What are retrofit options for someone with 90-100m² ‘hard to treat’ home, concerned about rising gas prices and the planet? Installing a heat pump is single largest measure for lowering the carbon footprint, but how soon to fit one on retrofit journey? #retrofit #heatpumps 1/
Doing nothing on fabric or gas means bills will escalate
and there is a serious risk that such a home will have lower resale value in the future. By starting to think about retrofit, home owners might do things they have put off for years, like clearing the loft. /2
Getting off gas early prioritises planet, without bills needing to rise.
Install ASHP early alongside
Limited fabric measures, such as loft insulation to modern std; seals / brushes for doors / sash windows for drafts (and cavity wall insulation added if applicable) 3/
Further pragmatic fabric measures lower heat demand and bills
Install slightly cheaper ASHP alongside
Pragmatic window measures and for one or two rooms, additional measures for cold walls or floors where possible and might add localised MVHR
4/
More fabric measures reduce bills, but can delay getting off gas

Install ASHP late after

Extensive and often disruptive retrofit measures to many rooms, including Double or triple glazed new windows throughout and Insulation for some floors and walls & extensive MVHR. 5/
Further fabric measures very difficult to justify

Install ASHP very late

Extensive/disruptive project such as (often inapplicable to older houses)

Removing problematic fabric & replacing with energy efficient materials for walls, floors and windows. External cladding etc. 6/
For those wanting to get off gas and do pragmatic retrofit, so the bills stay about the same, then options B or C are best. Striving for deep retrofit will take years for most householders and is not without risks because fabric skills very difficult to scale-up 7/
I would argue, scaling up a heat pump industry is far easier than a PAS2035/PAS2030 compliant fabric industry.

Too often the fabric measures are discussed without the practicalities associated with disruption, and cost. 7/7
On the 'without bills needing to rise' (after fitting ASHP) - this may surprise many who have succumbed to the many myths around heat pumps (and esp. ASHPs) - here is the explanation of why …

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More from @EssaysConcern

4 Nov
The EPC tool produced by Elmhurst @consultancy_elm and others makes no provision for larger properties using cascade heat pumps for larger properties. In fact, it only allows for very basic system specn.(such Air to Water, Air to Air, etc.). @BRE_Group 1/
Contrasting with gas boilers, where it allows the surveyor to specify the precise model being used on the SAP database.

It results in ludicrously high bill estimates for larger properties, because they are still assuming you are only using one heat pump that can’t cope. 2/
Hence the energy demand can’t be met a single heat pump and the flawed 'algorithm' appears to assume that the rest is delivered by direct electricity at a SCOP of 1:1. Instead of the reality (bills coming down) it massively inflates the projected running costs. 3/
Read 4 tweets
14 Jul
Soil carbon is important but it is staggering that both Minette Batters and Prince Charles have made unchallenged statements on @BBCr4today : That some farms are already carbon neutral and that soils could take up 70% of the world's emissions 1/
This is all in an effort to promote sustainable livestock farming. Like Graham Harvey in his book ‘Grass-Fed Nation’ they have been seduced by the claims of Allan Savory; but these have been thoroughly debunked by the Food Climate Research Network
oxfordmartin.ox.ac.uk/downloads/repo… 2/
The fallacy rests on a confusion between fast and slow carbon cycles, between carbon stocks and flows, which with a little bit of naive maths creates a myth that now permeates the NFU’s PR on the future of farming. We need better soil health to stop carbon release … 3/
Read 6 tweets
6 Aug 20
@mskathleenquinn I have never made it there and maybe never will, but nuclear weapons changed my life in different way. In 1981, Professor Mike Pentz, who led the formation of the OU science department, founded Scientists Against Nuclear Arms (SANA). I was at Bristol Uni. doing a Post Doc. 1/
@mskathleenquinn I went to hear him speak. What an amazing speaker he was; I signed up on the spot. Within a months it seemed I was on the National Coordinating Committee. It kind of killed my passion for science, something I'd been in love with since a young boy. I left research 2/
@mskathleenquinn I went into the world of industry and in my spare time spent a lot of the 80s working in the background helping to develop tools for the anti-nuclear movement (like a Program to assess impact of nuclear attacks run on an Amstrad PCW 8256, given free to local authorities). 3/
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19 Nov 19
@pmbbiggsy @RHarrabin @James_BG @ECIU_UK @CraigBennett3 @tom_burke_47 @CarbonBrief @hmtreasury Some people really need to 'keep up' ...
Climate Models all began with Newton, with other branches entering the fray as science emerged in succeeding 300 years (incomplete list)

1728 - Newton’s Principia published in English (discrete mechanics) 1/
@pmbbiggsy @RHarrabin @James_BG @ECIU_UK @CraigBennett3 @tom_burke_47 @CarbonBrief @hmtreasury 1738 - Daniel Bernoulli publishes “Hydrodynamics” (continuous mechanics)
1757 - Euler publishes partial differential equations that apply to fluids
1800 - Herschel discovers ‘radiant heat’ in spectrum
1827 - Fourier published paper proposing what we now call greenhouse effect 2/
@pmbbiggsy @RHarrabin @James_BG @ECIU_UK @CraigBennett3 @tom_burke_47 @CarbonBrief @hmtreasury 1836 - Agassiz coins term “Ice Ages”
1840 - Navier-Stokes equations publ’d (extending Euler), ubiquitous in fluid dynamics, utility beyond doubt and btw used in climate models
1850 - Alexander von Humboldt publishes ‘Views of Nature’ 3/
Read 12 tweets
15 Oct 19
@RHarrabin @GSmeeton @Policy_Connect Roger, did you really imply today on @BBCNews bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0… that heat pumps "were not very well developed"? The sadly departed Prof. David Mackay wrote in 2009 "heat pumps are already widely used in continental Europe, but strangely rare in Britain.” … I wonder why? 1/
@RHarrabin @GSmeeton @Policy_Connect @BBCNews He continued to explain that if you took the gas used in a home boiler, sent it to a gas fired power station then used the electricity to run a heat pump, the heat pump would be more efficient and hence lower in carbon foot print, p. 151:- 2/
@RHarrabin @GSmeeton @Policy_Connect @BBCNews It is frankly infuriating that not only you but also @theCCCuk are talking up hydrogen as a fuel when air-sourced heat pumps (note: not just ground sourced btw) are a proven, available technology. I wrote about it here essaysconcerning.com/2019/09/07/ren… 3/3
Read 4 tweets
25 Sep 19
@James_BG Why do you not mention Heat Pumps Kames. This is crazy. HPs worked during beast from east if sized properly. Are we really going to have a H2 n/w (by 2030?!) to deal with treble beast from east? It's very simple: rollout HPs NOW, and aggressively decarbonise electricity. 1/
@James_BG It is troubling that the ignorance about Heat Pumps is so widespread, extending to BBC. It is tech. available now, and Prof. Mackay deserves a re-read for those who don't understand them. Here's an essay on myths re. Solar PV and Heat Pumps. essaysconcerning.com/2019/09/07/ren… 2/
@James_BG Currently, domestic Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs) contain a bug because they NEVER recommend a Heat Pump even though evidence shows it works. We do not need gas or H2 as backup. In Sweden or Yorkshire!! Evidence: yorkshireenergysystems.co.uk/epcandheatpump… 3/3
Read 4 tweets

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