Turning Down the Thermostat.

mapj1:

... and then training up the next gen of nuclear power engineers. I suggest by around 2030 ...

Are 9 years long enough to get past the hurdle of acceptability? And in any event, the power stations need to be built first. Perhaps we will all have to get used to the idea of local submarine-style reactors? ?

If underfloor heating becomes widespread, it will certainly affect what we do. No more lifting floorboards, and ceilings down for new circuits!

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.

Zoomup:

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.

True.  Unfortunately, too many installers will cut corners.  They usually work well for the first winter.  But they suck so much heat out of the soil that it never recovers over the following summer.


The situation would be improved if the system is designed to operate as air conditioning in summer, sucking heat out of the house and pushing it into the ground.  But the government will only subsidise systems that are not reversible.  So having one extra valve to reverse the coolant flow can cost the customer a fortune.