Is anyone worried about green futures?

[AcornAutumn]

As proposed by Johnson

I’ve put this here as I don’t want a political conversation but a practical one

In future, I hope to have a house and garden and dreamed of having a fireplace. Now I read that Johnson wants to be rid of gas boilers - I can’t see how mum’s house would do, heating wise, with electric. I have electric in my tiny flat and that’s fine.

But being out in the countryside and having Agas or oil heating and generators etc for back up, is he trying to make that a thing of the past or the preserve of the seriously wealthy etc?

Be interested to hear thoughts.

Particulates are LOCAL air pollution. They kill and damage you in your home and damage your neighbours and immediate community.

I live on the edge of the Peak District And a lot of people heat houses with wood , the main reason is its cheap and lots of it about.
I’ve not seen any dead people about , but I’ll keep an eye out for some .

@gillianan

electric boilers will be the big thing next year as soon as the new SAP comes out. they cost the same as regular boilers and you don't need to change any of your existing plumbing. you'll probably want PV panels to help keep the running costs lower as will cost a bit more than gas but with PV panels and battery storage for which there will likely be another round of grants for , it will be as affordable as now.

What is a SAP please?

We have air source heat pumps for a large 5 bed house. They heat the water to a lower temperature but that’s no issue with underfloor heating and efficient insulation. They are a lot cheaper than ground source heat pumps and for their installation you need a lot of garden and it will be dug up! Sir source for us are 2x units the size of large American fridges. They emit cold air so be careful where you put them! We’ve had them 10 years now. You can install PV panels to run them. I’ve not done this because I don’t like the look of PV panels! If they become smaller and less intrusive, we might invest - But we don’t have a south facing roof.

I can imagine housing developers not installing them correctly though and homeowners being disappointed with the temp of the water. We would never go back to oil!

Sir! Air source...

I’ll always have terrible bills as i air my house/flat out most of the day as I grew up with the doors open all day and the heating on at night... so the length of time to heat up means it will have to stay on with the windows open. To be fair, I then snuggle next to the radiator when it’s on but I do get weirded out in houses that don’t require jumpers in winter. I guess in the future I can lie on the floor. I find the flat gets fuggy without constant air - especially now I’m in it all day. Breathing.

@AcornAutumn
The StandardAssessmentProcedure (SAP) is the methodology introduced by the Government toassessand compare the energy and environmental performance of buildings to make sure that any new developments meet Building Regulations and all energy and environmental policy initiatives.

basically you need a good score in order to get building regulations approval. the SAP we use now was published in 2012, when the assessment of electric boilers was based on the fact the main electricity grid in the UK still produced electricity in a carbon heavy way.. however you will see that there's far more "green energy" companies now when you are choosing your electricity suppliers, and that eventually the whole grid will turn that way.

the new SAP was due to be released around September this year, but has been delayed (covid). however the draft the government released showed that they had taken into account the improvements of green electricity on the national Grid and therefore gave electric heating products a much better score and showing they would be a good green solution to boiler replacements.
SAP 10.2 (the new version) is now expected to come out Q1-Q2 next year.

elec boilers cost 1-2k so similar to regular gas rather than the 7-12k for air source and you don't need to change your radiators or anything for the switch over.
the main problem is that electricity is 3x more expensive than gas, however with PV panels and say a Sunamp battery, you can store your free PV energy collected throughout the day which will store in your battery and use this to heat all/most of your hot water. you can also set it to top up from your boiler on the cheap economy nighttime rates so really limiting the amount of daytime running costs you will need.

following all that hydrogen, hydrogen boilers will probably be the next big thing after this... but they're just going through the testing phase now to check to see how we can make them suitable for home use.

for those who don't like pv panels, you can get ones that look just like your roof tiles, although they are a lot more expensive than the usual ones.

@MojoMoon thank you, that it terrifying, not sure there is much I can do about it to be honest though 🙁

@purpletrees16

I’ll always have terrible bills as i air my house/flat out most of the day as I grew up with the doors open all day and the heating on at night... so the length of time to heat up means it will have to stay on with the windows open. To be fair, I then snuggle next to the radiator when it’s on but I do get weirded out in houses that don’t require jumpers in winter. I guess in the future I can lie on the floor. I find the flat gets fuggy without constant air - especially now I’m in it all day. Breathing.

Ventilation is actually a very important consideration when homes have insulation added to them.

There are passive solutions (essentially trickle vents) but also mechanical ventilation systems where a small duct is fitted - air is circulated out of the property and replaced with fresh air but with heat recovery so it's more efficient as heat is not wasted.
Airing your house is important - but there are more efficient ways to do it now!

Thank you gillian