Turning Down the Thermostat.

Simon Barker:

davezawadi (David Stone):

Redback spiders are lethal too.


Back to heat pumps. I posted this in the Telegraph in response to a turning down the radiators article.

It really is time that the Government took some advice from Engineers. All of these "everything electric" plans are completely unworkable without the replacement of the entire electrical distribution system and 10 new nuclear power stations. The cost £3 trillion. By 2030, you have to be having another laugh at the public. Air source heat pumps sound ok on paper until you understand the specification. With air at -10C (not unusual in Britain) and 50C outlet temperature they perhaps give 2 times the heat available from electricity directly. The electricity costs 4 times as much as gas, guess what, you pay twice as much money to run a complex system which is expensive to maintain! The article above is Green rubbish, no truth whatsoever. As for Hydrogen, forget that, it needs twice the electricity to make it as the heat from burning it. Simple chemistry, not understood by the new "Green" Government.

David CEng etc (Thats a real Engineer by the way!)


 

If you want to get decent efficiency out of a heat pump, then 50C output temperature is far too high.  Try fitting bigger radiators, and turning it down to the mid 30's.


For new builds, a ground source heat pump would be much better, but they don't make for an easy retro-fit.

If the pipes are too short, ground source heat pump systems have been known to just freeze the soil.


Z.

Simon Barker:

davezawadi (David Stone):

Redback spiders are lethal too.


Back to heat pumps. I posted this in the Telegraph in response to a turning down the radiators article.

It really is time that the Government took some advice from Engineers. All of these "everything electric" plans are completely unworkable without the replacement of the entire electrical distribution system and 10 new nuclear power stations. The cost £3 trillion. By 2030, you have to be having another laugh at the public. Air source heat pumps sound ok on paper until you understand the specification. With air at -10C (not unusual in Britain) and 50C outlet temperature they perhaps give 2 times the heat available from electricity directly. The electricity costs 4 times as much as gas, guess what, you pay twice as much money to run a complex system which is expensive to maintain! The article above is Green rubbish, no truth whatsoever. As for Hydrogen, forget that, it needs twice the electricity to make it as the heat from burning it. Simple chemistry, not understood by the new "Green" Government.

David CEng etc (Thats a real Engineer by the way!)


 

If you want to get decent efficiency out of a heat pump, then 50C output temperature is far too high.  Try fitting bigger radiators, and turning it down to the mid 30's.


For new builds, a ground source heat pump would be much better, but they don't make for an easy retro-fit.

If the pipes are too short, ground source heat pump systems have been known to just freeze the soil.


Z.