Air-Source Heat Pumps - Hot Air for London
Monday 21st March 2022
The Russian invasion of Ukraine has lifted the drive to find non-carbon sources of energy to a national security imperative as well as ‘just’ a 2050 net zero climate change target.
Europe in particular, has hit the reality of reliance on a rogue Russia for its oil and gas supplies.
Sustainable self-sufficiency is going to be the way forward.
Boris is due to announce a new Energy Strategy for the UK in the next few days.
Let’s hope he has opened his mind to a wide range of solutions rather than focusing on air-source heat pumps (ASHP’s) lauded recently as the best option and cornerstone of Govt ‘thinking’.
I have looked into air-source heat pumps for my own elderly and draughty house, and it soon becomes apparent that the cost of the pump and fitting, whilst expensive, is the least of it.
Basically, they are far less efficient than a gas boiler so the house would have to be ‘vacuum packed’ for there to be any hope of taking off the trusty trench coat in winter. Anyway, I don’t want to live in a house with no air circulation. It is positively unhealthy, and hardly corona conscious.
Further, I gather from friends who do have ASHP’s that in cold weather the pump has to work so hard, using electricity to power it, that the electricity bill becomes quite astronomical.
I can see how ASHP’s might be a solution for new-build properties but retro-fitting is extra-ordinarily expensive.
In London we have a huge number of dwellings which are completely inappropriate for individual ASHP’s. The conclusion is that London needs to source its electricity from out-with the capital, yet within the UK.
With a blend of UK coal and North Sea gas in the short term, renewables like wind and solar in the medium term, and critically, ‘small’ nuclear power stations - as developed by Rolls Royce - in the longer term, we ought to be able to reach self-sufficiency, and in turn net zero. Perhaps, even before 2050.
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