No more gas boilers? You must be joking!

My mother once asked me whether she should get rid of her old gas fire she rarely used, in the lounge. Her house was central-heated and the radiators kept her warm enough.

My advice was, provided the gas fitter certified it as safe, keep it as a standby. In the unfortunate circumstnce of an electric power failure, it would provide a means to keep the lounge warm. Turn on the gas oven and keep the kitchen warm too. That's two rooms kept warm. Heat would migrate to other rooms to take the chill off them.

It seems that the prospect is less reliability of electricity power supply. Already, given the urge to shut down coal-fired stations, we are operating on a narrower load margin than previously. The prospect of rising demand for electricity for electric cars and heat pumps, combined with the demise of non-renewable sources, makes me wonder how well our national grid will grow to meet this demand.

I can well understand the strong interest in heat pumps; their effective efficiency of up to 300% is well worth pursuing. They do have their problems, however, apart from the well-publicised expense. Ideally they need an outside wall - added problems if this is not practicable. They can't heat the water so warm. Not a big problem for a new installation, but if retrofitted, the radiators may need to be replaced with much bigger ones; possibly piping may need to be upgraded.

Air source or ground source? Each has its potential problems.

How will air source systems cope with external conditions of low temperature and high humidity? That sounds like a formula for build-up of frost on the heat exchanger, reducing its effectiveness. Fan assistance may help but fans can be noisy; consider the nuisance effect on the neighbours if these should become widely used. Also, the fans consume power, reducing the efficiency of the whole set-up.

Ground source, I have been told by someone with specialised knowledge, works well and reliably. The temperature a metre below the ground surface is fairly constant and there is a lot of thermal mass there, so this can work well, especially when the air temperature outside is below freezing. But there is a lot of expense and disruption in digging up the ground to bury the element. I wonder what the long term will be on the ecology of the soil if these are installed en masse. I anticipate a gradual cooling; would we be approaching permafrost conditions?

I live in the hope that someone will one day come up with a way to apply carbon capture and storage on a small scale to gas boilers. We could keep them after all. 

My mother once asked me whether she should get rid of her old gas fire she rarely used, in the lounge. Her house was central-heated and the radiators kept her warm enough.

My advice was, provided the gas fitter certified it as safe, keep it as a standby. In the unfortunate circumstnce of an electric power failure, it would provide a means to keep the lounge warm. Turn on the gas oven and keep the kitchen warm too. That's two rooms kept warm. Heat would migrate to other rooms to take the chill off them.

It seems that the prospect is less reliability of electricity power supply. Already, given the urge to shut down coal-fired stations, we are operating on a narrower load margin than previously. The prospect of rising demand for electricity for electric cars and heat pumps, combined with the demise of non-renewable sources, makes me wonder how well our national grid will grow to meet this demand.

I can well understand the strong interest in heat pumps; their effective efficiency of up to 300% is well worth pursuing. They do have their problems, however, apart from the well-publicised expense. Ideally they need an outside wall - added problems if this is not practicable. They can't heat the water so warm. Not a big problem for a new installation, but if retrofitted, the radiators may need to be replaced with much bigger ones; possibly piping may need to be upgraded.

Air source or ground source? Each has its potential problems.

How will air source systems cope with external conditions of low temperature and high humidity? That sounds like a formula for build-up of frost on the heat exchanger, reducing its effectiveness. Fan assistance may help but fans can be noisy; consider the nuisance effect on the neighbours if these should become widely used. Also, the fans consume power, reducing the efficiency of the whole set-up.

Ground source, I have been told by someone with specialised knowledge, works well and reliably. The temperature a metre below the ground surface is fairly constant and there is a lot of thermal mass there, so this can work well, especially when the air temperature outside is below freezing. But there is a lot of expense and disruption in digging up the ground to bury the element. I wonder what the long term will be on the ecology of the soil if these are installed en masse. I anticipate a gradual cooling; would we be approaching permafrost conditions?

I live in the hope that someone will one day come up with a way to apply carbon capture and storage on a small scale to gas boilers. We could keep them after all.