I’ve been seeing quite a bit in the news and also on YouTube about going Solar and battery storage plus warming your place via heat Pumps, both seem the right way forward.
Quite surprised to learn they drill down ‘6 stories’ to get a constant temperature, that’s quite a distance. I guess it’s logical for all new builds to have this type of technology installed during construction as underfloor heating plus a cylinder for hot water will be easier to install .
No gas on site at all which has to be good from a safety point of view although having three-phase electricity to the home may bring its own safety issues.
I understand the present Government are offering grants or loans although I have yet to see one actually arrive, maybe you know differently?.
No doubt the Quango’s will already be in place with someone’s favourite Nephew heading it up on a nice salary for themselves and their ‘team’. I guess it gives some folk a reason to dress up in a suit plus a wall to pin their degree in ‘humanities’ on but it would be nice, just once, for some of the money to actually be handed out to the folk who can make use of it.
If everyone had Solar / Battery Storage and a Heat Pump plus a two-way charger just think of how flexible our Grid would become, no need to spin up a gas turbine at peak times as they can take power from the plugged in EV’s and even subscribers batteries, that would save a whole lot of wasted energy. At slack times EV’s and homes could take excess power from the Grid so nothing’s going to waste.
All of this is possible, it would also create literally thousands of new jobs in the energy sector, I for one would rather hand out grants than dole out unemployment benefits, who knows Government may even get some cash back via PAYE, Corporation Tax and not having to build yet another power station.
This is a popular theme with me one I keep banging on about as I have the vision to see the future, it could be bright and sweet smelling or continue to be full of noxious emissions and queues of folk lining up to visit the doctors with respiratory conditions or cancers due to the poisons being pumped out by burning fossil fuels.
As for lean-burn ICE vehicles the test should be that the manufacturers board of directors sit in their low emission vehicles in a closed garage with the windows down and the engine running, if after an hour they are still alive then it’s a pass, seems a fair test to me as we have to walk down the road breathing in all the rubbish they produce.
We’ve had a taste of sweet-smelling air during lock-down and quite frankly I want it back. As a kid in the 50’s& 60’s even though everyone had a coal fire I cannot remember seeing anyone at the huge school I attended using an inhaler, nowadays every other person seems to have one, there has to be a reason, I suspect its what’s in the air, did anyone else notice the reduction in using inhalers during lockdown ? I wonder if there are any statistics available from the NHS regarding a decrease in their use ?.