Heat pumps and insulation would cut UK living costs more than new oilfields, study suggests

Comments

• mannycalavera@feddit.uk ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  Why is it difficult for the government to forcefully hire an army of insulators and go around the country top to bottom and insulate the crap out of homes?

  If you’re desperate to nationalise something, nationalise that.

  #OurNationalInsulationService

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  • Naich@piefed.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    It’s difficult because the money to do this would go to a wide range of companies and people who have no influence on governments. It’s the oil barons who can blast money at lobbyists who have the government in their pockets.

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    • mannycalavera@feddit.uk ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

      No I mean not tender for private contracts to do this. Actually do this in a nationalised way.

      Setup a department, NIS (the afore mentioned National Insulation Service), with the motto warmth at the point of use, build a workforce that goes town by town coldest to hottest parts of the country and adds the required missing insulation to however many homes need it starting with low income homes.

      Everyone is so keen on nationalising everything so why not kickstart this and do some good. I say the same thing about home building. Set up a government home building project entirely run by government employees funded by the state. I can understand how there would be NIMBY protectionism against that (can’t build that here you’ll lower the value of my mansion) but who would argue against insulation?

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    • arrow74@lemmy.zip ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      My local city in the US had sent people to do energy audits and gave a slight discount on the next month’s electric bill if you let them in.

      They would tell you where you needed more insulation and sealing. The city offered rebates for various types of insulation and energy related overhaul.

      The city owned the local utility and they determined it was way cheaper to help reduce energy consumption than to scale up production

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  • Waterpumpee@lemmus.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    Envy on landlords. Why get real estate owners something for free? On the other hand as a home owner i dont understand why or how i should spend to insulate my home for 150k.

    Renters will be hit by this too as landlords need to raise rents to cover the cost.

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    • GreyEyedGhost@piefed.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      Perhaps the reason is the people dying every year during heatwaves, caused in large part by depleting oilfields.

      🤔

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• sunbeam60@feddit.uk ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  Going through an ASHP, solar and battery install in our house at the minute. Tbf, the £7,500 BUS grant is pretty generous and brings a heat pump conversion (in a modern house) into same price range as a new boiler.

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  • docus@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    The running cost is a problem though, you are unlikely to save much, if anything, with a heat pump on current electricity prices.

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    • Flamekebab@piefed.social ⁨23⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      Immediate costs are not the only element in the equation. Electricity can be sourced from many sources, whereas fossil fuels don’t have an alternative (as in, if oil becomes hard to come by, too bad. Whereas there’s many ways to make electricity).

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    • sunbeam60@feddit.uk ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      There’s an element of cost and an element of reducing our footprint here.

      Be that as it may we are going for a 10 kW array and 24 kWh battery so I’m hoping we can do the heating on our own juice in all but a couple of months. At least if my calculations hold.

      But I’m sending four kids into the world. I’d like to do my bit to avoid making it worse for them, so it’s ok if it all together ends up costing over the next 5-6 years.

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    • GreyEyedGhost@piefed.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      Well, oil prices will surely go down, soon, and the good news is the weather changes that cause all those heatwaves also increase the efficiency of solar.

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• RubberDuck@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  So more drilling it is then…

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• bedwyr@piefed.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  The UK is perfect for heat pumps too I think. I know they improved for colder areas but ten years back at least they could fully heat a place in the Pacific Northwest which is pretty similar I think in temperatures. Whereas I was told in the continental climate west of the cascade mountains in the us you would need to supplement other heat.

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• UpAndAtThem@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  But which option makes the world better for despicable petro-corps, hmmmmmmm?

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