Відео

Hello Mohandeva! Would love to understand more about what you think is brainwashing?

@@TomBray-LowCarbonLifestylecorrect Tom. Thanks for putting people like Mohamed straight. Disinformation by the fossil fuel industry has affected a large portion of society. But, we can overcome both them and the challenges we face. Octopus are an excellent example.

Thanks for engaging with the video - the finances are nuanced, and every situation would be different. Over the last few years people have been really interested in how much the heat pump costs to run which is why i include that detail in videos, but I think it is a poor way of thinking about a heat pump investment. People often spend lots of money on new sofas, new car, new kitchen / bathroom, holiday etc etc without a payback or financial analysis. A heat pump can improve comfort, improve air quality, contribute to climate action and could reduce heating costs, but it won’t have a payback that is particularly attractive. Just for clarity, after the boiler upgrade scheme grant costs are more likely to be £5-6k for a heat pump. Thanks Tom

Fair enough!

Hi Joseph, is there something specifically you don’t like about the video? Tom

Some countries are fortunate enough to have access to base load renewables as well. Here in Scotland for example we produce roughly 12% equivalent of our electricity demand from hydro power, inc pumped storage. This figure is far higher in Norway and Iceland has an abundance of geothermal. It’s debatable whether geothermal will take off, but no reason at this stage to believe it definitely won’t. We shouldn’t think in terms of all renewables shutting down at any point - they’re not **that** intermittent. When there’s no wind in Norfolk, it can be blowing a hooly in North Uist for example, plus it’s very handy that when energy from solar is at its lowest (at night) that’s when we need it least. There’s no reason to believe there will ever be periods where there’s no power being generated from renewables.

Hi Nick - thanks for your detailed post, lots of helpful points in there! The conversation is quite nuanced as you outline and I think we are in agreement that all this is possible, with a bit of thought and engineering competence! Thanks for engaging with the video so thoughtfully. And yes! I am on LinkedIn - Tom Bray, Senior Energy Manager at Durham University - do reach out Tom

Hi David - I don’t share your pessimism! But thanks for engaging with the video Tom

Ooo interesting idea! There may well be lots of small projects like that around the country Thanks for engaging with the video Tom

Hi Eric, yes there has been a lot of analysis on the land take required - this is a good summary from Carbon Brief - www.carbonbrief.org/factcheck-is-solar-power-a-threat-to-uk-farmland/. I find the comparison with Golf Courses very... interesting! I think Nuclear plays a role in the future energy system, maybe small modular reactors could be constructed more quickly than traditional nuclear. I think focus in the UK needs to be on wind (plus tidal and solar to a lesser extent). We have amazing wind resources and much cheaper to construct. Tom

That is a fair point, I know there are a number of V2G trials at the moment so that will give some insight into the impact on batteries. What I would say is that my understanding is that they would deliver small amounts of power when required, this should not put a huge load on a battery (other than adding to a charge discharge cycle of a battery) Something for the future... maybe!

Yeah I am not sure of the history of privatising the DNOs, but we have one set of wires! Not sure why they should be private companies, maybe there is incentive through regulation for them to perform well rather than just profit. There is some competition on 'contestable work' but my experience is that the DNO tends to be preferred to reduce number of contractors on a project. Thanks for engaging with the video!

It depends on what metric you use I guess. If we look at www.degreedays.net/# at my local weather station, in winter 21/22 (Nov-March) there were 1434 degree days, 22/23 = 1489, 23/24 =1471. Degree days give a metric of how long and how far below a certain point the temperature was, so therefore how much heat was needed. This year, slightly less heat needed than the year before, which was quite a bit more than the year before that. It may be that the last three winters have been warm, although the met office said this January was 0.1°C lower than the long term average. Anyway... yes weather impacts on performance of a heat pump, I have done some videos specifically about heat pump performance over winter here for January - ua-cam.com/video/GmsMV6ApwO4/v-deo.html and here for the whole of winter - ua-cam.com/video/FnVsfbL4owQ/v-deo.html If we have a particularly cold winter, heat pump performance will drop, maybe by 10% (my estimate) but all dependent on temperature Tom

Some helpful points, thanks Philip! I often say the engineering / technical challenge is fairly easy, but the change / people challenge is hard!

Ha! Absolutely agree! No jumping up at strangers or sleeping on the sofa

100% agree

Hi Tony, thanks for your thoughts, I would question the point about poor performance, our heat pump is working fine, performing well! Yes we need a nationwide retrofit program, but if we need a step change in emissions, then we can't wait for that to start. For a few reasons, I think Geothermal projects will have a limited scope in the UK. There will be some in the next 5-10 years, but I think taking heat from the air will be the quicker, cheaper and simpler solution of decarbonising heat Thansk Tom

@@TomBray-LowCarbonLifestyle I don't mean they don't work, but if you want a high COP you have to have it on more when you are not in the house because they are more power limited, if you want to remain in a the 3x territory. I'm sure your house is comfortable, and its probably cheaper to run that your old system because you have upgraded the insulation, allowed a lower operating temperature with larger pipes etc. I am saying they are not demonstrated as any more "efficient" than a resistive heater. They might be but I think the payback justification period is longer than the life of the heat pump, and probably cost more over that period, Remember COP is not "efficiency". They are always compared against gas heating in a thermally poor house and then take the benefits of insulation and lower operating temperature as benefits of a heat pump, this is a lie. The characteristics and comparisons are always carefully chosen to show a benefit, but if you are an Engineer all you see is invalid comparisons. Great your running cost might be lower excluding the price of the equipment, but when you add that in it doesn't look so good. They also mix in hot water heating in the summer, that you could do using a thermal solar panel. Resistive heaters cost practically nothing, and give the same energy output at -20C outside as they do at 30C.

@@tonystanley5337 Hi Tony, I have not upgraded insulation as part of heat pump installation or after so I am comparing directly with our old system in my videos. I am unsure what you mean by efficiency... fundamentally a resistive heater is only 100% efficient. A poor performing heat pump would be 250% efficient, most would be well over 300% efficient... If you using the word efficiency as analogous to payback, then we are talking about different things, and I will often make the point that heat pumps will have a very long pay back, and without policy change are not a financial investment but a lifestyle choice (like a new sofa, new kitchen, new car, holiday etc). It does sound like you are suggesting my videos are trying to mislead people, which I object to. I am reporting what I have experienced. I am a chartered engineer. Yes a heat pump provides hot water in the summer. We could not host solar thermal panels on our 1870s roof. Resistive heaters cost very little to install but running costs are very high. I am not sure what point you are trying to make in your comments but to clarify - heat pumps can be expensive to install but there is a grant to help, heat pumps can reduce running costs, the main reason to install heat pumps is to reduce emissions but they can also improve comfort, heat pumps do not require insulation upgrades to be installed, I attempt to make objective videos about my experience to help others understand how they could use technology to decarbonise their homes. Thanks for engaging with the video Tom

@@TomBray-LowCarbonLifestyle As a chartered engineer (assuming mechanical or electrical) you should know the definition of efficiency. Maybe other types are not dealing with energy as much and don't know. Efficiency=wanted energy/total energy input. The energy you count as positive for COP is not always positive (or wanted) for efficiency, when you are not in the house. If you are in all the time and need to run your heating 24/7 then fair enough, but I at least turn mine off when we are sleeping and when we goto work leaving an unoccupied house with no heating requirements. As I already said you may well have a lower running compared to your old system, but what would be the total costs over the life of the equipment when compared with a resistive heater? You can buy alot of units for alot of years for £15-20,000. There is no way the majority of the UK can afford that, there are 30million homes. This is why the grant are limited to a fixed number of installs. A normal heat pump not designed for High COP could would typically be operating close to a cop of 1 with a 50C temperature difference. All you are doing by increasing the COP is increasing the amount of time you have to run it for. Now it still might be beneficial or payback in a reasonable time, I just haven't seen any evidence of it. Roughly a normal occupancy pattern is 1/3 occupied 2/3 unoccupied, so the COP of 3 is roughly equal to using a resistive heater.

Thanks for sharing that podcast - very helpful. In terms of dates, I guess there are 100s of projects that need to happen simultaneously and will be finished at different times. Thanks Tom

Absolutely! A stat in my head (that is probably wrong but bare with me...) is that 14% of global fossil fuel use is moving fossil fuels.... if we stop using fossil fuels, we get multiplier effects of saving on energy in processing, and transporting them, as well as the efficiency gains of better technology. Thanks Philip and AI for your input!

It's not how much the temperature changes, it's how fast it changes, usually the climate would take hundreds of thousands, up to millions of years, to change, so the ecosystem has time to evolve and adapt, but human caused climate change is happening in a few hundred years, the ecosystem won't be able to adapt quick enough and will collapse, unless we stop destroying it

Hi Andrew - what Karl said is absolutely right. And I would add - the pace of change which could be increasing the risk of extreme weather events, such as those we have seen in Valencia this week, in Eastern Europe back in September. There have been lots of cycles of warming and cooling that have occurred naturally in the past, but rarely (never) at the pace we have seen in the last 20-30-40 years. We really need to spend less time questioning the science and start transitioning away from a clearly damaging industry and economy we currently live in. Tom

Thanks Stephen, I think new nuclear energy has a role, albeit limited, in a future energy scenario. Small scale PV, is definitely helpful in reducing load on the grid. But again, an imperfect solution in the UK!

Yeah I think you are right, how little would we be happy with is an interesting question...?!

Similar to me!

I think the savings rate for the first year has been set to help the co-op build up some reservices, and is based on a market price of around 6.3p. If the price is higher, then yes, we would expect to see higher savings Tom

Hi Max, thanks for engaging with the video, sorry that you found it confusing. Your test is interesting but without adding in energy data, it wouldn't show much about efficiency of the system or costs etc. Heat pump central heating can be switched off, but it is more efficient if it is run for long periods adding small amounts of heat, this is actually true with a gas boiler too if it was set up correctly, the quick warming up of your home suggests the radiator temperature is high and would be more efficient if it was lower. Heat pumps also switch on and off as the thermostat dictates. The issue with gas boilers is that they poison our air and contribute to climate change. Thanks for pointing to the skill builder video, we should also share more recent videos about their conversation with 'Heat Geek' where a lot of the misinformation Roger Bisby shared is debunked... links here... ua-cam.com/video/fFpxiprcRfY/v-deo.html ua-cam.com/video/XCMaup9Eosw/v-deo.htmlsi=s7CBkVSSUfYVc7yd All the best! Tom

Absolutely, if I said otherwise that was a mistake. I think I talked about energy being stored in fossil fuels being turned into useful work in a boiler or internal combustion engine, or energy being generated and distributed through electricity cables... did I say something else?

Thanks for commenting, it helps other people find the video! Would be thrilled to see your evidence that man made climate change is based on poor science...?

Venus is a boiling hellhole, because it has excessive co2 in its atmosphere, co2 is a greenhouse gas which prevents heat from radiating away from the planet, which causes a runaway greenhouse effect, leading to extreme temperatures, this is what will happen on Earth if we keep spewing co2 into our atmosphere, it will become too hot for life and humanity will be gone

Hello! Our system cost £11k to install, which would have been £3.5k after the grant. If we got a loan for that at 7% interest (£245 per year) we could pay it off with about £160 per month repayments in two years. But I’m no financial advisor! Yes we were very fortunate to have this installed for free, which is one of the reasons why I try to help others navigate the process. I haven’t kept this a secret! People often make big purchases with loans or savings without a financial return - sofa, new car, new kitchen / bathroom, holiday. A heat pump can improve comfort, reduce emissions and could give some savings Tom

Good shout - I’ll link in the description!

Hi Stephen, I don't follow all your argument, as in the UK we have several months where PV generation is very low, we will need other forms of low carbon generation too. But your point about vehicles and how they could potentially be used for good when parked is very valid! Tom

@TomBray-LowCarbonLifestyle I started with Australia because it is simple compared to the UK. I live in Sydney. And 80% of the world's population live in warm latitudes. And latitudes are warming. Nuclear promoters here have an 'ancient' dream of nuclear in the sunniest continent on the planet. And from an engineer point of view, wrong or dishonest. Cold latitudes solutions are wrong for warm latitudes. Nuclear will have a cashflow problem when the sunshines and V2G EV and rooftop PV get cheaper. This matter should be addressed. Google the following: One nuclear plant could see 45,000 rooftop solar systems shut off each day Sophie Vorrath 22 July 2024 2:11 PM “This means the equivalent of an average of 45,000 Queensland household solar systems would need to be shut off every day. We would be shutting off cheap energy, like people’s rooftop solar, to allow expensive nuclear power to run... Just my thoughts

Like it! Simple and useful, with heat being the big challenge, it makes sense to use intermittent electricity to make. I wonder whether there is a case to add a heat pump to the process rather than ‘toaster’ wire…? Multiplying the heat in would be valuable (although probably lower temperatures) Thanks for sharing Tom

@TomBray-LowCarbonLifestyle my engineer mind thinks that minimal mechanical fan vs. the heatpump machinery and its costs, Rondo will be dirt cheap and compact. 5 times smaller than hot water heat storage. A small ft³ Rondo box could be in the bathroom and instantly heat your shower water or bath hot tap water or hot water to the sink. Basically, dirt cheap compact technology has a small footprint for the home. Hotwater at the tap means that the heater is close to the tap. And a number of heaters to each room needing Hotwater Or the Hotwater is constantly circulated, and heat is lost. Or the stored hot water cools and is regularly reheated. Etc. Home Rondo is still in the future I hope.

👍 biggest shareholder, CEO and Chairman. A bit more nuanced than just calling him owner like I did in the video… apologies!

kWh of storage. kW is a unit of power, not amount of energy

It’s an impressive vision isn’t it… parked cars made useful to support the energy transition. A stat I have read suggests that cars are stationary for more than 95% of the time… so much potential for good!!

Imagine if these cars also had PV on their roof, or if the cars were under a PV parking garage .

Absolutely! Deindustrialisation as well as efficiency standards has already made a big difference. At some point that trend will reverse

Why do you think ​​⁠the trend will reverse? There doesn’t appear to be any signs of it doing so, and most of the new uses of electricity can use cheap off-peak electricity, so peak demand is not going to increase without significant changes to our power usage. We have plenty of electricity reductions to come, for example,use of EVs means no need for petrol pumps.@@TomBray-LowCarbonLifestyle

@@nigels.6051 EVs and heat pumps will use more electricity.

@@bobgriffin316 refining less oil will use less electricity. In 2023 and everage if about 900MW (7-8twh for the year) was used in the UK by oil refineries

@@bobgriffin316 refining less oil will use less electricity. In 2023 and everage if about 900MW (7-8twh for the year) was used in the UK by oil refineries

How much generation and transmission will be needed for Electric Arc Furnaces and AI centres National grid cannot supply the 50% of present generation just to EAFs and AI. The change will come when the Contract for Difference and constraint payments are paid to gas stations for peaking. Renewables will have to be decoupled from fossil fuels. What was not mentioned was the social upheaval, the job losses from shutting down the heavy industries. Even if EAFs are built, will it be too late to go back to steel production from Asian imports. Cement works, fertiliser factories, bio mass generation, Legacy vehicle building. Job losses will happen, to coin a phrase, on an industrial scale.

Thanks Paul, helpful point that change has always happened. But yes, the increase in power requirements for things like AI does risk progress elsewhere.

@@robindumpleton3742 thanks for commenting Robin, absolutely the change to come is going to mean disruption to the status quo, and we should be adopting policy like the Green New Deal to ensure that good jobs are transitioned into low emissions industry - I find this video helpful - ua-cam.com/video/d9uTH0iprVQ/v-deo.html We have a choice to deliver that social upheaval sensitively. If we don't and we dont reduce the risk of climate change, we would have social upheaval in a different and potentially more impactful way. Job losses on a natural disaster scale. Thanks Tom

@@robindumpleton3742Production might move from China to Europe as robots become better. It will then be just as cheap to make things here rather than China. It won't employ so many people but at least we will make our own goods more as time goes on. It will be good for our economy. Everyone can work fewer hours as there is less work for people to do.

I guess key thing to remember is that there are multiple cables heading to a range of places. Yes sabotage is a risk but so is climate change

Very true - free miles! And with products like those from ‘my energi’ that would only charge when sun shines, the load on the grid could be minimised Tom

I'm all electric with 2 EVs on single phase , when octopus give me free electricity it hard to use 100A . But we only have 1 charger as you dont need to charge that often unless you drive 100+ miles a day.

I have a heat pump, home battery and EV charger on a single phase supply with an 80A fuse. No problem.

I have a heat pump, EV on a 100A fuse. All single phase and no issue whatsoever. I even fill time shifting batteries during the cheap rate window. Three phase is ok for industrial usage but unnecessary otherwise.

+1 to say 2 EVs, heatpump and storage battery, all electric cooking as well - have never got close to the 100A limit.

Let's concentrate on unlooping properties on looped supplies first. I think the only properties that might regularly hit that 100A limit would be if you were charging two cars, or running a large heat pump and charging a house battery. You can set a grid limit on most good EV chargers to avoid hitting the 100A. I have set my Zappi grid limit to 80A and despite having a heat pump, house battery and running multiple appliances off-peak I have never gone much over 50A for any length of time even in the winter. I guess a property with maybe a 16kW heat pump, battery and EV might be pushing it but then a property of that size may well have 3 phase already and TBH if you can afford that lot you can probably afford to have 3 phase installed..

This is absolutely true. You've rightly drawn attention to a looooong list of stuff that looked implausibly hard before they came about. Seems bonkers that some people want to freeze progress. It appears to me those same people shouting that it can't and shouldn't be done tend to just be repeating Daily Fail rhetoric, who happen to be paid by fossil fuel producers to write sometimes subtle and often not-so-subtle propaganda to seed doubt in people's minds about technology that already has a very solid track record

Thanks so much for commenting this Alberto! It has put a smile on my face and a spring in my step. Just because something is challenging doesn't mean we can't or shouldn't do it!

Well said . Spot on. Societies that don't adapt and invest gradually fossilise and fall behind. We should always look forward and not dwell in the past.

So from the invention of the light bulb to the problem we seem to have today has not been because of progress?

To simplify a major infrastructure challenge. Does not make it achievable .

Good point replacing electic showers and night storage with heat pumps where appropriate could free up quite a bit of electrical capacity.

Correct, my 8kW electric shower is now consigned to history, as are the electric heaters I worked with over last Winter where my old gas boiler (not a combi') and 60 year old HWC (3kW immersion) had given up. Thereby reducing my demand on grid. Now sitting in a nice cosy house pulling 400-500W when HP (Daikin 6kW) enabled, which now is most of the time. Sadly for me, no access to home charging, so V2G not an option. But just sufficient local reasonable priced chargers available.

@@_Dougaldog V2G dose not have to be "home charging" dose it? Many hundreds of lamppost chargers in London now. Why in the future couldn't they g V2G? You get home at 6pm with 30kwh charge , and plug in overnight on a 5kw bi-directional lamppost. Your EV supports the grid for 2 hours and by 8pm you are down to a pre set minimum of 20kwh and have been paid 35p per kwh for doing so. Between 11pm and 5am you charge at 5kw for 10p per kwh, you now have 50kwh of charge. 20kwh more than you had at 6pm the night before for free.

Thanks Wayne and others who have commented, lots of good points, change and progress in many different places means we potentially use less power, and definitely use less energy. Thanks for commenting and sharing more thinking!

Only if it's fully charged when you want the power and you're happy to run the battery down to zero, so you've got to hope you don't have an emergency when you've run your battery down.