The energy crisis

[Chrysalis]

Originally Posted by Pierre

Thing is, like anything of this type, is costs more, wastes more fuel, and puts more into the atmosphere firing these up and then shutting them down, rather than just keeping them running.

It does but we have decided its better to have more expensive energy without power cuts than the other way round, politically less damaging.

More to the point, clearly shows we are a long long way from no longer using fossil fuels for generation, and are not going to be there in 7 years time.

[joglynne]

Originally Posted by SnoopZ

Still not received my monthly usage bill from Octopus so dropped them an email.

Edit - their reply which still doesn't help me as I've submitted atleast 2 meter readings in the last month and all its done is said how much gas and electric used in £s and I still don't have a breakdown of units used etc, is this normal?

My last Meter reading was Feb 22nd so I guess I should take another reading on March 22nd to get the amount used and do the maths for the units used myself from month to month?

I've just reread the notes I made when I first joined Octopus from OVO who totally messed up everything possible so my first bill covered 13 weeks. I didn't have a smart meter and the Octopus helpline guy suggested I send in a reading on the 6th of each month as my DD was paid on the 1st. This seemed to sort thing out for us and since having the smart meter fitted the bills have continued to be from the 7th of the month up to the following 6th.

I'd forgotten just what a nightmare it was, guess the relief at finally gettting away from OVO deadened the pain. Final insult was I had to get the Energy Ombudsman involved to get my money back.

If you haven't already found the Handover page it could be worth having a read.
https://octopus.energy/blog/handover-meter-readings/

[jonbxx]

We are getting a new boiler installed today as the old one sprung a leak and at nearly 20 years old. We decided to replace rather than fix considering the cost of repair. It will be interesting to see what impact a newer more efficient boiler will have on the gas bill.

Interestingly, the boiler can be used for blended gas and hydrogen (up to 20% hydrogen) so a nice bit of futureproofing is in place too considering we would like this boiler to last as long as the last one.

My new boiler does seem to use less (not a fantastic amount less) but still welcome.

[Pierre]

There was a guy on GB news this morning (Yes, breakfast with Eamon and Isabel is my preferred viewing).

He was on there to promote the use of heat pumps, but he advised that a heat pump should not be the only source heating in a property, especially in an older property, because they're just not up to the job 365/7/24.

When asked if he had one, he said no.

[Sephiroth]

Originally Posted by jonbxx

We are getting a new boiler installed today as the old one sprung a leak and at nearly 20 years old. We decided to replace rather than fix considering the cost of repair. It will be interesting to see what impact a newer more efficient boiler will have on the gas bill.

Interestingly, the boiler can be used for blended gas and hydrogen (up to 20% hydrogen) so a nice bit of futureproofing is in place too considering we would like this boiler to last as long as the last one.

Our 6 year-old Worcester-Bosch failed last Sunday and the spare part (Heat Exchanger) can't be fitted before tomorrow (Friday). A couple of fan heaters help us muddle through. The shops are short of convection heaters as they destock the winter kit! Two from Amazon arriving today (I hope).

The 30+ year old Potterton never failed until the end.

But yes - then there's Ukraine, poor souls.

---------- Post added at 15:39 ---------- Previous post was at 15:37 ----------

Originally Posted by Pierre

There was a guy on GB news this morning (Yes, breakfast with Eamon and Isabel is my preferred viewing).

He was on there to promote the use of heat pumps, but he advised that a heat pump should not be the only source heating in a property, especially in an older property, because they're just not up to the job 365/7/24.

When asked if he had one, he said no.

Heat pumps, battery driven cars, HS2 - whatever next?
Bicycler and horse-drawn buses?

[jonbxx]

Originally Posted by Sephiroth

[COLOR="Blue"] Our 6 year-old Worcester-Bosch failed last Sunday and the spare part (Heat Exchanger) can't be fitted before tomorrow (Friday). A couple of fan heaters help us muddle through. The shops are short of convection heaters as they destock the winter kit! Two from Amazon arriving today (I hope).

The 30+ year old Potterton never failed until the end.

A slight diversion from the topic but we saw the issue on Sunday too. We arranged an engineer through Boxt who came on Tuesday afternoon and diagnosed the expansion vessel as the issue. It might have been the heat exchanger and he held these in his van. We got a full quote Tuesday evening and decided not to go ahead with the repair so I called Boxt yesterday who did a quote for the new boiler, knocking off the call-out charge for the engineer and the new boiler was up and running by 2pm today.

I always like to call out good service and this was a cracking example so Boxt is a definite recommendation for me

[1andrew1]

Originally Posted by Pierre

There was a guy on GB news this morning (Yes, breakfast with Eamon and Isabel is my preferred viewing).

He was on there to promote the use of heat pumps, but he advised that a heat pump should not be the only source heating in a property, especially in an older property, because they're just not up to the job 365/7/24.

When asked if he had one, he said no.

Not sure I'd employ him to sell anything

Originally Posted by Pierre

There was a guy on GB news this morning (Yes, breakfast with Eamon and Isabel is my preferred viewing).

He was on there to promote the use of heat pumps, but he advised that a heat pump should not be the only source heating in a property, especially in an older property, because they're just not up to the job 365/7/24.

When asked if he had one, he said no.

The problem isn’t the heat pump, it’s the assumptions behind the design of almost every house built in this country and still standing, with the exception of only the very newest.

The assumption is that Britain will always have access to an abundant supply of cheap fuel and it goes all the way back to the Industrial Revolution which was fired by coal, and then the 20th century dash for natural gas. The solution has always been to add heat to the house faster than it can lose it. We have always been able to do that because burning coal or gas has been cheap.

Heat pumps are widely used in Scandinavian countries even in older houses because they have been willing to insulate their houses adequately at the build stage. It is harder to make an economic case for them here because retrofitting the necessary insulation and, ideally, underfloor heating that is most effective at lower temperatures, is very expensive.

[nomadking]

Originally Posted by Chris

The problem isn’t the heat pump, it’s the assumptions behind the design of almost every house built in this country and still standing, with the exception of only the very newest.

The assumption is that Britain will always have access to an abundant supply of cheap fuel and it goes all the way back to the Industrial Revolution which was fired by coal, and then the 20th century dash for natural gas. The solution has always been to add heat to the house faster than it can lose it. We have always been able to do that because burning coal or gas has been cheap.

Heat pumps are widely used in Scandinavian countries even in older houses because they have been willing to insulate their houses adequately at the build stage. It is harder to make an economic case for them here because retrofitting the necessary insulation and, ideally, underfloor heating that is most effective at lower temperatures, is very expensive.

Apart from those in the colder, northern end, how much of Scandinavian houses of the past, were well insulated? They have plenty of trees to burn.


In the past, the whole house was rarely heated. People gathered in 1 or 2 rooms.

Originally Posted by nomadking

Apart from those in the colder, northern end, how much of Scandinavian houses of the past, were well insulated? They have plenty of trees to burn.


In the past, the whole house was rarely heated. People gathered in 1 or 2 rooms.

You really need to find a better hobby than being a contrarian.

Feel free to do the necessary research to answer your own question.

Originally Posted by nomadking

Apart from those in the colder, northern end, how much of Scandinavian houses of the past, were well insulated? They have plenty of trees to burn.


In the past, the whole house was rarely heated. People gathered in 1 or 2 rooms.

Well, when I lived in West Berlin in the 70s and 80s, the flats we were in in RAF Gatow (which had been built in the 50s) had triple glazing, between floor insulation, wall insulation, and thick insulated doors at the entrance to the building and the individual flats, and when I visited colleagues in other parts of West Berlin, that seemed standard…

Originally Posted by Hugh

Well, when I lived in West Berlin in the 70s and 80s, the flats we were in in RAF Gatow (which had been built in the 50s) had triple glazing, between floor insulation, wall insulation, and thick insulated doors at the entrance to the building and the individual flats, and when I visited colleagues in other parts of West Berlin, that seemed standard…

I actually got as far as finding at least anecdotal evidence for triple glazing being commonplace in Norway as far back as the mid 1950s, and typical insulation depths and specifications, before I decided I couldn’t be bothered getting sucked in to feeding Nomad’s knee-jerk gainsaying of anything he reads on here.

There’s tons of material online for anyone who’s genuinely interested in learning stuff rather than just picking fights.

My house was built in 1931 - Insulation ? not really a thing then.

Its not even got proper cavity walls you can fill (downstairs they managed ok, upstairs, not so much. We did at least manage to get decent loft insulation.