[Politics] The Greenshirts of the Boiler Police

[Fungus]

The UK are hosting the Cop26 climate summit in Glasgow next month – a “must win” fixture if ever there was one. Yet our PM isn't exactly committed.

On the plus side, the government are offering (limited) subsidies to replace gas boilers with low-carbon heat pumps. But is Boris keen to persuade people to do this? No, his contribution:

“The Greenshirts of the Boiler Police are not going to kick in your door with their sandal-clad feet and seize, at carrot-point, your trusty old combi."

Yes, let’s deride the environmental movement as a comedy hippie-paramilitary organisation. What an absolute w@nker.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-58959045

 

[Dick Swiveller]

The UK are hosting the Cop26 climate summit in Glasgow next month – a “must win” fixture if ever there was one. Yet our PM isn't exactly committed.

On the plus side, the government are offering (limited) subsidies to replace gas boilers with low-carbon heat pumps. But is Boris keen to persuade people to do this? No, his contribution:

“The Greenshirts of the Boiler Police are not going to kick in your door with their sandal-clad feet and seize, at carrot-point, your trusty old combi."

Yes, let’s deride the environmental movement as a comedy hippie-paramilitary organisation. What an absolute w@nker.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-58959045

Shows why he is still in power - manages to appeal to his audience - in this case, The Sun readers.

 

[Bozza]

Related to this, I'd literally never heard of a heat pump before my dog walk this morning when, for the 45 minutes I was out, it was the only thing discussed on 5Live.

In brief it sounded like someone would need to dig up my garden and put something under there, replace almost all the heating stuff in my house at pretty significant expense, with a post-installation grant only making a small dent in the outlay.

In return I'd then have a heating system that I can't really control and may not be all that good.

I'll confess, I wasn't immediately sold on the idea.

 

[Fungus]

Related to this, I'd literally never heard of a heat pump before my dog walk this morning when, for the 45 minutes I was out, it was the only thing discussed on 5Live.

In brief it sounded like someone would need to dig up my garden and put something under there, replace almost all the heating stuff in my house at pretty significant expense, with a post-installation grant only making a small dent in the outlay.

In return I'd then have a heating system that I can't really control and may not be all that good.

I'll confess, I wasn't immediately sold on the idea.

Not convinced myself, especially as I have a reasonably new gas boiler, and don't want to see my house drifting down our rather steep hill. New-builds would be different.

It's our annual boiler service tomorrow - will be interesting to hear the engineer's view.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

Strongly suspect that this initiative will run out of, er, steam, a bit like the Green Homes Grant introduced a year ago that sank under the weight of red tape and inadequate funding

 

[CheeseRolls]

Related to this, I'd literally never heard of a heat pump before my dog walk this morning when, for the 45 minutes I was out, it was the only thing discussed on 5Live.

In brief it sounded like someone would need to dig up my garden and put something under there, replace almost all the heating stuff in my house at pretty significant expense, with a post-installation grant only making a small dent in the outlay.

In return I'd then have a heating system that I can't really control and may not be all that good.

I'll confess, I wasn't immediately sold on the idea.

That is a ground sourced heat pump you have described. They are pretty bloody clever, reliable and cheap to run, just expensive and disruptive to retrofit. You need to have an intestinal arrangement of water pipes buried in your garden, which also needs to be reasonably big.

An air source pump is just a humming box on the outside of your house, that works like a reverse fridge. They don't work very well below freezing, which is surely when you really want the heating to work at its best. the rest of the time, they seem to be pretty reliable and green. So IF they were a massive success and we all installed one, the electricity grid would immediately over load as we all tried to heat our house with expensive electricity, during a cold snap. Failing that in Croydon they can just set their houses alight if it gets a bit nippy.

Also note Air source pumps provide a generally stable heat, so radiators don't get really hot. Anyone fitting them will need good insulation and some people MAY need new radiators.

 

[LamieRobertson]

I’ll be replacing my ‘traditional’ boiler in 2034 and hoping it’ll see me out (of course things might change between now and then)

 

[Neville's Breakfast]

Or put another way he is just saying that this will not be a compulsory scheme.

 

[rippleman]

Related to this, I'd literally never heard of a heat pump before my dog walk this morning when, for the 45 minutes I was out, it was the only thing discussed on 5Live.

In brief it sounded like someone would need to dig up my garden and put something under there, replace almost all the heating stuff in my house at pretty significant expense, with a post-installation grant only making a small dent in the outlay.

In return I'd then have a heating system that I can't really control and may not be all that good.

I'll confess, I wasn't immediately sold on the idea.

And therein lies the heart of the issue. All the eco friendly options are horrendously expensive. The government will have to drive down the costs of purchase and installation of the alternative boiler systems before anybody is going to get that excited.

 

[Fungus]

Or put another way he is just saying that this will not be a compulsory scheme.

... which he could have simply said.

 

[Fungus]

Strongly suspect that this initiative will run out of, er, steam, a bit like the Green Homes Grant introduced a year ago that sank under the weight of red tape and inadequate funding

Yeah, we did successfully get cavity wall insulation from that, but the local council and installation company really struggled with red tape.

 

[Titanic]

... which he could have simply said.

but then you wouldn't have been talking about it.

 

[Billy the Fish]

Yes, let’s deride the environmental movement as a comedy hippie-paramilitary organisation. What an absolute w@nker.

To be fair that's exactly what they've turned themselves into in the last month by sitting in the roads and blocking traffic. They've allowed Boris to undermine them by acting like tossers!

Boris again proving what a good communicator he is, that comment will chime with anyone who's against the road sitters while simultaneously triggering all the Labour/Lib Dem.Green types.

 

[Neville's Breakfast]

... which he could have simply said.

Yup

 

[CheeseRolls]

And therein lies the heart of the issue. All the eco friendly options are horrendously expensive. The government will have to drive down the costs of purchase and installation of the alternative boiler systems before anybody is going to get that excited.

We moan so much about our politicians and yet expect so little from them.

They need to get this technology out there to bring down the price. It is not competitive for the majority of people who are connected to the gas mains today. That still leaves a huge number of people in rural areas and ALL of Northern Ireland, who are using expensive and dirty oil to heat their houses. If the pilot schemes focussed on providing these people with a clean low running cost alternative, that didn't need a sodding big flammable tank sitting in their garden, the scheme MIGHT just be a success.

No lets have our supposedly educated prime minister play the clown again.

 

[SIMMO SAYS]

As an ex Plumbing & Heating engineer with 44 years experience, I suggest buying Albion Winter Coats for your whole family.
I'm not joking.

 

[Billy the Fish]

That is a ground sourced heat pump you have described. They are pretty bloody clever, reliable and cheap to run, just expensive and disruptive to retrofit. You need to have an intestinal arrangement of water pipes buried in your garden, which also needs to be reasonably big.

An air source pump is just a humming box on the outside of your house, that works like a reverse fridge. They don't work very well below freezing, which is surely when you really want the heating to work at its best. the rest of the time, they seem to be pretty reliable and green. So IF they were a massive success and we all installed one, the electricity grid would immediately over load as we all tried to heat our house with expensive electricity, during a cold snap. Failing that in Croydon they can just set their houses alight if it gets a bit nippy.

Also note Air source pumps provide a generally stable heat, so radiators don't get really hot. Anyone fitting them will need good insulation and some people MAY need new radiators.

I had one installed at my house in the summer, a Mitsubishi Ecodan, it's been pretty good so far but as you say the acid test will be once temperatures really drop in January and February. The rads don't get as hot, but you just leave them running for longer.

There's no gas where I live so in my situation it was worth the effort because we were renovating anyway so had the opportunity to install the pipework and rads. We only had electric before which will never be as good.

 

[Billy the Fish]

Explanation on ASHP by the ladies favourite, George "I'm going to bankrupt you" Clarke

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8nvnAyZk4o

 

[CheeseRolls]

I had one installed at my house in the summer, a Mitsubishi Ecodan, it's been pretty good so far but as you say the acid test will be once temperatures really drop in January and February. The rads don't get as hot, but you just leave them running for longer.

There's no gas where I live so in my situation it was worth the effort because we were renovating anyway so had the opportunity to install the pipework and rads. We only had electric before which will never be as good.

As I understand it they do stop working, just below zero. Is that what you have been told? Do you just revert to electric at that point?

 

[Fungus]

To be fair that's exactly what they've turned themselves into in the last month by sitting in the roads and blocking traffic. They've allowed Boris to undermine them by acting like tossers!

Boris again proving what a good communicator he is, that comment will chime with anyone who's against the road sitters while simultaneously triggering all the Labour/Lib Dem.Green types.

But most people who want positive change aren't in that group of protesters, are they?I

It was unnecessarily divisive comment from our leader.