Most liked posts in thread: UK Energy Needs

You are right that, to date, heat pump central heating systems have required a high standard of insulation and larger radiators (compared to gas central heating), but the technology is improving, and coupled with smart technology, the gap is being closed.

Heat pumps currently heat water to around 45°C to 50°C, whereas gas boilers are typically set at around 70°C (which, for a combi boiler is way over its most efficient temperature). I've been running mine, over the last few months, at 50°C to 55°C, to get an idea of the issues that switching over to a heat pump may cause.

Without having made any changes to my insulation or radiators, I have found that the main change has been the need to turn on the heating earlier (anticipating when I'll need a certain level of heat) and run it for a bit longer. This is where the use of smart technology can really help and, if I go ahead with the switch to a heat pump, I intend to take full advantage of such smart technology, to factor in weather forecasts with my own heating requirements.

But first, to make this work, I need the overall cost to come down, which is where Octopus Energy's claims about their new heat pump system are of particular interest (I'm sure other companies will be developing their own as well).

 

If I manage to complete my plan the things on my list will certainly be helpful to me. I believe that, on balance, they are environmentally friendly as well.

Let's start with the EV. My car (a 2021 Zoe) does the equivalent of approximately 150 miles to the gallon and that's based on the daytime electricity rate from April 2022. Once I switch to overnight charging that will increase to the equivalent of approximately 600 miles to the gallon. Ultimately, when I have driven my electricity rate down to zero or less (see below) then it will be free fuel.

Also, your information on batteries is out of date. The batteries used on the Zoe, according to a recent independent study, degrade by 1% or less per annum, so a 250 mile range will have only fallen to 225 miles after 10 years. Replacement batteries are falling in cost rapidly as well (sub £5,000 and falling for a Zoe), should anyone wish to replace one after the 8 year warranry expires. I believe most other electric cars are similar (high end vehicles excepted).

I agree with you regarding roof spaces and all new buildings should now be built with a solar roof. That said, retrofitting solar panels onto a roof is not particular cost effective, which is why I opted to join with others in sharing the electricity from our own wind farm. We will benefit from ecomomies of scale, whilst our electricity will be supplied to us by a number of selected energy providers.

The batteries will be key part of the plan, because they will allow me to switch 100% to overnight electricity. I will benefit by getting electricity at a rate below the credit I will receive for my share of the wind farm, so I will end up being paid to "use electricity". The country will benefit by being able to reduce peak electricity demand (due to all those using this model).

The final part of the plan will be to ditch my gas central heating, so that my house and car will run off 'free' electricity. Based on current prices I'm looking at a return on up front investment of around 5 years (although it depends how you factor the cost of the car into the equation - I've based it on the extra cost for my Zoe compared to the ICE equivalent, the Clio).

It's a shame that the government don't seem to have a coherent energy strategy, because much of what I'm doing could be incorporated into new builds and if a scaled up retrofitting plan was developed, it could be a win-win strategy.

 

Not sure how much solid-state batteries really save on rare-earth elements. Maybe they do and they just aren't talking about that side but the main driving force with them is more the safety (they are less likely to explode although I believe they are still very combustible if they catch fire) and the fact they can produce the same power in a smaller and lighter size so they can either have less space taken up by batteries which helps make the cars lighter or they can take the same space and get more power or range. I believe also it is more recyclable, things like the safety issue mean that so little of an old battery can currently be recycled for other use and the bits that can have such little value compared to the cost of doing so that it’s largely deemed not worth doing. As it’s safer, more of the solid state battery should be viable to recycle as the costs of doing so are lower due to that (or will be at some point)

So we most likely need something more than just this this step to solid state to really make it more environmentally friendly. We need something that allows for everyone to switch to EV but where are earth elements are either so low or non-existent that to support the number of batteries needed, not just for cars but for everything with batteries in without having a major ecological crisis to support it

I suspect that that has more to do with the kind of buyers. Avid drivers aren’t buying things like the Zoe, even if they abide by good practice and keep the battery above 20% I suspect most most of their customers aren’t charging it more than once a week. 52 charges a year puts you around the kind of number of charges across 8 years that the mileage guarantee gives. As such the risk of increasing it to help sell more by giving people peace of mind will likely offset the small number who buy it and either work in a job with lots of driving or just enjoy driving a lot. It’s the benefit of doing their figures in years and miles rather than charges, your phone or laptop can only give a figure in number of charges, they can’t increase their number based on average users use because a charge is a charge but a yearly figure can if users charge less often than expected.