ripoff for new boiler

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.

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Originally Posted by Graham Breeze

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?

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And for members of the Flat Earth Society ...

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...f8ac5494_b.jpg

https://www.britishgas.co.uk/home-se...eat-pumps.html

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Originally Posted by Marco

And for members of the Flat Earth Society ...

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...f8ac5494_b.jpg

https://www.britishgas.co.uk/home-se...eat-pumps.html

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British Gas would sell you snake oil if they thought it would be profitable.

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Originally Posted by Graham Breeze

British Gas would sell you snake oil if they thought it would be profitable.

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On that subject I'm in total agreement with you.

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

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Originally Posted by Graham Breeze

... sell you snake oil .

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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! $$$$

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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’.

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Speak of the devil :D

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Originally Posted by Marco

On that subject I'm in total agreement with you.

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

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If they weren't linked to subsidies and a rigged energy market a large company wouldn't offer this.

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]