the Net Zero target. Professor Kelly makes the interesting
point that ministers have been presented with only one possible path, instead of a range of possibilities and actions, as would be normal in most other areas of Government business.
In this paper, Professor Kelly explains clearly that a critical study of what would be the biggest engineering project ever undertaken is missing. He makes the point that the need for materials, the required workforce, and the scale of the costs should be considered in the most robust manner, but this does not appear to have happened to date. This is particularly important when as we see, the country is already
feeling the growing cost of our progress towards Net Zero, and we have barely begun the process. In everything else we propose, Government plans receive the toughest scrutiny and even then, costs almost always
end up higher than planned. One only need look at the HS2 railway programme to see how costs there have spiralled as an illustration of how often the cost of Government outstrips expectations.
The important point that comes out in this paper is that change on this scale needs to carry the public through open debate. The proposals and actions that are required to meet our current Net Zero commitments in the promised time frame will not be sustained if based only on fear.
https://www.thegwpf.org/content/uplo...ess-Report.pdf
"Solar panels, on the roof, charging your vehicle for free, OVER NIGHT"...!!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vyS9uqRLbB8
The level of Green-woke magical thinking the West is having to deal with...!
Magic thinking?Quote:
Originally Posted by Mossdog
Surely not in our government?
Alas I suspect more conservative MPs can discuss the Peloponnesian wars than have, say, A level maths: and even "O" level might help them do sums.
It was reported that Johnson struggled to understand exponential growth during COVID - but he certainly does know a lot about the Trojan wars. :D
Priceless :DQuote:
Originally Posted by Mossdog
That's rubbish. A heat pump-powered central heating requires as much insulation as a gas or oil-powered oneQuote:
Originally Posted by Llani Boy
That's true but the technology is available, and there are big grants for domestic installations that make it a comparable cost to a new gas boiler (I'm not familiar with oil boiler prices).Quote:
Originally Posted by Travs
More rubbish. An air source heat pump has a COP of 3, and increasing with new technology, whilst a gas boiler has one of 0.93. An oil boiler's COP will depend on what fuel it is burning, but I've read a value of 0.84. This means electricity has to be 3.2 x more expensive than gas to cost more, and 3.57 x greater than the cost of heating oil, to cost more overall.Quote:
Originally Posted by Llani Boy
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-67511954
And then there's the future. It is almost certain that green taxes will be added to domestic fossil fuels in increasing amounts to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. And then who would want to buy a house with a gas or oil boiler in 10 years time?
Must have been specified or installed badly. They're huge in Scandinavia, and have more than 40 heat pumps per 100 households and increasing.Quote:
Originally Posted by Llani Boy
https://www.carbonbrief.org/guest-po...90%20to%202021.
I've just had a new 2600 litre oil tank fitted (thumb-nose-to-Swedish Doomgoblin). We had to wait a few weeks as they local company that installed the tank are inundated with requests. It seems quite a few are also from properties that have decided to take out their Air Sourced heat pumps.Quote:
Originally Posted by Llani Boy
The oil we have is used mainly to supply an Aga, but I had been thinking of re-awakening our old oil boiler that sits in the byre. A Tranco Refyre, circa 1973. It was run a couple of times annually to keep the system ticking over, but I've lapsed for the last 5 years or so. I was also wondering if it needed to be replaced as a back-up to the Aga and multi-fuel stove. What make of oil boiler are you considering installing?
I love that, but everything in Australia is a bit upside down and back to front, so maybe he has a point and that’s how they work out there 😂.Quote:
Originally Posted by Mossdog
Chris Skidmore, the author of the following report openly admits that "the lack of anticipatory investment in the electricity grid… would beset the roll out of heat pumps’.
https://assets.publishing.service.go...ent-review.pdf
I refer to Prof Kelly's report in an earlier email, which shows how Skidmore grossly under-estimates the nature of the task if heat pumps (and their like) are deemed to be the way ahead for the UK (spoilers: it's we don't generate enough 'lecky and never will with so-called renewables, certainly not for the shift to electricity saturated life-styles; we don't have the infrastructure to deliver said electricity, even if we had it (literally blow a fuse!!); we don't have the engineers, tech staff, raw materials (steel, copper, and other rare earth metals needed); we don't have enough electrical components or the industrial capacity (no pun intended) even if we were to scoop up all of the world's capacitors etc.
Then there is the issue of insulation. Heat pumps are only effective in well-insulated buildings. As the International Energy Agency (IEA) points out, ‘households that add a heat pump without improving efficiency in parallel [through insulation]… can nearly triple their peak demand during winter’. As Net-Zero zealots usually like to remind us, Britain’s homes are draughty and leaky, with less than half having cavity or solid-wall insulation. Installing this insulation will impose yet another big cost on households (i.e ordinary people).
.
But they work in Scandinavia! Ummm...Homes in Scandinavia are generally of more modern construction than those in the UK, with the UK having the oldest housing stock in Europe with 38% built before 1946 compared to 24% in Germany and Sweden. see link below
https://www.tado.com/gb-en/press/uk-...ean-neighbours
https://files.bregroup.com/bre-co-uk...in_-Europe.pdf
Heat pumps are only a good idea in the minds of Net Zero ideologues. Ordinary households have little to gain from their rollout. That's why in the Uk they've received a very frosty reception from ordinary people and why the Government(s) have had to resort to threats, fear tactics and blunt coercion.
And if you are lucky enough to live in one of the 1/2 million beautiful listed buildings in England and Wales, you won’t even be allowed to install double glazing, draught proof front doors etc. etc.
Probably not great for installing insulation if you have a little bat living in your roof either.
I'm just a simple engineer - but if heat pumps are so great wouldn't we (intelligent people that we all are) have all installed them by now and British Gas (in its various manifestations) would have disappeared into oblivion along with, say, manufacturers of wooden car wheels?Quote:
Originally Posted by Mossdog
A Worcester Bosch Heatslave 18/25kw Greenstar Combi. Not cheap but the 7 year warranty favours my choice.Quote:
Originally Posted by Mossdog
I have been concerned about our gas bill for some years (even before the recent steep increase in prices). Our gas boiler is nearly 20 years old, but working OK. Two years ago we had a salesman visit, and he recommended a Greenstar Combi, but we were warned that we may have the problem with a Combi that when someone is having a shower, and someone else turns on the hot tap in the kitchen, the shower may go cold. I thought we could be well enough organised to avoid this, but the rest of the family disagreed (we currently have my son and his girlfriend living here most of the time).Quote:
Originally Posted by Llani Boy
More recently, we had our house assessed for installing an air-source heat pump (and taking advantage of the grants available to help with the cost). The assessors got as far as taking a detailed view of the house from Google satellite view, and deciding that there was nowhere suitable to locate it. Nevertheless, I do agree with Marco that heat pumps are the way to go: it must make more sense to just move heat around than to generate it by burning stuff. I trust that the technology will in due course improve enough so that heat pumps can be deployed much more widely.
Climate change is real, and we do need to take steps to minimise it. This fact is not altered by the stupidity of some governments in the ways they propose to approach Net Zero; for example, electric vehicles are likely to create more problems than they solve (as indicated by some posts above). Renewable electricity generation does need to be maximised, even though there will always be a requirement for some backup. And while people living in remote locations like Upper Teesdale are always likely to need cars to get around, it is daft that anyone is driving around major cities as a single person in a car; other European countries have sorted out their urban transport systems; why can't we?
we just moved to a new build with a combi for the first time.Quote:
Originally Posted by anthonykay
No issues at all, 3 full time residents but at times 7 of us in here.
In fact it works far better and our bills are down, because we don't have that "I'll just put the water on for a bath"
You just heat it as you need it and as much as you need.
"climate change is real...."
The idea we can minimise it is a faith without any real substance.
So can't we just bury the hatchet and accept we need to clean up our act in general terms without all this self-flagellation crap?
As Mossdog points out up top, even if we could act like the planet's thermostat, our infrastructure is so neglected and we keep making "cart before horse" errors that in a decade, there'll be a hell of a lot of errors to clear up.
and if there weren't, no one would consider them.Quote:
Originally Posted by Marco
And who gets them?
The middle class or wealthier.
This isn't like in the 60s/70s when they had grants for the working class folk living in terraced houses.
It's appalling and immoral.
Same with EVs.
My current boiler is a Worcester Heatslave 20/25 and I know it is at least 25 years old as it was here when we moved in. There is always plenty of hot water and the only thing that happens if someone turns a hot tap on whilst I am showering is that the pressure drops a little and I shout "turn the ****ing tap off"!Quote:
Originally Posted by anthonykay
My choice of new boiler, I am told, is just a modern, more efficient version of what I already have and one of the installers who is giving me a quote did ask about the quantity of hot water we use at once and if need be an additional tank could be fitted if required.
It is going to be an expensive do overall as regulations have changed over 25 years and as the boiler is located in the garage a different flue arrangement, inline filters, and fire safety gadgets are required.
All for the good no doubt as currently a copper pipe runs along the ground directly from the tank, gravity feeding the oil straight into the back of the boiler!
Cheers LLani. I've checked out their website too. We have a boiler in the byre so I'm wondering about their external Danesmoor version. They do a 'utility' one as well. However, I note above your's is in the garage, but no issues with being out of the house obviously.Quote:
Originally Posted by Llani Boy
I do smile that the marketing folks at WB call their product HeatSLAVE. I wonder if they've given up on selling oil boilers to the eco pearl-clutchers who might be triggered into a hissy-fit by that name. Perhaps they realise that they're marketing to a rural set of good ol' squirrel shootin', grits eatin', boys, y'all. YEEEHAAA.;)
I have some friends who live in a Swedish wood-framed house, imported and built in the 1990s. The house relies on a heat exchange system and triple glazing and is extremely energy efficient. They have a back-up mains gas CH system, but rarely need to use it (the live in mid-Wales).
The system works like this. The solar heat from the triple glazing warms the interior of their home, even in winter, and with the house being effectively hermetically sealed (expensive high quality doors and window seals), the warm air in the house (also warmed by bodies) goes to a heat exchanger in the roof space (electric pump) that A. warms the cold air being sucked into the house, by using the warm air going out, and B. also dehumidifies the warm air too. Very effective and widely used in Sweden and Germany (see Haf Haus), but relatively expensive. No heat pumps needed, but could presumedly be utilised too.
Other friends live in the midlands and 30 years ago started to build eco-project of highly insulated, only solar heated, terrace houses. No electricity needed, but again they rely on triple glazing (from a Swedish company). They visited us this summer, but they too have over the years trialled a series of heat pumps as their centre has an experimental eco-engineering element/consultancy (including to major house building UK companies). They didn't generally recommend heat pumps for most GB homes either for all of the above reasons.
I have some friends who live in a Swedish wood-framed house, imported and built in the 1990s. The house relies on a heat exchange system and triple glazing and is extremely energy efficient. They have a back-up mains gas CH system, but rarely need to use it (theY live in mid-Wales).
The system works like this. The solar heat from the triple glazing warms the interior of their home, even in winter, and with the house being effectively hermetically sealed (expensive high quality doors and window seals), the warm air in the house (also warmed by bodies) goes to a heat exchanger in the roof space (electric pump) that A. warms the cold air being sucked into the house, by using the warm air going out, and B. also dehumidifies the warm air too. Very effective and widely used in Sweden and Germany (see Haf Haus), but relatively expensive. No heat pumps needed, but could presumedly be utilised too.
Other friends live in the midlands and 30 years ago started to build eco-project of highly insulated, only solar heated, terrace houses. No electricity needed, but again they rely on triple glazing (from a Swedish company). They visited us this summer, but they too have over the years trialled a series of heat pumps as their centre has an experimental eco-engineering element/consultancy (including to major house building UK companies) and shared their thoughts with us. They didn't generally recommend heat pumps for most GB homes either for all of the above reasons.
And for members of the Flat Earth Society ...Quote:
Originally Posted by Graham Breeze
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...f8ac5494_b.jpg
https://www.britishgas.co.uk/home-se...eat-pumps.html
British Gas would sell you snake oil if they thought it would be profitable.Quote:
Originally Posted by Marco
On that subject I'm in total agreement with you.Quote:
Originally Posted by Graham Breeze
With the desire to remain profitable in mind, I hope you noticed their 'Warm Home Promise'. If they didn't work well a large company wouldn't offer this
Hey that's not such a bad idea. If we could bred enough of the slithery little blighters (that entirely natural global warming that is occurring now may help with the breeding) we could mash them up and make them into fuel. Proper bio-fuel. Kaching! $$$$Quote:
Originally Posted by Graham Breeze
Speak of the devil :DQuote:
Originally Posted by Mossdog
If they weren't linked to subsidies and a rigged energy market a large company wouldn't offer this.Quote:
Originally Posted by Marco
Why Europeans are rising up against Net Zero. In 2023, punitive green policies pushed the public to breaking point.
"In many ways, it is incredible they got away with it for so long. For the past decade or so, mainstream politicians across Europe have stopped promising to improve their voters’ living standards. Instead, they have boasted about their plans to limit them. They have extolled the virtues of a higher cost of living, deindustrialisation and restrictions on personal freedoms. And they expected most people wouldn’t mind or perhaps even notice – because all this was to be done in the name of ‘saving the planet’ from climate change. But in 2023, that elite green consensus came crashing down to Earth."
"In Germany, a row over heat pumps recently threatened to bring down the government, in which the Green Party is a junior coalition partner. Germany’s proposed ‘heating law’ would have banned the installation of new oil and gas boilers. Instead, electric-powered heat pumps would become mandatory, despite the fact that they cost, on average, €17,000 more to install than a regular boiler – even when government subsidies are taken into account. What’s more, this cost was to be imposed on a nation that is already reeling from a major energy crisis, where household bills are among the highest in Europe and where critical industries are closing down due to exorbitant energy costs."
https://www.spiked-online.com/2024/0...inst-net-zero/
Why Europeans are rising up against Net Zero. In 2023, punitive green policies pushed the public to breaking point.
"In many ways, it is incredible they got away with it for so long. For the past decade or so, mainstream politicians across Europe have stopped promising to improve their voters’ living standards. Instead, they have boasted about their plans to limit them. They have extolled the virtues of a higher cost of living, deindustrialisation and restrictions on personal freedoms. And they expected most people wouldn’t mind or perhaps even notice – because all this was to be done in the name of ‘saving the planet’ from climate change. But in 2023, that elite green consensus came crashing down to Earth."
"In Germany, a row over heat pumps recently threatened to bring down the government, in which the Green Party is a junior coalition partner. Germany’s proposed ‘heating law’ would have banned the installation of new oil and gas boilers. Instead, electric-powered heat pumps would become mandatory, despite the fact that they cost, on average, €17,000 more to install than a regular boiler – even when government subsidies are taken into account. What’s more, this cost was to be imposed on a nation that is already reeling from a major energy crisis, where household bills are among the highest in Europe and where critical industries are closing down due to exorbitant energy costs."
https://www.spiked-online.com/2024/0...inst-net-zero/
I've read two interesting items in The Times this week. One was a letter of mine (:)) but the second was about the government's proposed zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) mandate which means that every manufacturer who sells vehicles below a 22% electric car sales threshold will be fined up to £15,000 per non-electric vehicle sold.
The 22% threshold will rise progressively until 2030 when it will reach 80%.
Some manufacturers will not have a problem achieving the 22% threshold (eg Audi, BMW) but others such as Vauxhall, Ford, Toyota (ie less upmarket cars) will.
Whilst some foolish people (although not all) buy heat pumps tempted by the bribe of barrow loads of cash this alternative approach is - to say the least - interesting for a democratic, etc society.[/QUOTE]
I have no idea how German suppliers have managed to inflate their prices by that much; they makes ours look like amateurs. Someone I know is currently upgrading to an air-source heat pump-powered central heating system for their old, large (1650 sq ft), detached house. New boiler, at least 10 radiators to replace, and all the rest of it - £10900. Take off the Gov grant of £7500, and it's £3400 fitted and running.Quote:
Originally Posted by Mossdog
This sounds like HIP (Home Information Pack); the Government mandate that no-one bothered with, and was scrapped. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Home_I...January%202012.Quote:
Originally Posted by Graham Breeze
In view of the fact that the percentage of EVs sold fell slightly last year (16.5% from 16.6%), it looks like the public will stick two fingers up to this, and any Government trying to implement it.
Events of the last few years have shown we don't live in a democratic society; we live in a elected dictatorship, where those paid to serve us inflict their stupid rules and laws on us - whilst personally not adhering to them.Quote:
Originally Posted by Graham Breeze
Germany here.Quote:
Originally Posted by Marco
When we built our 1200 sq. feet house in 2019, the construction company made us chose between gas heating and heatpump. Everything else identical (also house insulation of course). Cheapest heatpump (air source, which is also the least efficient) would have pushed the construction cost up by 30k. We opted for gas (I now regret it, but not for financial reason though, but sorry too late).
No long ago, heating installer told us replacing now our gas with heatpump would cost a total of 40k. This includes labor (1week 2guys, so ca 35*8*5*2 = 3k, and material (40k-3k = 37k). Not sure if this already includes the 3k (or was it 5k?) grant from the German government, but that wouldn't really change the story.
Some mysteries:
1) why the hell are heatpums so astronomically expensive? The installer said "because it's a modern technology". No way I believe that, the cost is like 3x new cars.... Oh, and it's not he wanted to rip us off: he even told us if we want him to fit it right now too much demand, join the queue and wait minimum 18 months...
2) OK, Germany and UK are different countries, but still... after I was quoted 40k, I find hard to believe one can have that for 11k in the UK.
If I had to chose now I would have a heatpum rather than gas, for enviromental reason, with full knowledge this would cost me more money.Quote:
Originally Posted by Graham Breeze
Nobody care more than me about not wasting resources and burning less fossils rather than more but sorry I will never believe what you wrote. Not that I think you're lying, but could it be you misunderstood the concept...?Quote:
Originally Posted by Mossdog
Here in Germany every house built in the last 15yr or so, including mine, has triple glazing. And yet, they all need to have their form of heating, gas or heatpump. The amount of sun reaching the window is incredibly modest. Simple as that.
Solar heat? What solar heat in winter? Sorry it just doesn't exist. My whole roof is covered with photovoltaic, 29 of them. And there are winter days when they produce a massive 0.1kWh of energy. And our gas usage is ca 8000 kWh/yr (this is a quarter of houses same size built 40yr ago: a quarter, not a quarter less), 80% of which is in the 3 coldest months. So a typical winter day we use 8000 * 0.8 / 90 = 71kWh of gas, against the 0.1 kWh of photovoltaic we produce.
I know of course you wrote solar heat from the triple glazing warms the interior of their home, and not photovoltaic, but the thing is the same: in winter the sun is simply too little.
Oh, and we also have a big heat-recovery monster thingy sitting in the utility too, it controls the air exchange supposedly taking heat from the warm indoor air before this is let out. Costed 7k. Plus maintenance and electricity. How good of a job it does I can't tell.
Some great promotional work for gas combi boilers :D
? :confused:Quote:
Originally Posted by Witton Park
I genuinely appreciate your scepticism. But first, watch this and it'll explain how and why solar heating alone can work for heating housing(just 7 mins).Quote:
Originally Posted by Gambatte
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3i1ECCa9u6g&t=319s
I was there with my friends at the very beginning of this project, even before the first spade was sunk, so to speak. They were living in a static caravan initially. I too, while willing to lend a hand with some of the land preparation, had grave doubts about its feasibility. And, once it was finished, wished them well for their first winter. I shouldn't have doubted them. It was marvellous. I've visited and stayed over on multiple occasions now, and while the semi-commune type living and some of their values aren't wholly my own, I salute what they have achieved.
For more detail see:https://www.hockertonhousingproject....mes/new-build/
And yes, they have extensively tested a wide range of air-source heat pumps over the years and have been dissatisfied with all of them, as failing to deliver the promised efficiencies. That's not to say at some future date the technology might improve, perhaps. But, as they say 'if wishes were horses, beggars would ride'!
As I think I wrote elsewhere, some other friends live in mid-Wales, in a triple-glazed Swedish wood framed house, and while the solar gain isn't of the same magnitude as the Hockerton terraces, they rarely use their gas-central heating in winter, except for the occasional prolonged cold snaps. It is in Wales of course, so relatively milder weather.
I genuinely appreciate your scepticism. But first, watch this and it'll explain how and why solar heating alone can work for heating housing(just 7 mins).Quote:
Originally Posted by Gambatte
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3i1ECCa9u6g&t=319s
I was there with my friends at the very beginning of this project, even before the first spade was sunk, so to speak. They were living in a static caravan initially. I too, while willing to lend a hand with some of the land preparation, had grave doubts about its feasibility. And, once it was finished, wished them well for their first winter. I shouldn't have doubted them. It was marvellous. I've visited and stayed over on multiple occasions now, and while the semi-commune type living and some of their values aren't wholly my own, I salute what they have achieved.
For more detail see:https://www.hockertonhousingproject....mes/new-build/
And yes, they have extensively tested a wide range of air-source heat pumps over the years and have been dissatisfied with all of them, as failing to deliver the promised efficiencies. That's not to say at some future date the technology might improve, perhaps. But, as they say 'if wishes were horses, beggars would ride'!
As I think I wrote elsewhere, some other friends live in mid-Wales, in a triple-glazed Swedish wood framed house, and while the solar gain isn't of the same magnitude as the Hockerton terraces, they rarely use their gas-central heating in winter, except for the occasional prolonged cold snaps. It is in Wales of course, so relatively milder weather.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gambatte
I genuinely appreciate your scepticism. But first, watch this and it'll explain how and why solar heating alone can work for heating housing(just 7 mins).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3i1ECCa9u6g&t=319s
I was there with my friends at the very beginning of this project, even before the first spade was sunk, so to speak. They were living in a static caravan initially. I too, while willing to lend a hand with some of the land preparation, had grave doubts about its feasibility. And, once it was finished, wished them well for their first winter. I shouldn't have doubted them. It was marvellous. I've visited and stayed over on multiple occasions now, and while the semi-commune type living and some of their values aren't wholly my own, I salute what they have achieved.
For more detail see:https://www.hockertonhousingproject....mes/new-build/
And yes, they have extensively tested a wide range of air-source heat pumps over the years and have been dissatisfied with all of them, as failing to deliver the promised efficiencies. That's not to say at some future date the technology might improve, perhaps. But, as they say 'if wishes were horses, beggars would ride'!
"Solar heat? What solar heat in winter? Sorry it just doesn't exist."
Just to clarify how it works. The solar heat is stored over the course of the whole year, building up considerably in the summer, and stored in the 'bulk' of the fabric of the building - the concrete (yes, not very green') which is super insulated by synthetic materials and the earth bank. In colder weather, such as over the winter, this heat is released gradually into the building's interior. On some sunny days in winter it is topped up (even when cloudy, as when you sit in a triple glazed conservatory, you'll observe). Before their first winter they included the option for small wood-burning stoves (just in case). These were never needed.
If you're over here - go and visit. They do 'tours' for interested individuals and also for housing companies, universities, etc.