Posted on 08/29/2023 1:52:51 AM PDT by lowbridge
So, when you live in Never Never Land as Greens seem to do , there’s nothing that the act of your merely saying it can’t make so. It has happened repeatedly with their empty promises of renewables carrying the United Kingdom cheaply and reliably forward into the 22d century and the Nirvana that is Net Zero.
It is happening again with the mandates to switch the entirety of the British Isles – including the naughty north bits who routinely plunge into frozen wastelands come winter – to electric heat pumps. Even as folks intimately familiar with such technology, and the fact that the U.K. can’t keep the lights on as it is, insist with moral authority “Heat pumps are not designed for heating in C-O-L-D climates.”
…To his credit, one of the largest heat pump suppliers in the country has spoken up to tell the climate cultists in the government just that – heat pumps and winter do not co-exist.
…Lord Willie Haughey, the business tycoon, said the heating system is unsuitable for the Scottish climate as its performance declines markedly in freezing weather.
The Labour peer said some units can stop working properly at temperatures of -5C (23F), or require more electricity to function properly, resulting in higher bills.
Parts of Scotland hit -15C last winter and the country holds the record for the UK’s lowest temperature of -27.2C seen in Braemar in Aberdeenshire in 1982 and Altnaharra in Sutherland in 1995.
I’ll do the math for you, cuz I’m that kinda gal: -15°C is 5°F and that -27.2°C is -16.96°F. That’s frickin’ Arctic in any book and heat pumps – they cannae handle it.
Oh, NO WORRIES THERE, fellow Brits!
You friends in the climate cult have the perfect answer, and they’ll hit NetZero that much faster.
(Excerpt) Read more at hotair.com ...
Nights are for charging your $70k battery. Silly wabbits.
“If your winter is brutal, you’re not out of luck though. As low as -13F, an H2i pump [made by Mitsubishi] keeps working, supplying roughly 80% of its total heat capacity. Depending on your home, that might mean turning down the thermostat and bundling for brief spells, or having backup heat available for extended freezes, whether that means keeping your existing system or installing electric backups.”
https://carbonswitch.com/best-cold-climate-heat-pump/
“The Co-efficient of performance (COP) is an expression of the efficiency of a heat pump. When calculating the COP for a heat pump, the heat output from the condenser (Q) is compared to the power supplied to the compressor (W).”
https://www.grundfos.com/solutions/learn/research-and-insights/coefficient-of-system-performance
There are ground source heat pumps and it would be possible to use well or mains water as a cold sink.
There are also things called electric blankets.
“Nights are for charging your $70k battery.”
I think the greens would prefer that you use solar electric. The sun shines during the daytime.
People should not make silly claims as the ‘greens’ often are fanatics and any mistake conservatives might make only reinforces ‘green’ self-righteousness.
“ground source heat pumps “
OR ... if it gets really cold ...
you can go outside a spin your windmill by hand.
2 birds with one stone ... so to speak
Wood seemed to work well for 10 or 20 thousand years.
Fujitsi, Daikin and Carrier Greenspeed heat pumps may also be of interest.
Yes those heat pumps exist. Rather remarkable, but how many homes in Scotland have sufficient insulation to support ELECTRIC heat? Everytime I’ve seen those heat pumps used they are in connection with major renovation or new build for super insulation and stopping air infiltration. Secondly, what is the reliability of the electric grid in Scotland in winter? This technology is great and has made great strides, but an old crappy electric grid can’t keep up forever without major rebuild. Greens miss that simple point. Kind of similar to, how many extension cords can you plug into a 15A receptacle before you get a fire?
“Carrier’s highest efficiency geothermal units have a COP in excess of 4.5 (that’s 450% efficient), compared to a high-efficiency air source heat pump with an average seasonal COP around 1.8.”
https://www.shareddocs.com/hvac/docs/1010/Public/01/01-GEO-022-01.pdf
“Q: Will the fluid in the loops freeze during a long,
cold winter?
A: No. Antifreeze in the loop fluid eliminates any concerns about freezing.”
“Q: Can a well be used instead of an earth loop?
A: Yes. Prior to using a well for a geothermal installation, the water quality must be checked. Sufficient water volume is needed for the unit, usually about four to nine gallons per minute during unit operation. A discharge location like a pond or drainage ditch is also required.”
Preppers ping. This is coming to the US. Do what you can to be less dependent on the grid. Moving out of a large city is step one...
“The government is likely to increase the minimum standard incrementally from E, to D, then C in the future. Tackling insulation and heating system to get a cold property to a D or C standard in one go now may also allow landlords to access ECO funding to support upgrades.”
https://www.arangroup.co.uk/pages/1643/Energy-Saving-Requirements-for-Landlords-in-Scotland/
“Your home may qualify for free loft insulation in Scotland if you claim specific benefits or tax credits. Installing loft and cavity wall insulation is the most effective way of reducing energy bills.
“All insulation grants in Scotland must now be installed alongside a free heat pump and solar panels.
“Government grants for free loft insulation and cavity wall insulation in Scotland are accessible via the Energy Company Obligation (ECO) scheme.”
“As part of the scheme the The Government have told major energy companies like British Gas, EDF and Scottish Power etc. put funding aside to help pay for the cost of installing the energy saving measures. This is why the scheme is called the Energy Company Obligation. If your home is eligible for an ECO insulation grant the money comes from this funding. Although technically we all pay for it through increased energy bills.”
https://www.scottishenergygrants.co.uk/free-loft-insulation/
Never, never, never let the government run your life.
“Wood seemed to work well for 10 or 20 thousand years.”
I dont know if you have been to ireland and scotland, but the woods are in private hands and going nowhere, some Lord Greenwash is in charge of it. That wood is not for freezing commoners, it is to be talked about at international conferences made into a non resource with a value that cannot be taxed, but that Lord Greenwash can get a credit line against. Dont want Lord Greenwash not to be able to trade Crypto and NTFs.
Heat pumps are useless when it gets below 20 degrees for the most part and rely on emergency electric heat. They run constantly.
Back in my days as a real estate broker, I came to the conclusion that maybe the most efficient furnace ever built was those old coal fired, gravity furnaces from the Victorian era. Dadgum things could heat a two story house with zero electric power. A fan activeted by the heat rising distributed the warm air throughout the house.
Sorta made for a dirty basement, but hey......
My heat pump works just fine below 20 degrees. It’s nothing special either, just a single stage Trane.
The difference, though, is that my house wasn’t built with the idea that “houses gotta breathe” as an excuse for not bothering to caulk or seal anything.
There’s also real heat sources such as natural gas that actually works and you don’t have to wrap up in a blankee all day
Put Gramps on the treadmill he can generate electricity there and maintain core temperature!
\_(ツ)_/¯
Heat pumps are just glorified air conditioners. They reverse their operation for heating. The more extreme the outside temperatures, the less effective they are.
Think of your window air conditioner. When it’s 78 degrees outside, it has to expel heat out the back (using a fan pushing outside air through a coil with refrigerant that has heat that came from inside trapped in it) into that 78 degree air. That’s relatively easy, but raise the temperature to 106 degrees, and you are just blowing hot air through a hot coil. It doesn’t pull as much energy out of it.
The same thing is true in the winter time. It’s like you flipped your air conditioner around. When it’s 45 degrees outside, you are trying to absorb heat from the outside coil and expel it into your inside space. That’s not easy to do, but it gets a LOT harder when it’s 5 degrees outside. There’s no heat energy to gain.
Just because a heatpump uses electricity doesn’t make it good. It wastes a lot more energy overall, particularly when the temperatures are at their extremes.
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