“The Fully Charged Community” is a very comforting concept. So good to have, in this channel, a source of rationality and progressive thinking. So true that in the UK, the barriers to stopping burning stuff and implementing available (and improving) technologies are becoming largely psychological. All the things we spoke of back in the 70s and earlier in regard to moving away from fossil fuels and autonomous/offgrid and community/local based solutions are now becoming a reality and an imperative. It’s so frustrating that politically, the UK is utterly off the rails and moving in the wrong direction. We should look to greater collaboration with our mainland European neighbours in finding solutions, not the reverse
Off-Grid living is being completely crushed by over-regulating Governments all over the world. They don´t want you living off of Nature in harmony with it, it makes it harder for them to control somebody if they are debt free, producing their own food and some clothing. They want people living in the Mega-Chicken Coops, pardon me, Smart Cities. I sound like a Tin Foil Hat guy talking but that´s the way all that´s been happening makes some sense. In my country (Portugal) they even require you to register your chickens (if you have more than 350). The policies and "Codes" are so derranged that it basically bans people from living in the hills. The forrests need people living in and arround them, people manage the dead wood and conservation of ib because they need it, thus reducing forrest fire hazzards and "for profit forrestry". I´ll shut my trap now... and, by the way, EU=USSR 2,0. There, I´ve said it...
The fossil fuel industry is not going to give-up without a fight. Because its all about money. Governments and politicians that support fossil fuels should be voted out.
@@Pedrombsantos which is why the Grid should be a government entity and definitely not a for profit organization. By nature it is a physical monopoly, and as such has no market forces to prevent profiteering harming the vendors, employees and consumers. The generation can be for profit, but the grid itself needs to be governmentally managed (of course helps if you actually have a benevolent representative government that makes decent decisions for the benefit of citizens) A centralized government owned grid could have incentive to encourage endpoint generation, reducing strain on the grid (reduce spending on grid expansion) and reducing the purchasing requirement from grid scale generators. A government owned grid can preferentially purchase from green grid scale generators. Or supplement green generation with high efficiency gas peeker plants and storage tech which has little financial incentive. The for profit grid is what is preventing wide scale adoption of green generation, endpoint generation, and because it is owned largely by the petroleum companies it also resists transition to EV.
@@rational_thinker00 ....and the oil industry isn't? The problem with critics of the brave new world we are entering is that they find fault that is obviously there but they have never bothered pointing it out for the previous technology where it is substantially worse. The perfect world is still some way off but we are getting towards it and I am loving where it is taking us. Incidentally, I am what you would call a petrol head. I have always loved my car and motorbikes and still do, they are just electric ones now to reduce my polution levels. I did a calculator recently to see how I was doing. It was a rudimentary thing only taking into consideration CO2 but my average is where we need to be to prevent things getting worse. I could reduce it further by ditching the car and/or eating less meat but I reckon if I'm at the level required then I shouldn't feel too guilty about actually living. My point is that I've not really made any sacrifices to get to this level, so why do so many people bleat on about it and refuse to do the blinking obvious?
Definitely happy to be a Patron of Full Charged. I initially joined so I could help to fund the production of high quality, entertaining and informative videos, but now it feels almost like a public service; this channel seems to be in the right place at the right time to help educate the nation on energy.
Ripple energy have the right idea. Instead of nationalising energy, each county/area should produce nearby as a co-op. Own and invest in your own energy, produced in your own area with the excess sold to the grid/heavy industry.
Yes yes yes 🙌 and ripple should expand to battery storage. I live in a Victorian terraced house like at least 5 million other people. Once you've insulated your roof you can't do anything else. So Ripple all the way.
Yes absolutely. I picked up a share to cover 50% off my energy usage earlier this year, and a couple of weeks later after the Ukraine conflict kicked off and it became apparent there could be long term impact from Russian energy dropping out of the equation I upped to 100%. I consider myself incredibly fortunate that I will have only 12 or so expensive months before my turbine removes my electricity bill for the next 25 years. However, I'm also very aware that its a classic example that those well enough off can help themselves out, whilst those unable to spare several thousand pounds may end up paying that directly on their bills instead.
We live in a brick built Edwardian semi and over the last few years I have slowly been adding extra insulation round the house. The difference you can feel is almost instant. When we first moved in there was no insulation at all in the loft, so that was the first thing we got done (under the last green energy deal). The next area needed was under our sitting room floor, which is suspended, and lastly I have nearly completed putting a circuit of insulation along the outside walls under the first floor with only one area to do. This has helped to keep as much heat within the building as possible . Lastly I've installed smart thermostats on nearly every radiator in the house. We do have a cavity but it's not insulated. If that is to be done, it needs to be done properly. I have heard and seen lots of horror stories about poorly done cavity wall insulation. Yes insulate your house well and you will feel the difference ( but don't forget to provide enough ventilation too!)
Can you quantify what the actual reduction in energy bills is?Professor David MacKay in his "reality check on renewables" said wall and loft insulation would reduce your bills by 25%. And he actually had got the "fluff men" in so I guess he knows what he's talking about. If you want Swedish levels on insulation you need insurance on the building exterior, good luck doing that on a Victorian semi. Or you completely got the house and install kingspan or such like. Done with great effect on a Glasgow tenement, £40,000 per flat. Multiply that by 10million for the UK... well it gives you an idea of the scale of the challenge. Screaming "INSULATE BRITAIN" and gluing yourself to some tarmac won't necessarily achieve this.
We don’t have a cavity so managed to get external insulation and render applied. As well as sealing up some draughts it’s cut our heating consumption by 1/3. Get that cavity filled!!
@@salibaba Indeed. You put the insulation on the outside which gave you a pretty decent heat saving. I myself don't have that option. I live in a flat. However I can cut my heating bills by simply grasping the thermostat and giving it a good yank to the left.
Great to see you being overtly political. What faces us over the coming months and years is potentially so horrific that staying silent is simply not an option. Well done, Fully Charged!
Think how we will feel when our kids are suffering in the future and ask us what we did to help. This is an emotive subject, but as you said, needs to be a focus priority. Would Robert run for Government?
"little to choose between the two candidates". I did hear someone else say it's like having to choose whether you want cat shit, or dog shit in your sandwich.
@@steveedwards5280 Corbyn's Labour 2017 and 2019 manifestoes had lots of really good stuff. Unfortunately, as has been revealed in the Forde Report (and feverishly swept under the carpet), the Labour right, who never considered Corbyn a legitimate party leader, diverted funds and otherwise sabotaged the 2017 campaign, potentially costing the margin of victory in what was an astonishingly close election (especially given that May had called the election with the expectation, commonly held, of dealing Labour a death-blow). Since then, of course, the Labour right with Starmer at the helm have purged Corbyn and anyone who supported or ever said a kind word about him, and brought the party back to the age of Blair and Brown. As an American, I recognize that party - it's our Democratic Party, of which you already have one - the LibDems - so why do the Labour right feel like they need to be another? Except of course that Labour took a spot in your duopoly after WWII and relegated the Liberals to the sidelines, while we've never had a working class party in power & so the people who might be able to build one have buried themselves in the Democrats instead. The difference being, even when Blair & Brown ran Labour, it was still, in its DNA and at its core, a working class party; whereas the Democratic Party, even at its most left under FDR and LBJ (with the New Deal and Great Society programs, respectively), was _never_ a working class party, but _only ever_ the element of the capitalist party that was willing to make a deal with the working class in order to keep them contained and constrained. Don't let Labour become like our Democratic Party. If it is still possible, it is _necessary_ for the working class to regain control of its party. If that's not possible anymore, the only other alternative is for the working class to build _another_ party for itself. That's where we're at in the USA, and while it's actually, technically, quite doable right now, it's _psychologically_ impossible because, as noted, the people & groups with the skill sets and other assets necessary to build one don't _see_ it as possible, and so they remain buried inside an enemy party, doing the only thing that party requires of them - to stay in, and not break out. *The working class needs its own party* one way or the other.
There's a Dutch external insulation called Enegiesprong, who will scan the outside of your house, manufacture the insulation off-site in a factory, then deliver it to site and crane it in etc.
I remember reading about the model Katie price. That her energy bill was £20000/month when bankrupt 2 years ago! She had the heating running 24/7/365 even when not home. It kinda speaks volumes to what's wrong with the country. People just paid the bill. Didn't make sensible long term choices about payback for insulation. Some insulation will pay for itself in under a year at current prices!
My issue with the Government providing handouts to British households to cover inflated energy bills is that it's our (tax payers) money. So whatever happens, British households pay for it. Instead, Government should be acting to reign in the BPs of the world.
Isn't that what Labour are proposing? The cost of their plan would be paid for by having an effective windfall tax on the likes of Shell & BP? At least that's my understanding of it.
@@keithhobbs1 Yep, pay the money "this end" to hold down the prices for the citizens and recover it at the other end when the BPs, Shells and Ineos's of the world get their profits.
@@keithhobbs1 That approach seems to make far more sense to me. When you have the likes of BP alone posting quarterly profits in the region of £7 billion while the country is seriously struggling, something is clearly significantly amiss.
Good to hear Robert not holding back! Also, I would love PV and batteries, but everytime you look it's companies that seem dodgy and it's hard to get simple quotes. It would be great to have a fully charged site that would put genuine people in touch with professional and competitively priced suppliers / installers ⚡👌🏻 The same goes for heat pumps.
Last year we were lucky enough to start a renovation of a Victorian detached house. We decided to really push our budget and externally insulate, put in solar, put in a heat pump and underfloor heating. These measures have more than doubled the cost of the renovation and we got zero help for the insulation. The solar is VAT reduced and the heat pump has a reasonable good grant to make it around the same as gas. I think the lack of support for insulating your property is madness.
Great discussion Fully Charged team. We can't wait to see you here in Australia for Fully Charged Live in 2023. So much is finally changing here with a change of federal government and now support for renewables and the transition to EV's but a long way to go. A suggestion for the new programs on efficient heating and cooling products for the UK might be a review of reverse cycle inverter Air conditioning units. eg: split systems. Really popular in OZ and the right sized system is cheaper to run than any gas heating.They cool in summer and heat in winter and with solar and batteries on homes could be a winner. Seeing the UK seems to be unfortunately joining Australia's hot summers and droughts these kind of cooling and heating systems might really work. Just a thought.
Over the last 5 years I've done about a dozen projects on my house to make it ready for expensive energy. 7.8kw solar 12kwh battery storage are the obvious. But super insulating exterior walls by replacing them with celotex, expanding foam and insulated plasterboard. To take my home from a D to maybe an A or B. Adding a AC heat pump. A wood burner. I've detailed some in my own videos if you want to click my profile. Would be very interested to have Dan or Robert visit. You should do a Grand Design style visit to see the homes of what people have done I think to give ideas.
That sounds like a great idea for a series of Fully Charged shows. The Houses of The EV Fans of Fully Charged. I'd definitely watch all of them, and I know there's millions of people on UA-cam who love home renovation type builds. You could intersperse a persons journey from old type house to a fully renewable home, with updates in each episode.
I bought near 3k worth of superwrap and tacked it to all my exterior ceilings , i can now keep an upstairs room warm on just a PC running and the silver ceilings work well with lighting . I have stopped using my wood burner too and just create wood heaps for wildlife with what i used to burn . The increase in my health with no ash or smoke is well worth the loss. A couple of solar panels needed to charge my ebikes and I'm sorted . My hot water solar panels worked well until a severe frost split some pipes so awaiting to repair those .
@@autohmae Yes , but i went without holidays and cars and a telly even and illegally rented my bedrooms out and we slept in the living room , but yes i managed to own my own home . I have no idea how people on low wages like me can even get a foot in these days ! I had to lie on my self certification earnings to get my mortgage,,no chance doing that now . It was the last of my savings that was going on a real holiday i spent on the insulation . No regrets now except life is for living really and i think i put my family through hardships to `own `a home .
Honest and blunt about the current politics is great. We can't keep pandering to the delicate feelings of those that don't care. Wouldn't it be nice for any kind of incentive for smes? No overnight tariffs, nothing to get solar+battery installed. Would love to do that for my warehouse. Good demonstrator for the team that works there too. Keep it up!
A great show, thank you. I love you dearly Robert, never stop doing what you do, how you do it. But Dan has a great turn of phrase that is direct and to the point. You compliment each other perfectly. Do more of these.
What I have never understood is why is it SO HARD to decouple the price of electricity from the price of gas. I know this has long been acknowledged as being necessary & that it is being looked at, but it just never quite seems to happen. Energy bills would plummet in this country if the decoupling were to happen. This isn't to say that electricity generated using natural gas wouldn't remain hideously expensive, but an awful lot of load shifting would naturally occur as the public began to understand when renewable energy was plentiful; the use of the currently existing apps would proliferate to the point of being stratospheric in nature.
The UK still uses lots of natural gas for electricity so unfortunately that's a part of the equation. As you get more renewables every year, that share of the cost will drop.
@@udishomer5852 But surely it should be possible given the highly sophisticated software monitoring systems the National Grid has, to differentiate between types of generation and have prices adjust accordingly. I remember Fully Charged going to their control room & National Grid could see where the electricity was being generated at any given moment. Electricity pricing is granular where supply and demand is matched instantly - it's called the Spot Market.
@@MichaelGreenLagos So you prefer to pay even more for your electricity than you do now, both directly via energy bills & indirectly via taxation for huge subsidies & 24hr armed police guards? Then there's the 10,000 year+ ☢️ waste storage headache. And since nearly all UK ☢️ power plants have to be located at the coast, climate change exacerbated increases in storm frequency, intensity & sea level rise, pose not a small level of risk over the 30-50ish year life of the average plant. Since no magic wand exists to wish away faster than expected tipping points such the Greenland & Artic/Antarctic sea ice/land ice sheets collapsing far sooner than predicted, should that happen, as an island nation, the UK will be well & truly totaly fluffed. ☢️ power is THE most expensive form of electricity generation across-the-board.
People on minimum wage cannot hope to afford any of the solutions you spoke about. People on the average wage cannot hope to afford any of the solutions you spoke about. Upper middle income people and families cannot hope to afford any of the solutions you spoke about. Because of the costs involved, it would take 10-15 years minimum to recoup any benefit of adopting green tech. Basically, it's only worth adopting if somebody else will pay for it to be installed. That's not going to happen any time soon.
Living in a coastal village in the north east which has never been on the gas grid, I am always being told to insulate, to add heat pumps or solar panels. What is never addressed is the cost and how do I and other home owners afford it. We already have roof insulation, double glazing, proper thermally efficient doors. The next job according to the experts are insulating the walls. Many of the homes in the village do not have cavity walls, all pre 1930s homes, but even for those with cavity walls there is no one within 100 miles (we haven't looked further afield) offering to do cavity wall insulation. External wall insulation is viewed with doubt, experience close by of new homes is that the salt laden sea breezes got behind the insulation and caused severe damp issues in less than 2 years (I am sure that most of the problem was the builder doing a bad job). Currently for a terraced house the cost of internal wall insulation, including replastering and redecorating, is just over £10k - not many in the village have that sort of money lying around. As for solar panels and a battery, the lead time of that here is that if I ordered it today I might be able to have it installed in January... and the cost is c.£12k. One of neighbours is installing an ASHP, but he has a relatively modern house for the village - merely 60 years old! Should be interesting to see how much it saves him. One thing in the video I completely agree with is the need for genuinely independent experts to advise ordinary householders what will work best for their home - currently we seem to only have people who are trying to selling their own products and that is a recipe for being scammed
You can cut that bit!!!! (7mins) Love it! Thanks Robert for saying what, I for one, have been thinking! Just to add that watching Fully Charged Show gave me the confidence to buy a second-hand Nissan Leaf. First electric car for me and I am very pleased with both being able to go electric. Thanks.
I'll soon be getting an MG ZS EV Motability car. It should be cheap to run and great for local pollution but these cars are anything but good for the planet, even if we could supply enough green energy to run billions of them.
Here's a little help to keep warm & fed this winter. In case you missed my last post - Get a Hydroponics set up for indoor winter gardening with grow lights or tape an emergency blanket to a large piece of carboard with the reflective side out to redirect suns rays to plants & move as needed thru out the day / Put a tent in your livingroom to live in / sleep in to retain heat in a small area / drop plastic to keep a smaller area of home warm / 8 hr candles in a clean paint pail or similar can with terra cotta pot on top - I would put bricks around it to help stop anyone from bumping it. You'd have to figure out something else if you have small kids or playful pets / wrap copper tubing around stove pipe & drill holes to put tubing to other rooms for heat & wrap 1 around water pipe to stop pipes from freezing - & you may have to turn water on & off while soaping up in order to get enough warm water for a QUICK shower. God Bless Us All!
The government needs to claw back every penny of the Oil and gas companies windfall income and return it to the people forced to pay it. And they should be required to invest 100% of their profits in renewable energies.
Great discussion! It is just so frustrating how much resistance there still is against sustainable solutions. The two gentlemen are great. Imogen is just amazing!
In sunny Spain ... during the "construction boom " from 1997 - 2007 solar panels private and commercial were seldom added . Later bureaucracy obstructed individual solar installations for self consumption with the " solar tax " which existed from 2015 - 2018 . Now everything is different and the Megawatts installed increases from year to year ..... But how much time was wasted and as consumers the scenario in the present circumstances would be ....so different .
I’ve been saying it for years and will say it again; If you look back historically the most successful civilisations have been ones who have unlocked access to abundant and cheap energy, Victorians with coal, Americans with oil, Egyptians using the Nile, and right now in front of us we have the cheapest, cleanest energy around us, wind, solar, tidal, hydro. If we step out of the regressive oil industry methods we could the best civilisation on earth. Whoever does it first and fastest will attract businesses with cheap energy, create jobs, an amazing economy and most of all a nice place to live with clean air. 😊 Thanks Fully Charged Show!!! Amazing video! Kee ip the amazing work!
One thing I notice is that with Solar, people seem to think you need the big Home Panels & big battery for a solution that cost £3,000 to £12,000, I get it they are a lot better solution but most don't have that money. However there are Solar systems designed for Caravan in mind, which cost about £500 to £800 with battery that could be use to power a Room of your house.
Small systems have merit, but if you have the money, or the borrowing capacity, building a properly sized system, and battery pack now, will pay for it self given energy cost.
As a retired couple living off state pension and limited savings, we would very much like to have increased house insulation, solar panels and a power wall, heat pump, infrared heaters etc etc but at our age we are facing an uncertain future and are powerless to do anything about it. I subscribe to Fully Charged but it’s all a dream for us 😢
There are grants available if your income is less that £31,000 - what's your county council? They should have a scheme going funded by BEIS ... but need to register soon.
@@bambit08 thanks bambit08 live in Hampshire Barton on sea, New Forest council and our income is less than that. I will make some inquiries. Many thanks.
Excellent discussion! I was wondering about the name change and am so happy that you have decided to widen the scope of the channel and talk more about sustainability and home energy efficiency and alternatives. Looking forward to the future discussions . Thank you.
It's somewhat naive to simply say that energy production costs on renewable haven't changed. The reality is that almost all of the energy production prices are agreed for a set number of years well in advance. The government has granted a guaranteed, inflation linked price of £92.50 per megawatt hour for the electricity to be produced by Hinkley Point C. Compare this to the cost of offshore wind, which under a 2019 contract for difference auction, saw prices come in at £39.65 per megawatt hour. In addition to this approx 90% of our Gas is supplied from the North Sea with only 10% coming from other sources. To be clear the North Sea gas is pumped directly to the UK, there is no other destination and its in gaseous form, not liquefied gas so can't, easily, be sent/sold anywhere else. Fully Charged SHOULD be talking about the difference in consumer energy price costs that the UK is experiencing versus Germany who are 50% reliant on gas from Russia. You SHOULD be talking about the £10 BILLION that the Oil/Gas Industry receives every year from the UK Government in grants etc. You SHOULD be raising awareness of the financial penalties that will take affect in 2035 (currently £8 BILLION every year based on our CO2 emissions). You should be talking about the fact that the Windfall tax that has been applied to the Oil/Gas industry only took affect from June 2022 and that it can be reduced by upto 90% simply by those same companies investing in the same things that they were going to invest in already....... How about we talk about the "government help" that has already been announced, the fact that most of it ensures the money goes directly back to the Energy suppliers. If they invested that £10 Billion/year in installing Solar PV onto every house in the UK it would be approx £110 billion in total (circa 22million homes with £5k Solar PV cost) or the equivalent of 11 years of oil/gas subsidies. But that is never going to happen with a the Tory government as they are more than happy to let the fat cats of energy producers and suppliers make massive profits and pay "taxes" rather than actually helping the UK consumers. The current crisis can be traced back to the 1980's Thatcher Conservative government. In her effort to reduce the power of the unions, under a guise of free markets, they decided to privatize Energy and Water. Those things that are necessary for people to survive should NEVER have been privatized. Profits on the utilities are inconsistent with ensuring stable pricing and continued investment to improve services. Just look at what happened to the railway stock maintenance - the private firm, arising from the 80's, cut costs and jeopardized safety until the government had to step in an re-nationalize to ensure the continued running of the rail services and the safety of passengers.......
The supply of gas from U.K. waters is only around 50%, 30% comes from Norway and the rest is a mixture of LNG and some from the European inter-connector. Unfortunately gas is an internationally traded commodity so U.K. gas prices follow world prices.
The North Sea is criss crossed with pipelines sending gas to different countries. At this time, we are landing LNG in UK ports and then pumping it to Europe to fill their storage before the winter. We'd fill our storage too if it hadn't been closed down by the Tories.
I think everybody commenting here should use their actual name. It really bugs me that on social media it is all to easy for anybody to use a platform to slate governments (of any colour) and yet we have no idea what political agenda is behind the comments. And yes lots of governments have done a lot of bad things with regards to energy, often influenced by external parties be-it corporations or unions but continuing to go on about the past just helps polarise opinion when we actually need people to work together.
What ever you think about Boris, his government has put in place plans for a massive increase in offshore wind power (more than quadruple by 2030) and also onshore solar. They've also supported the creation of the battery factory in Blyth and other energy storage methods. Credit where credit's due. They've also steadfastly resisted the siren calls for fracking, to date. Indeed, it could be argued that they've been the greenest government we've ever had. It's too easy target them just because (in some cases) you despise the Tories. It's incredibly disappointing to hear the word "scum" used. To my mind, reducing the debate to that level is totally counterproductive.
@@trevorheley1045 in the uk we have a government that is openly flirting with making criticism of the UK government an offence, the reality, as much as you may choose not to see it, is that Britain is dealing with incipient fascism. Only a fool would deny the need for circumspection in Britain in 2022.
I'm 10 years younger than Robert, but still remember the panic surrounding the energy crisis in 1974. He remembers strings of cars outside petrol stations in Bath, but as I'd just moved to a new town with a lot of excellent public transport, I saw nothing of traffic queues outside petrol stations. Very few people bothered to own cars or seldom used them because there were buses and trains going everywhere. This current situation - however - is much, much different. Lately, my local council has cut bus services so they are unusable on Saturday, completely absent on Sunday, and unreliable the rest of the week. When they do run, I've just discovered fare prices have risen 50% to pre-pandemic prices. I only just learned to drive a (petrol) car in time to meet with the pandemic, but the cost of just a couple of gallons of petrol is eyewatering now. I'm not in any financial position to buy an EV, buy solar panels, or a wind turbine. All of that, the batteries, installation, the post-installation maintenance and battery replacement is just way out of our league. However, my family reviewed our energy needs back in April, before energy prices went up 30%. We cut back and actually 'reduced' our monthly energy bill by £10. When the latest price hikes were announced, we reviewed again, cut back again - and the government assistance payment covered all but £1.41 of our bill...phew! So we know now, we can afford to relax just a little bit. It was the just 'not knowing' that worried us most, not knowing how much more stuff we had to reduce/switch off permanently and how these would affect our bills. Now, of course, with everything still up in the air - bills no longer covered for 2 years, assistance now reduced to 6 months - we have to start thinking of what to do when April comes around (depending, of course, what the next PM plans to do... Doesn't it all just get on your wick?) Even if we could afford them, solar/wind turbine options with these fancy battery installations aren't the best for us: Scotland, clouds, high humidity, woodland, fusspot neighbours living to the south of us). We're looking to perhaps using the stream by the side of the garden to drive a mini turbine (there's no fish in the stream, so not a problem for wildlife). We've begun looking into how we might be able to put one together using bits and pieces and using it to charge a leisure battery or two.
I see Amazon have put 11,000 solar panels on their warehouse in Tilbury. It has created enough energy to power 700 houses they say. That being the case shouldn't we be looking to cover EVERY warehouse, barn, supermarket, fast food restaurant and every new build with solar panels?
Robert you are The Admirable Crichton and I take my hat off to you. Keep doing what you are doing and call out the bad decision making of our politicians. I have a solar PV array , a battery system , a Zappi charger for solar diversion to my EV and an earthing rod so I can run emergency circuits when I loose the grid earth. If a dustbin mans son like me can see the benefit of planning to ensure continuity of supply why did an Eaton educated Prime Minister give the goahead for our energy storage system (Rough storage system) to be shutdown . Keep educating Robert you have helped to educate me. We need to spread the word on the benefits for individuals and society as a whole for these new technologies. There is such a thing as society and we are all members of it. Apologies all. Well meaning rant over
Perhaps a practical, concise, well designed and readable guide for insulating and eliminating drafts in houses, perhaps 3 price brackets and a quick guide to implementing each item, e.g.: Low Cost: Foam core rods under skirting boards: ~£20-£40 (or free as newspaper), caulk gaps around windows and doors ~£15. Medium cost: Loft insulation ~£150-£300, interior external wall insulation via wooden frame and thermal foam boards High cost: Double/triple-glazed windows and doors with insulated frames from ~£2000, cavity wall insulation A similar set of guides for heating technologies, another for electricity generation
When I first came to Europe from the US to work for a t-shirt company I remember that the UK was the main market for short sleeve t's in WINTER. Imagine this coming from Spain where many in the Malaga region wore sweatshirts inside their homes in winter and my salespersons telling me people don't buy short sleeve t's except in spring and summer. I also remember going to meetings in London and having to open the windows at the hotel because if was too HOT. Lowering thermostats can save lots of energy and does not cost any money. Installing smart thermostats also help reduce cost while maintaining relative comfort. It is not only a matter of insulation which a thorough job will take a long time to plan, design and execute, besides the money, which will not help you this winter.
It happens in the States as well. People who wear tanks and shorts in the winter and sweaters in the summer when they set their thermostats too far in the wrong direction, rather than let it move some degrees with the season and wear seasonal clothing.
Yep that’s a good point …… after a few years off having my winter heating set on 18c constantly ( which itself was a slight drop it had to be 20c minimum for a year or two when my kids were babies) … this year due to cost I’m going to set it a tad lower …… I’m thinking 14c … why that …… it’s the average earth temperature! If flat gets colder then that then the heating will kick in … but being 4c colder then before the heating will come on less often for not as long …… also at that temperature if you get cold unlike with no heating on …it’s as you say a different item off clothing or a tiny amount off exercise (literally seconds) can get you warm enough easily.
@@discodavid26 For comfort I installed 3 years ago a Nest thermostat which ensures that it learns how long it takes to reach a temperature and set the heater on to be where set at a specific time. For me I like it cold my wife sometimes does. Between the Nest and some other adjustments makes a big difference. Plus, helps to also have efficient appliances such as heat pump water heaters and clothes dryers. In Spain electric rates are today CRAZY and with the new rates I don't yet know if heat pump heating, even with its great COP, is less expensive than gas - NUTS!
To give a perspective from outside the UK, I live in the Netherlands and subscribe to a green energy company. My monthly bill dropped €20 per month in August plus I had no bill in November at all. And then it just dropped another €20 per month for next year because my end of year "catch up" bill was negative for 2022. How? I have no solar panels or geothermal or wind turbines. I'm a renter. My house is powered by gas. But the amount of money my green energy company made in 2022 was so great that they were able to pay for gas for my house and pay me something back. This is not every house in the Netherlands. Some people are having horrible huge gas bills. But this is how you take advantage of green energy's low cost instead of how the US and UK are doing it.
But I can't get a air source heat pump grant as I haven't got double glazing the whole thing as a waste of time.. I can't get pv because there's no grant... I live in a rented property and there's not even an EPC for the property I live in.. house is heated by oil central heating which I cannot afford to buy.. 2-years ago it was as low as 25p averaging 40p now it's £1 a litre ..nevermind pay the electric bill what am I supposed to do... And I can't afford to pay the diesel bills, insurance road tax for my vehicle to get to work as I didn't budget for the massive increases.. every pound I earn immediately pay 20% in income tax to the government.. if I buy something they charge me with 20% vat...life sucks.. I think I'm going to go to my doctor saying I've had a nervous breakdown throw it all in let the government look after me... My landlord has put my rent up 43% in the last 3 years.. no one would have budgeted for this...It's like living in the dark ages.. all because of the greed of large companies and human beings. .. I'll probably just throw in the towel and get the government to provide me with accommodation and food. You sit there in your ivory towers.. say insulation is one cheapest solution.. yr living in cuckoo land.. just for me to buy 70 m² of PIR insulation for my property that I don't even own it would cost me £4,000 and that's not inc installation.. you really are not living in the real-world. This is how it is for normal people.. no one seems to get it !!!
Great show guys, What would be massively interesting is starting a directory of reputable system designers / installers that can design these systems, even if its on a homeowners plan to implement them over a few years. Or maybe this things exists? Keep up the good work.
Exactly my experience as well. I am left frustrated by a recent solar installation because I have been sold what they had to sell not necessarily what is best for my needs long term. The advice they gave on reflection was ‘need to know’ so they could sell me a system and I didn’t know any better. Only since then have I learned about what would be better and definitely would have been prepared to build up a complete system over time instead of getting an off the shelf one now. This week I contacted 6 ‘installers’ about expanding my array and adding batteries and one replied. There is a real lack of system designers vs sellers.
It is strange that for many months my energy company (Eon) has been telling me that MY electricity comes only from renewable sources. So why am I paying for it as if it were generated from gas?
Great and very rational discussion as always. What I would love to see being discussed is not only topics for today e.g. insulation and gas prices, but also those for the future. Big containerships burn through dirty diesel like there is no tomorrow and we believe the technology is not there yet to replace it with batteries or green hydrogen. We have all electric ferries, but not ocean crossing tankers. I'd love to see an episode looking at the big industries we have not tackled yet due to technology not being there yet, but how are we hoping to solve this in the future. How much does it cost to cross the ocean for a diesel powered container ship and what needs to happen to match and lower that price with green energy.
Presently there is no alternative technology to substitute Air and Sea transportation . Efforts should be focused for now - on those sectors that can be replaced with carbon neutral technologies and procedures .... Leave air and sea for last when the bulk of the carbon emissions have been reduced
A good introduction, but it is useful to have a bit of context when big numbers are being talked about to address the energy price crisis. In 2021, British households collectively spent around £30bn on their energy bills. In 2023 that figure is expected to be in the region of *£170bn*. Anyone who thinks the potential £100bn intervention by the government is going to sort the problem is going to be disappointed.
I triple insulated my roof and underfloor. Added a solar hot water system (- that provides ~75% of annual needs, with immersion backup off-peak). Installed a log burner and have free firewood for all space heating needs. Run my car on LPG (- which costs ~40% of the petrol cost). I've tried to set myself up for low cost fuel pricing. I haven't quite got to the electric car part though. :)
The average home owner only needs 4-5 hours worth of energy storage to avoid 80% of their bill. If you have 5 hours of storage that you can run off of during the peak demand period you are going to avoid the worst of all the energy prices. EVEN if you do not have solar or any generation capacity. With a smart inverter you can set if up to charge during the night and for it to take over the household loads during the peak. And 5kw rack mount LFP storage batteries can be had now for less than 1500.
A lucky person who now owns the semi detached house I renovated in Ambarrow Crescent has cavity brick walls that I had insulated with ICI foam insulation back in the late 1970s It also has a double glazed Velux window where the chimney used to be and double glazed french doors onto the back garden :) North sea gas was cheap back then so I used gas for central heating and cooking? Our car was a left hand drive Renault 4 that my wife brought over from France.
Really good to see these issues being discussed, looking forward to future episodes! I would love to see more discussion about what those of us who are renting can do. I live in a privately rented, very drafty, very energy inefficient basement flat and because I’m renting I’m very limited in what I can do with the property. Additionally landlord has zero interest in doing anything to improve the property from an energy efficiency perspective - including refusing to replace old wooden framed double doors at the rear of the flat that are so bowed a small gale blows through them on windy days 😣
Thank you for mentioning how important EDUCATION of the public is concerning the solutions for today's energy crises. And you folks are at the forefront of that extremely important effort.
A lot of the problems about getting governments to take energy seriously is all down to the fact that all these politicians are more concerned about not working with each other (even within the same party) for the collective good. Put simply where is the plan to be energy independent using sustainable energy and design that all the politicians back so that the people who have to deliver can get on with it rather than wait for the next U turn in policy. Iam trying to do my bit and also convince others so maybe that doing more actually costs less long term. We, and not some very dubious groups who normally have other agenda, have to do more.
In the US, central air for heating and cooling usually break every 8 to 10 years now. I found it cheaper to use window units. I have learned to buy the units made for infants/babies because they are so much quieter. A new brand has even come out, sold by Lows Hardware that gets a EER rating of 15. My electric bill is half in the summer now, its cheaper for the units and when the AC goes out, I can relie on the other units in the house and I don't bake for three days for the scheduled repairman to show up.
Your AC should have a 10 year warranty. So it shouldn't cost you anything to get it fixed. And they should last for about 20 years. As of next year the minimum SEER rating is 16 for new units, well in Canada anyway.
@@bubba842 When the company you bought it from disappears there is no warranty. They expect you to hire someone to come out every year and refill it at $300 a pop. I will never do central again.
Brilliant that you are doing the house stuff starting October.... Can I ask you one thing... Please please don't bang on about heat pumps, not all of us can afford them even with a grant and for some of us ( our family ) they won't work ( age of house ). So how about an episodes on 1) insulation, 2) solar, 3) batteries and invertors and the tech behind that, 4) other heating technologies, Sunamp, Mixergy, InfraRed radiators etc .....
I think a show on the actual cost of solar and battery installation would be helpful. I see adverts for 3.6kw solar and a 4.8 kwh battery installed from £11000. I know that is rip off, at those prices they are charging 7k just for the installation because the panels and battery are not that expensive. Let's make sure people are not being ripped of by solar salesmen like people were ripped off by double glazing salesmen.
It cost me £7500 for 5kw solar +5 KWH battery installed last year in Gloucestershire. Had 3 quotes all similar. Wonder if prices have increased because of increased demand and the high prices of energy.
Costs will vary wildly dependant on equipment quality/brands, availability, job complexity, access equipment (scaffolding) geographic location for installer availability and also local cost of living means a down south installer is bound to cost more than in the north.
Thanks for this episode. Can't see how Fully Charged can avoid discussion of the energy crisis becoming political, so it's good to see the presenters being honest about this. It seems to me that no matter which party is in power over the next few years, they will have to intervene in the market to avoid many many of our citizens freezing and/or starving, especially in winter. Assuming "no bungs" Truss becomes PM, she will have to pivot on this issue sooner or later, however the big question that I'd like to see politicians being forced to answer is who will pay the eventual bill for this. If it's the tax payer as was the case with the banking bailout, then I think things could turn very ugly. A wise government will find a way to extract the cost from the profits of the energy companies. Good to see the Fully Charged team making the distinction between the generators (mainly oil and gas companies) and the suppliers who most of us deal with. Many of the latter have gone bust as a result of this crisis while the profits of the former have generally improved massively. In terms of future programmes, I'd like the team to explain the way the energy market works in terms of paying the generators, because as I understand it the current 'marginal cost' arrangement in which all generators who end up supplying to the grid in each 30 minute period get paid the same as the most expensive generator who is actually needed to meet demand in that period. That suggests that renewable energy generators (whose costs are often the lowest of all) currently make vast profits due to the high cost of gas. I'd like to think that these profits are being re-invested in new turbines and solar farms, but perhaps this is naive! Please investigate. Another issue I'd like to see explored is the legislation around new-build houses. Having just returned from a brilliant holiday on Orkney, we were struck by how many new build homes there and on the Scottish mainland have heat pumps and solar PV. Much more than one would see in England. Are the Scottish just more sensible or is there Scottish legislation to force builders (many are the same companies who build in England) to include clean tech in their homes? Lastly - I had to chuckle at Robert's observation of all the twinkling coloured lights in his garage. We have the same thing in ours (Mixergy, batteries, solar inverter, router, heat pump controller, etc) and it scares my wife when she considers my mortality...
Good that you bring up the 'marginal cost' arrangement, Richard. This is definitely something that the wider UK population needs to be made aware of and is one of the only real things the government can intervene in to create proper system change - sadly though it seems to be a very tightly held Tory value that they should not intervene in markets or restrict companies and individuals from maximising profits. I think I recall Boris Johnson or some other member of the government recently saying that a Windfall tax on energy companies was not something they would consider because it is against Tory values. Changing this marginal cost rule, I would imagine, could allow renewable energy to be offered to consumers at a much lower rate than the inflated prices set by the international gas markets. This would be great for the energy transition because it would likely result in the movement of lots of consumers on to green tariffs and towards demanding more renewable capacity to supply their needs. It is a solution that could also be seen to fit well with Tory values of deregulating / low government interference in markets - effectively it would be freeing up the energy market to become more competitive and deliver better value to the consumers as a result. (As an aside, I have a query around the dynamics of the 'marginal cost' thing as it stands because I have heard of some of Octopus Energy's minute by minute tariffs resulting in people effectively being paid to use excess energy from the grid late at night, I think maybe Robby Lew mentioned it a few times in the Fully Charged channels' output, so I wonder if there is already some way around this 'marginal cost' thing for that to be able to happen? Or maybe there was only renewable generation going on at that moment? Clearly, there is more to understand about the UK energy market's workings because this is a little bamboozling..) Returning to the situation as it is, you mention how costs for renewable energy production remain low but it is also being sold for these higher prices, so the renewable companies should be making larger profits on the energy they sell. I suspect though that this is mainly still used to payback on the upfront investment in renewable generation infrastructure they have made. I say this based on my own experiences planning to install Solar at home and how it takes several years to repay the initial investment in energy cost savings. Whilst it is possible that these unexpected extra profits, or maybe it should be better termed the unexpectedly larger revenue stream could be going into executive bonuses and dividend payouts, I suspect it is mainly serving to bring the companies into profit faster as it pays off their initial investment, but that would depend on the company structures and policies to some extent and the source and terms of the funding they used to build their infrastructure. One would hope that it is seen as an encouragement to invest in more capacity due to faster payback and arrival at a stage of making real profit. Still, most will be aware that these prices aren't sustainable and won't likely hold long term, so will be cautious about making new investments based on current prices and payback rates. Perhaps the higher prices and faster transition to profit will encourage more ready investment from the financial sector. I'm clutching at straws here, trying to see some long-term benefits to the energy price crisis despite the desperate situation it will be putting so many in. Certainly, the inflated costs make renewables much more attractive, further extending their cost per Mw lead over fossil fuels and if people could afford to invest in their own solar panels on the roof and community windfarms it would be taking us in a positive direction with regards to self-sufficiency, efficiency and resilience. We just need a government that is prepared to invest in supporting people towards that. Zero interest long-term loans on the scale they are now proposing could be made available to energy suppliers and could be targeted at individuals and businesses to build their own renewable infrastructure instead, balancing the load on the grid, tackling energy costs for the 25 year plus lifetime of that infrastructure and so reducing inequality and eliminating fuel poverty whilst helping to make real progress in tackling the climate crisis in one fell swoop. Of course, installing all that infrastructure would require massive investment in training and the creation of lots of new jobs, plus many would be left struggling whilst it is built if the prices stay as they are, so combining the two proposals - freeing the energy market to reflect the lower costs of renewable generated energy, and massive investment in individually owned and community-owned local renewable generation and energy storage, should go hand in hand. House building regulation should be updated to require energy self-sufficient housing (maybe passive haus standards?) along with separate waste and grey water drainage, along with rainwater harvesting because this will also help reduce flash flooding by capturing and storing much of rain that falls, thus also reducing the incidence of toxic sewage released into rivers and seas that excess water in the sewage system from heavy rainfall leads to, and also reducing energy use by avoiding wasting energy on purifying drinking water that is only flushed down the toilet. To enable those living in leasehold or rented accommodation to benefit from funding for micro-generation; property law needs to be reviewed and amended so that property owners/ freeholders are not able to prevent tenants from getting these systems installed, and where long-term ownership/costs of install fall on their shoulders they should be eligible for the same long term low-cost loan scheme. As was pointed out in this episode, short-term subsidies/funding lead to a short-lived and precarious industry. We really need a long-term commitment with long-term goals which is unfortunately not what our current electoral system encourages governments to make. It tends to promote short-term "solutions" which are as much about appeasing the masses enough to win the next election as they are about anything else. Having been employed briefly in the insulation industry over a decade ago during a time of significant temporary funding I can attest to the fact that this not only encourages insecurity in the industry but it also attracts opportunist sharks who go after the money whilst it's there, they often don't provide enough training to the staff to do truly well informed and effective work which will hold up long term and as a result, they leave many problems behind like poorly installed or even inappropriate insulation which causes problems with the building structure. (It would be great if the Fully Charged team could gather some knowledge and advice for consumers and installers and dispel a few myths and fears around cavity wall insulation, setting people straight on when it's appropriate, possible problems, and alternative solutions). If we are to have a worthwhile long-term impact we need long-term funding and solid regulation so that companies can see a long-term future and invest appropriately in staff training, infrastructure and know how to do great work building homes and energy infrastructure that holds up over time. Blimey! I got a little carried away there. I think I'm almost halfway towards creating a new party political manifesto!
Scotland have been offering 0% loans through HomeEnergyScotland and the Energy Saving Trust to help pay for stuff like solar and battery installs, Used EV loans, ebike loans. Im in the middle of trying to get a loan sorted for a planned ASHP. They don’t do the boiler upgrade scheme up here but do offer a more generous “cash back” scheme as part of the loans when installing renewable heating. A few catches to the loans though like, you must have minimum amounts of loft insulation first on your EPC or plan it in with the heating install.
Great chat FCS Team. Tips for future shows would be simply, cheap DIY hacks like draught proofing, pelmets above windows and insulating curtains/blinds, redirecting sunlight via polished/reflective surfaces for heating, additional insulation on pipework etc. Oh and as an aside, we're really looking forward to seeing you guys 'Downunder'. We've booked our accommodation in Sydney for Fully Charged Live Australia. Just waiting on tickets to go on sale, then looking forward to an EV road trip from Brisbane to Sydney for the show. 👍
Excellent. I was actually moved (in a very manly way, obvs) by how much you guys care, and how hard you are working to help us achieve a sustainable world. You da best.
I have a modern 2008 built townhouse and have stretched my retired finances to put 18 solar panels on my roof plus 10.6 kw of Li batteries in my double garage in June 2022. Octopus energy says they are promoting air source heat pumps for 2-4 bed houses but, on registering interest, they immediately responded saying they were not interested. I would investigate getting a nearby firm to install this anyway in the next couple of years but there is a 'catch 22'. The CH pipework is 'modern' too, ie plastic narrow bore, so the whole property would have to be ripped apart for old fashioned expensive copper throughout apart from 2-3 times more radiators! Most (panicking) neighbours say they are installing wood burners, but the flue in the next door 2 story plus velux's in added floor in roof cannot be installed at all as the flue would have to extend above the velux's and on the other side of the roof somehow, at vastly increased cost! I would like to add a pelletised burner as an alternate to the impossibly expensive heat pump detailed above, but Installing it in the cold 27 by 15 foot sitting room on the bottom floor turns out to be very expensive for the unit (~£3500) and seemingly illegal and impossibly expensive for a 4 storey flue. Plus feeding /cleaning the thing and sweeping a 4 story height flue 2 or 3 times a year! I have given up and am buying dreadful looking but dirt cheap hooded Chinese fluffy smocks on Amazon, sigh. I know I am old, grumpy and bewildered but can I go back to the late 1960's to live PLEASE! I dream of chicken in a basket, Deep Purple and an aubergine Cortina mark E.
I live in a slate roofed ex-council house built 101 years ago. I am going to add solar panels to the out buildings I have ( coal shed, bath/wash house, log cabins, caravan), but have run into the problem of deciding whether the structures are strong enough to take the weight. I started to engage with companies to have a ground source heat pump fitted but realised that I needed to obtain cheaper electricity supplies and have shifted my focus to installing solar and battery technology. Wind power electricity generating Companies/Projects seem to be difficult to invest in, why is this. We have no wind generation here in South Worcestershire, some solar on a few houses, and possibly some of the worst insulated properties. I am trying to educate myself about how to install many of the 'New Technologies' as it seems also most impossible to engage knowledgeable and competent trades. I am looking forward to your Property Focussed episodes. While I wait for the next one I shall keep busy by insulating my loft spaces and digging trenches in the garden for a spaghetti of electrical trunking.
You only touched on it, but there is a special extra meeting of heads of EU to discuss energy. One topic is to make the price of electricity not determined by the cost of gas. It's crazy that ALL electricity in a half hour window is based on the most expensive energy source, the last and least efficient power station turned on! That's what drives electricity to £1000/MWh= £1/kWh as what happened in Europe in last few weeks!
For many of us the cost to switch to renewable energy is out of our budget, the government need to support those of us that are in that situation. Looking forward to your future shows that may give guidance to help those of us on limited budgets.
I used to actively promote and survey for insulation products to be installed free through government funding but EVERY year, come October/November the funding would either change for the worst or just cut altogether!! Then the industry had to wait until March for them to get their act together with the new, often more restrictive rules on what would qualify. Needless to say, I got out. Terrible Government.
Unfortunately, wind power always lead to more use of gas. When we figure out a way to store enough electricity (yeah, no - Tesla power wall won’t be enough, unless you get literally millions of them) wind power can have a positive net impact on the grid, but as it stands the volatility means you can’t rely on wind power.
The government should do cap prices for first 2000kWh that people use. Abolish standing charges. About 2000kWh cap prices at a much higher level (maybe £1 per unit) Remove the cap on subsidies for heat pumps. Offer 10 year unlimited and non-means tested interest free loans for people to install batteries, heat pumps, insulation, etc where it significantly cuts domestic usage. Even if this goes to wealthier people, it still reduces demand for the country as a whole. Enable local councils to require commercial building to have an energy audit, and drawn up plans to reduce energy significantly. For the Longer term: Set planning rules for Windfarms in England to be the same as in Scotland/Wales; permit tidal lagoons; continue with nuclear; subsidise grid storage.
Simple energy low cost house changes first. Here is mine. We have a south facing conservatory. Put an small toilet extraction fan through wall from conservatory into upstairs. Runs via thermostat. When conservatory warm it blows warm air into home. Cheap energy. Switched off in summer as too hot
I sit in the category Dan and Robert bring up here. I've done everything I can to insulate my own home, I've reduced my consumption as much as I think I can. That was before the current energy climate. Although I want to, I can't afford to invest in expensive systems, so, as far as I know, I have to stomach the increasing cost. I wish it was a simple as "20 ways to reduce your energy bill" but I've been doing all those tips for years - aside from switching off the heat or the PC I work on, I cannot reduce consuption. It'd be great to know if there are any lower-cost tricks I've missed, so looking forward to the upcoming videos.
I realized that the secret to making a million is saving for a better investment. I always tell myself you don't need that new Maserati or that vacation just yet. That mindset helped me make more money investing. For example last year I invested 80k in stocks (with the help of my Financial Advisor of course) and made about 246k, but guess what? I put it all back and traded with her again and now I'm rounding up close to a million.
@Emily HedgessWhat is your advice for a new beginner like myself, I have been trying to practice using a demo accounts, but I am scared that I don't know enough to start trading all by myself. What to do next.
@Emily Hedgess That's impressive. I've been looking for a good trader that can help me trade and make good profits, But it's very hard to see a trusted one.... I'm so happy I found this day
Thanks for being a beacon of hope amongst all the madness around us. Interested to hear Dan say that the disruption is happening despite government. How much faster it could be if we had a plan and stuck to it rather than have sound bites that change on a daily basis ! One thing I would love to see is a discussion with Tony Seba from RethinkX on 100% SWB. Any chance of that ? Keep up the good work 🙂
Thanks guys n gals for keeping it 'real', so tired of the silly that permeates our governance. We desperately need clarity and informed options. Democracy needs enlightened minds with common decent social values. Middle policies give muddled thinking; We need to implement polices because they *are* right, not because they appeal to the right.
Agreed. I tend to favor a moderate cautious approach to things. But moderate doesn't mean "centrist" Seem to remember a parable involving a baby which might be relevant ;)
Very well said. I always follow your channel. If was younger i would be going Solar and buying an electric car. Unfortunately at 70+ with a State pension and a VERY small private pension (just enough to take me out of being able to claim pension credits) I doubt i will ever afford the above, unless i can swap my old 10 year old Corsa for all electric its a no. I hope the younger generations grasp the nettle and see what the future holds in renewables and electric cars. I will remain an avid watcher of your channel - Thanks Guys.
The more people who put in their own generation and storage, the less demand on the grid and therefore energy prices fall over time. If you can afford it - Insulate, Heat Pumps, Generate and Store. I live in a fully retrofitted house and the difference is spectacular. Double glazing, Roof Insulation, Floor Insulation, Heat Pumps and then your own generation (& Storage)...In priority order. Robert is the most ancient in the room.
I live in the UK and genuinely don't know what I am going to do. I struggled with my utility bills last year. I did have a new gas boiler installed this summer that should make a saving of 25%, which I thought would cut my bills, but bills are now likely to rise by hundreds of percent. Some talking of 500%-700% more than this time last year. I live in a purpose built flat. I can't install solar pv if I wanted to. I had an electric car but had to get rid when I moved here as no home charging and the council wouldn't install a street charger (despite having Govt funding to do so!). I can't install insulation easily due to the way the building was built in the late 1960s, and planning restrictions won't allow external insulation. Someone suggested battery storage using cheap night-time rates to help during the day. But if I could afford £5,000 for a battery, I could afford my high utility bills. To add insult to injury, my gas smart meter doesn't work due to fire regulations because living in a purpose built flat it has to be sited externally together with all the others for easy access by the fire brigade. So I don't have the benefit of that to help me manage my consumption. It's going to be a hard winter for millions. Let's hope it's not a cold one. Maybe you could use me as a worst case example for a future show to see what can be done for someone on a low income who has their energy 'hands' tied behind their back?
Two areas I’d like explained are: 1) Are high temperature heat pumps a useful option 2) Why people with excess solar get paid so little to export power and the amounts have not increased with electricity prices
I live in Highland Region which is bigger than Belgium. We make hydro electric, pump storage hydro, onshore wind and offshore wind. We do not create gas generation, coal generation or nuclear. We pay the highest feed in tariffs in Europe for power generated, because We are far away from London. We pay the highest unit costs in Europe, and the highest daily charges. Something is very wrong with the entire market.
Robert you are my hero, everything I want to say out loud you say for me! Looking forward to advice to deal with this difficult time. Please remember many people are struggling to heat or eat, as much good advice you can provide will be really appreciated, thank you.
Love Robert's honesty and frustration! Robert for PM!!! Gt Wind energy offshore and onshore asap. Solar panel manufacture in the UK for future growth-so many large building roofs to be covered out there! Gas is the main target to reduce use of whilst keeping Coal out. We do need community involvement in all this!!
But the price of electricity is directly linked to the price of gas. Until renewables are unhitched from this market, it makes zero difference. I live in an Region that only has renewable energy, but we have the highest bills in Europe because of the price of gas.
Using natural gas for normal/base power generation is incredibly stupid right now. We need to be using gas for "peaking"... Filling in the gaps when better (and cheaper) variable renewables aren't putting out enough. It is a filler until we get energy storage tech a bit better developed and then built out. Also, shutting down well functioning nuclear plants is very dumb, but we won't be able to develop better 'advanced' plants fast enough or even build out conventional nuclear plants. That takes a few decades we don't have right now. Maybe it will be the "energy of the future" for the next transition, but we need to avoid diverting resources and attention away from the transition that is happening now.
I never heard the term "peak oil" mentioned in this discussion. But that is what we are really talking about. It is the reason I became interested in EVs. But most people do not want to think about it. So I focus on being prepared in my own house. Two EVs, solar panels, and a very energy efficient home.
@Capri Right! But, we are on the downside of the curve. Which is why Saudi and the rest of OPEC can not make up for the loss of Russian oil. And Russa is not completely out of the market. China is buying all they can at a discount. Guess what happens when Russia begins selling worldwide again. They will not have to discount to China any longer. Price hikes.
I built a house in Thailand that is 99% off-grid and powers my car from excess solar. I own some flats in the UK that I am trying to upgrade their Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) ratings, but I can’t get reliable information. EPC evaluations seem to be a lottery. Getting a flat to a C rating seems to be a challenge if you are not allowed to install a heat pump.
Good to see you talking about your concerns and your (serious) plans. Love the "ad hoc" studio space which feels "real" - not fake. I really like the format with the three people talking. It is a bit weird to hear about UK politics in Germany. But the general undertone is probably the same here. We just had the current chancellor blaming the last government for 16 years to massively stall the development of renewable energy. So there is hope for changes.
Another frustration is the generation limit of 3.68 kWh without a separate approval for more which in Northern Ireland at least is a costly (£680 just to apply with no guarantee of success) and time consuming process to even get approval. There may then be reinforcements or design of zero export relay costs to bear after that. I understand the need for limits on large solar arrays where fluctuations on import/export due to a cloud passing over would be huge and understandably require grid reinforcements. In a domestic setting however where so few people even have solar, it feels like those trying go green are hamstrung. I have 5.6 kWh of potential on my roof and would love to add more panels on my property but I am capped to generating 3.68 kWh. Surely the difference an extra kWh or two is going to mean diddly squat to the national grid? I think the underlying issue is they are scared of losing too much money! It doesn’t suit them for me to store energy in batteries to use at times of reduced solar. Ironically, my tariff promises to provide 100% green energy!
The Labour government did a lot to subsidise U.K. household insulation, I know, I benefited. Cameron was “going to be the greenest PM ever” until elected when HE decided to cut Labour’s “green crap” and overnight household insulation take-up dropped by 90%, followed by him cancelling of solar feed-in tariffs and on-shore wind farms and the start of the sale of fracking licences. DON’T pretend Labour are equally to blame and “they are all the same BS”, just to try to sound balanced, you should know better. Credit where it’s due or nothing will ever change.
I live in a flat in Scarborough. I only switch on my central heating when I receive guests, cos the heat just flies straight outside. How can I get cavity wall insulation? Also I need to replace my sash windows with double glazing - that could be a 'planning' problem...
More videos on insulation would be good, e.g. case studies exploring what is needed. You would hope that for many buildings the easy stuff has been done: double glazing, roof and cavity insulation. But how do you go further? What do can we do with solid floors on the ground floor? What are the pros and cons of external insulation and do you have to have external render or are there other longer lasting finishes? In many parts of Europe external window shutters are common but not in the UK and yet they can keep heat in at night, keep the sun out in the summer, etc, so how can we retrofit them?
I've just bought 4 x 325W solar panels and am trying to run everything from that by reducing power usage around the home. I am concerned though that some people may install DIY systems without the required knowledge or skills and we may see an increase in electrical faults. Maybe these price rises are here to put the onus on the public to build the network up through home solar and other schemes, that will keep people in jobs, us become more energy self reliant and get more tax in to bolster the economy, that way we wouldn't need to increase tax. Plus, more money would be spent in the UK. I believe we should look into Solar Thermal projects too as these are far more efficient than heating water from electricity. I am trying this at home.
@neil i have been looking for an installed but the decent companies stopped quoting the remaining ones are price gouging. So like you an going to diy it to cover the houses base load of 350w i think i need 800w of solar to do that over winter
@@damiendye6623 Hi Damien, I've gone for roughly 1 x my daily kWh in solar panels and 2 x 240Ah lead Acid batteries. This as I have a 330W Solar panel at the moment that gets the sun all day, although it doesn't move just yet, where it is South facing out of the front of our property and at a 45º angle. I get a maximum of 2kWh from this stationary panel (700Wh on a cloudy day). So, the other 3 panels on route to us are similar in spec, will be wired as pairs in parallel and then those pairs in series (maximum of 80V and 20A) where I have an MPPT controller that can handle 100V at 30A max. The panels will track the sun with a ram that will move the panels throughout the day (only use around 30Wh max all day to move). At present we power a fridge freezer in the garage and all my other gadgets, plus charge anything that has batteries in there. I hope to get around 15kWh per day from this system so we don't run the batteries below half power (sulphation occurs at lower voltages), but during the winter I think it may drop to around 5kWh per day, hence trying to reduce our consumption too. With 4 panels tracking the sun I should be able to get above 50% more energy per day than if I mounted them fixed to a roof, so hopefully that's a good saving too. I'm basically experimenting with it all at the moment. Although, solar tracking will reduce the life of the panels, maybe I'll need to heat some water with them too (Solar Thermal from the back of the PV panel), hehe.
better to spend the money now to buy foam insulation boards and put 4 inches of insulation into the walls and ceiling of one room in your home (maybe one or two inches for the floor), then make a rectangular removable plug of foam board to insulate your window frame. this will allow peeps in cold climates a cheaper option to make it through this winter with insanely high energy prices. Insulation is cheaper than throwing money away every winter. What do you think?
It's even more concerning with the new UK government, with ex-Shell employee Liz Truss in charge and climate skeptic Jacob Rees-Mogg as the Business and Energy secretary. While the US and Australian governments have "come to their senses", ours is going in completely the wrong direction!
You mention in this video that heat pumps and other heat electrification technologies can help weather the current economic storm - but is that true? It seems to me that electricity costs have increased by a higher percentage than gas - despite gas being the major trigger for the problem. Am I wrong? My bills seem to be showing that electricity is the poor cousin here - which is massively frustrating as some of it comes from renewables. Switching to electric only helps if you ALSO get solar - which is darned tricky at the moment! Solar installers are overwhelmed with work, and this choose only the most profitable of jobs.
The heat pump 'grant' is different in Scotland - it's not a 5k grant, it's a '£10k' loan of which you only need to pay £2500 back. Could be interesting to do an episode (or online resource) on green funding - what loans/grants are available the UK regions, and details of local area based schemes. I only know about Scotland, but various council areas have different funded schemes with different criteria - we got internal wall insulation installed on a scheme run by Changeworks, and I know people that got heat pumps installed fully funded. The complexity is that it seems to be different in every council area.
Brilliant episode thanks, and glad you haven't held back addressing the obvious political backdrop!! Glad you are doing more episodes in future about the detail of DoingOurBit , the channel I use to share my experience to date, because you are right ..its not simple. Explaining the practical challenges so you make the right decisions so important. I'm looking at heating next and seriously considering air conditioning...would be interested in your take on that where air to water, over air to air is challenging in my small 2 bedroom property. Great work , and thanks for everything you do!!
Robert had it right the first time, back in 1974 - reject the whole thing (cars) entirely, and use bicycles and public transport instead. Because, for moving large numbers of people from their various respective points A to B, the private automobile - however powered or piloted - is the _worst_ tool for the job. That's not a political position, or a statement of personal taste - it's a simple matter of geometry, arithmetic and physics. The EVs that are at the forefront of the transportation revolution are not cars at all, but electric bicycles & other human-sized wheels, on the one end, and electric trains, trams and buses (optimally powered by wires) on the other. Between the two - if we can fix our car-brained mentalities and car-centric infrastructure - we ought to be able to get ourselves and our stuff around and between and into/out of our cities much better than with the automobile-as-default.
That is correct with regards to transportation, however the current crisis is mainly due the price of natural gas, which is used for electricity and heating. So the solution needs to be insulation, heat pumps and renewable electricity generation.
I would argue that car usage is sometimes necessary, the alternative would take too long or isn't available, or would be even more expensive (taxi) Yesterday I had to run around in different directions going from one place too another, over fairly long distance. But I regularly use bicycles and some public transport to get around.
Great Show I have just ordered Solar Panels for my Narrow boat to avoid energy crisis in October currently on residential mooring linked to national grid. Hopefully will be able to unplug from the grid soon and be self energy sufficient.
Houses don’t need all the fancy newfangled tech stuff. They need insulation, draught sealing and heat recovery ventilation. Only then can you can you assess what energy input you need, and the most sensible way to do so.
I think Australia may have you beat on poor insulation. When I lived there they didn’t have any insulation in the walls, the insulation they had in the ceiling was simple aluminum foil, and the windows were single pain. This was new construction in 2006. In the U.S. it’s R 19 in the walls, R 30 in the ceiling, and double paine glass argon filled, at a minimum.
my latest mini hack at home has been to change the back light setting on the telly from 100% to 50%, was 60w (ish) dropped to 40w, as I like the TV on with about 4 hours a day with the coming price cap increase it will save about £15 a year
This channel has never been more important. Keep up the great work guys.
Well said Nick 👍
“The Fully Charged Community” is a very comforting concept. So good to have, in this channel, a source of rationality and progressive thinking. So true that in the UK, the barriers to stopping burning stuff and implementing available (and improving) technologies are becoming largely psychological. All the things we spoke of back in the 70s and earlier in regard to moving away from fossil fuels and autonomous/offgrid and community/local based solutions are now becoming a reality and an imperative. It’s so frustrating that politically, the UK is utterly off the rails and moving in the wrong direction. We should look to greater collaboration with our mainland European neighbours in finding solutions, not the reverse
Off-Grid living is being completely crushed by over-regulating Governments all over the world. They don´t want you living off of Nature in harmony with it, it makes it harder for them to control somebody if they are debt free, producing their own food and some clothing. They want people living in the Mega-Chicken Coops, pardon me, Smart Cities. I sound like a Tin Foil Hat guy talking but that´s the way all that´s been happening makes some sense. In my country (Portugal) they even require you to register your chickens (if you have more than 350). The policies and "Codes" are so derranged that it basically bans people from living in the hills. The forrests need people living in and arround them, people manage the dead wood and conservation of ib because they need it, thus reducing forrest fire hazzards and "for profit forrestry". I´ll shut my trap now... and, by the way, EU=USSR 2,0. There, I´ve said it...
The fossil fuel industry is not going to give-up without a fight. Because its all about money. Governments and politicians that support fossil fuels should be voted out.
money and power
I wouldn't have thought it was a very good strategy to force your customers elsewhere by becoming unaffordable though?!?
@@alanhat5252 What do you think the owners of "Big Electric" will do when they become the Monopoly ?! Money and Power...
@@Pedrombsantos which is why the Grid should be a government entity and definitely not a for profit organization.
By nature it is a physical monopoly, and as such has no market forces to prevent profiteering harming the vendors, employees and consumers.
The generation can be for profit, but the grid itself needs to be governmentally managed (of course helps if you actually have a benevolent representative government that makes decent decisions for the benefit of citizens)
A centralized government owned grid could have incentive to encourage endpoint generation, reducing strain on the grid (reduce spending on grid expansion) and reducing the purchasing requirement from grid scale generators. A government owned grid can preferentially purchase from green grid scale generators. Or supplement green generation with high efficiency gas peeker plants and storage tech which has little financial incentive.
The for profit grid is what is preventing wide scale adoption of green generation, endpoint generation, and because it is owned largely by the petroleum companies it also resists transition to EV.
@@rational_thinker00 ....and the oil industry isn't? The problem with critics of the brave new world we are entering is that they find fault that is obviously there but they have never bothered pointing it out for the previous technology where it is substantially worse. The perfect world is still some way off but we are getting towards it and I am loving where it is taking us. Incidentally, I am what you would call a petrol head. I have always loved my car and motorbikes and still do, they are just electric ones now to reduce my polution levels. I did a calculator recently to see how I was doing. It was a rudimentary thing only taking into consideration CO2 but my average is where we need to be to prevent things getting worse. I could reduce it further by ditching the car and/or eating less meat but I reckon if I'm at the level required then I shouldn't feel too guilty about actually living. My point is that I've not really made any sacrifices to get to this level, so why do so many people bleat on about it and refuse to do the blinking obvious?
Definitely happy to be a Patron of Full Charged. I initially joined so I could help to fund the production of high quality, entertaining and informative videos, but now it feels almost like a public service; this channel seems to be in the right place at the right time to help educate the nation on energy.
Ripple energy have the right idea. Instead of nationalising energy, each county/area should produce nearby as a co-op. Own and invest in your own energy, produced in your own area with the excess sold to the grid/heavy industry.
Yes yes yes 🙌 and ripple should expand to battery storage. I live in a Victorian terraced house like at least 5 million other people. Once you've insulated your roof you can't do anything else. So Ripple all the way.
Doesn't make sense. Scottish Islands with MWs they can't use and manufacturing urban areas without enough energy.
@@oracleoftruth "excess sold to the grid/industry" covers your objection quite nicely I think.
Yes absolutely. I picked up a share to cover 50% off my energy usage earlier this year, and a couple of weeks later after the Ukraine conflict kicked off and it became apparent there could be long term impact from Russian energy dropping out of the equation I upped to 100%. I consider myself incredibly fortunate that I will have only 12 or so expensive months before my turbine removes my electricity bill for the next 25 years. However, I'm also very aware that its a classic example that those well enough off can help themselves out, whilst those unable to spare several thousand pounds may end up paying that directly on their bills instead.
@@oracleoftruth my ripple windmill is in Ayrshire, I live in Bristol. And I can move and the benefit moves with me.
We live in a brick built Edwardian semi and over the last few years I have slowly been adding extra insulation round the house. The difference you can feel is almost instant. When we first moved in there was no insulation at all in the loft, so that was the first thing we got done (under the last green energy deal). The next area needed was under our sitting room floor, which is suspended, and lastly I have nearly completed putting a circuit of insulation along the outside walls under the first floor with only one area to do. This has helped to keep as much heat within the building as possible . Lastly I've installed smart thermostats on nearly every radiator in the house.
We do have a cavity but it's not insulated. If that is to be done, it needs to be done properly. I have heard and seen lots of horror stories about poorly done cavity wall insulation.
Yes insulate your house well and you will feel the difference ( but don't forget to provide enough ventilation too!)
Can you quantify what the actual reduction in energy bills is?Professor David MacKay in his "reality check on renewables" said wall and loft insulation would reduce your bills by 25%. And he actually had got the "fluff men" in so I guess he knows what he's talking about. If you want Swedish levels on insulation you need insurance on the building exterior, good luck doing that on a Victorian semi. Or you completely got the house and install kingspan or such like. Done with great effect on a Glasgow tenement, £40,000 per flat. Multiply that by 10million for the UK... well it gives you an idea of the scale of the challenge. Screaming "INSULATE BRITAIN" and gluing yourself to some tarmac won't necessarily achieve this.
INSULATE the exterior. GUT the building. Sheesh!
@@colinmacdonald5732 yep, destroy the outside of a beautiful old house.
We don’t have a cavity so managed to get external insulation and render applied. As well as sealing up some draughts it’s cut our heating consumption by 1/3. Get that cavity filled!!
@@salibaba Indeed. You put the insulation on the outside which gave you a pretty decent heat saving. I myself don't have that option. I live in a flat. However I can cut my heating bills by simply grasping the thermostat and giving it a good yank to the left.
Great to see you being overtly political.
What faces us over the coming months and years is potentially so horrific that staying silent is simply not an option.
Well done, Fully Charged!
Think how we will feel when our kids are suffering in the future and ask us what we did to help.
This is an emotive subject, but as you said, needs to be a focus priority.
Would Robert run for Government?
"little to choose between the two candidates".
I did hear someone else say it's like having to choose whether you want cat shit, or dog shit in your sandwich.
@@steveedwards5280 Corbyn's Labour 2017 and 2019 manifestoes had lots of really good stuff.
Unfortunately, as has been revealed in the Forde Report (and feverishly swept under the carpet), the Labour right, who never considered Corbyn a legitimate party leader, diverted funds and otherwise sabotaged the 2017 campaign, potentially costing the margin of victory in what was an astonishingly close election (especially given that May had called the election with the expectation, commonly held, of dealing Labour a death-blow).
Since then, of course, the Labour right with Starmer at the helm have purged Corbyn and anyone who supported or ever said a kind word about him, and brought the party back to the age of Blair and Brown.
As an American, I recognize that party - it's our Democratic Party, of which you already have one - the LibDems - so why do the Labour right feel like they need to be another? Except of course that Labour took a spot in your duopoly after WWII and relegated the Liberals to the sidelines, while we've never had a working class party in power & so the people who might be able to build one have buried themselves in the Democrats instead. The difference being, even when Blair & Brown ran Labour, it was still, in its DNA and at its core, a working class party; whereas the Democratic Party, even at its most left under FDR and LBJ (with the New Deal and Great Society programs, respectively), was _never_ a working class party, but _only ever_ the element of the capitalist party that was willing to make a deal with the working class in order to keep them contained and constrained.
Don't let Labour become like our Democratic Party. If it is still possible, it is _necessary_ for the working class to regain control of its party. If that's not possible anymore, the only other alternative is for the working class to build _another_ party for itself. That's where we're at in the USA, and while it's actually, technically, quite doable right now, it's _psychologically_ impossible because, as noted, the people & groups with the skill sets and other assets necessary to build one don't _see_ it as possible, and so they remain buried inside an enemy party, doing the only thing that party requires of them - to stay in, and not break out.
*The working class needs its own party* one way or the other.
There's a Dutch external insulation called Enegiesprong, who will scan the outside of your house, manufacture the insulation off-site in a factory, then deliver it to site and crane it in etc.
@You Tube we see the exit of the worst prime minister this country has every known and the arrival of the person most likely to steal that crown.
I remember reading about the model Katie price. That her energy bill was £20000/month when bankrupt 2 years ago! She had the heating running 24/7/365 even when not home. It kinda speaks volumes to what's wrong with the country. People just paid the bill. Didn't make sensible long term choices about payback for insulation. Some insulation will pay for itself in under a year at current prices!
My issue with the Government providing handouts to British households to cover inflated energy bills is that it's our (tax payers) money. So whatever happens, British households pay for it. Instead, Government should be acting to reign in the BPs of the world.
Exactly, the general public dont realise that the governent doesnt have any money. It comes from taxpayers and QE. It has to be paid somehow.
Isn't that what Labour are proposing? The cost of their plan would be paid for by having an effective windfall tax on the likes of Shell & BP? At least that's my understanding of it.
@@keithhobbs1 Yep, pay the money "this end" to hold down the prices for the citizens and recover it at the other end when the BPs, Shells and Ineos's of the world get their profits.
@@keithhobbs1 That approach seems to make far more sense to me. When you have the likes of BP alone posting quarterly profits in the region of £7 billion while the country is seriously struggling, something is clearly significantly amiss.
Good to hear Robert not holding back!
Also, I would love PV and batteries, but everytime you look it's companies that seem dodgy and it's hard to get simple quotes. It would be great to have a fully charged site that would put genuine people in touch with professional and competitively priced suppliers / installers ⚡👌🏻
The same goes for heat pumps.
Last year we were lucky enough to start a renovation of a Victorian detached house. We decided to really push our budget and externally insulate, put in solar, put in a heat pump and underfloor heating. These measures have more than doubled the cost of the renovation and we got zero help for the insulation. The solar is VAT reduced and the heat pump has a reasonable good grant to make it around the same as gas. I think the lack of support for insulating your property is madness.
Your property, your cost unfortunately.
Great discussion Fully Charged team. We can't wait to see you here in Australia for Fully Charged Live in 2023. So much is finally changing here with a change of federal government and now support for renewables and the transition to EV's but a long way to go. A suggestion for the new programs on efficient heating and cooling products for the UK might be a review of reverse cycle inverter Air conditioning units. eg: split systems. Really popular in OZ and the right sized system is cheaper to run than any gas heating.They cool in summer and heat in winter and with solar and batteries on homes could be a winner. Seeing the UK seems to be unfortunately joining Australia's hot summers and droughts these kind of cooling and heating systems might really work. Just a thought.
Over the last 5 years I've done about a dozen projects on my house to make it ready for expensive energy. 7.8kw solar 12kwh battery storage are the obvious. But super insulating exterior walls by replacing them with celotex, expanding foam and insulated plasterboard. To take my home from a D to maybe an A or B. Adding a AC heat pump. A wood burner. I've detailed some in my own videos if you want to click my profile. Would be very interested to have Dan or Robert visit. You should do a Grand Design style visit to see the homes of what people have done I think to give ideas.
That sounds like a great idea for a series of Fully Charged shows. The Houses of The EV Fans of Fully Charged. I'd definitely watch all of them, and I know there's millions of people on UA-cam who love home renovation type builds. You could intersperse a persons journey from old type house to a fully renewable home, with updates in each episode.
I bought near 3k worth of superwrap and tacked it to all my exterior ceilings , i can now keep an upstairs room warm on just a PC running and the silver ceilings work well with lighting . I have stopped using my wood burner too and just create wood heaps for wildlife with what i used to burn . The increase in my health with no ash or smoke is well worth the loss. A couple of solar panels needed to charge my ebikes and I'm sorted . My hot water solar panels worked well until a severe frost split some pipes so awaiting to repair those .
The big issue is: you have to have money to invest into these things and probably actually own your home to be able to do it.
@@autohmae Yes , but i went without holidays and cars and a telly even and illegally rented my bedrooms out and we slept in the living room , but yes i managed to own my own home . I have no idea how people on low wages like me can even get a foot in these days ! I had to lie on my self certification earnings to get my mortgage,,no chance doing that now . It was the last of my savings that was going on a real holiday i spent on the insulation . No regrets now except life is for living really and i think i put my family through hardships to `own `a home .
@@autohmae Small boat is a much cheaper option.
Honest and blunt about the current politics is great. We can't keep pandering to the delicate feelings of those that don't care. Wouldn't it be nice for any kind of incentive for smes? No overnight tariffs, nothing to get solar+battery installed. Would love to do that for my warehouse. Good demonstrator for the team that works there too. Keep it up!
A great show, thank you. I love you dearly Robert, never stop doing what you do, how you do it. But Dan has a great turn of phrase that is direct and to the point. You compliment each other perfectly. Do more of these.
What I have never understood is why is it SO HARD to decouple the price of electricity from the price of gas. I know this has long been acknowledged as being necessary & that it is being looked at, but it just never quite seems to happen. Energy bills would plummet in this country if the decoupling were to happen. This isn't to say that electricity generated using natural gas wouldn't remain hideously expensive, but an awful lot of load shifting would naturally occur as the public began to understand when renewable energy was plentiful; the use of the currently existing apps would proliferate to the point of being stratospheric in nature.
The UK still uses lots of natural gas for electricity so unfortunately that's a part of the equation.
As you get more renewables every year, that share of the cost will drop.
@@udishomer5852 until we have bulk energy storage you need gas to balance the grid when the wind dose not blow and the sun dose not shine.
We need nuclear energy
@@udishomer5852 But surely it should be possible given the highly sophisticated software monitoring systems the National Grid has, to differentiate between types of generation and have prices adjust accordingly. I remember Fully Charged going to their control room & National Grid could see where the electricity was being generated at any given moment. Electricity pricing is granular where supply and demand is matched instantly - it's called the Spot Market.
@@MichaelGreenLagos So you prefer to pay even more for your electricity than you do now, both directly via energy bills & indirectly via taxation for huge subsidies & 24hr armed police guards? Then there's the 10,000 year+ ☢️ waste storage headache. And since nearly all UK ☢️ power plants have to be located at the coast, climate change exacerbated increases in storm frequency, intensity & sea level rise, pose not a small level of risk over the 30-50ish year life of the average plant. Since no magic wand exists to wish away faster than expected tipping points such the Greenland & Artic/Antarctic sea ice/land ice sheets collapsing far sooner than predicted, should that happen, as an island nation, the UK will be well & truly totaly fluffed.
☢️ power is THE most expensive form of electricity generation across-the-board.
People on minimum wage cannot hope to afford any of the solutions you spoke about.
People on the average wage cannot hope to afford any of the solutions you spoke about.
Upper middle income people and families cannot hope to afford any of the solutions you spoke about.
Because of the costs involved, it would take 10-15 years minimum to recoup any benefit of adopting green tech. Basically, it's only worth adopting if somebody else will pay for it to be installed. That's not going to happen any time soon.
Living in a coastal village in the north east which has never been on the gas grid, I am always being told to insulate, to add heat pumps or solar panels. What is never addressed is the cost and how do I and other home owners afford it.
We already have roof insulation, double glazing, proper thermally efficient doors. The next job according to the experts are insulating the walls. Many of the homes in the village do not have cavity walls, all pre 1930s homes, but even for those with cavity walls there is no one within 100 miles (we haven't looked further afield) offering to do cavity wall insulation. External wall insulation is viewed with doubt, experience close by of new homes is that the salt laden sea breezes got behind the insulation and caused severe damp issues in less than 2 years (I am sure that most of the problem was the builder doing a bad job). Currently for a terraced house the cost of internal wall insulation, including replastering and redecorating, is just over £10k - not many in the village have that sort of money lying around.
As for solar panels and a battery, the lead time of that here is that if I ordered it today I might be able to have it installed in January... and the cost is c.£12k.
One of neighbours is installing an ASHP, but he has a relatively modern house for the village - merely 60 years old! Should be interesting to see how much it saves him.
One thing in the video I completely agree with is the need for genuinely independent experts to advise ordinary householders what will work best for their home - currently we seem to only have people who are trying to selling their own products and that is a recipe for being scammed
Thanks for giving such a detailed report. Hopefully the rest of the country will take your lead!
I am deluged with adverts for insulation and heat pumps for 80p each.
But then I live in France, where looking down on the populace gets a revolution!
You can cut that bit!!!! (7mins) Love it! Thanks Robert for saying what, I for one, have been thinking!
Just to add that watching Fully Charged Show gave me the confidence to buy a second-hand Nissan Leaf. First electric car for me and I am very pleased with both being able to go electric. Thanks.
I'll soon be getting an MG ZS EV Motability car. It should be cheap to run and great for local pollution but these cars are anything but good for the planet, even if we could supply enough green energy to run billions of them.
Here's a little help to keep warm & fed this winter. In case you missed my last post - Get a Hydroponics set up for indoor winter gardening with grow lights or tape an emergency blanket to a large piece of carboard with the reflective side out to redirect suns rays to plants & move as needed thru out the day / Put a tent in your livingroom to live in / sleep in to retain heat in a small area / drop plastic to keep a smaller area of home warm / 8 hr candles in a clean paint pail or similar can with terra cotta pot on top - I would put bricks around it to help stop anyone from bumping it. You'd have to figure out something else if you have small kids or playful pets / wrap copper tubing around stove pipe & drill holes to put tubing to other rooms for heat & wrap 1 around water pipe to stop pipes from freezing - & you may have to turn water on & off while soaping up in order to get enough warm water for a QUICK shower. God Bless Us All!
The government needs to claw back every penny of the Oil and gas companies windfall income and return it to the people forced to pay it. And they should be required to invest 100% of their profits in renewable energies.
No one is forcing one to pay it. Switch to electric and renewables means that people have options.
Great discussion! It is just so frustrating how much resistance there still is against sustainable solutions. The two gentlemen are great. Imogen is just amazing!
In sunny Spain ... during the "construction boom " from 1997 - 2007 solar panels private and commercial were seldom added . Later bureaucracy obstructed individual solar installations for self consumption with the " solar tax " which existed from 2015 - 2018 . Now everything is different and the Megawatts installed increases from year to year ..... But how much time was wasted and as consumers the scenario in the present circumstances would be ....so different .
I’ve been saying it for years and will say it again; If you look back historically the most successful civilisations have been ones who have unlocked access to abundant and cheap energy, Victorians with coal, Americans with oil, Egyptians using the Nile, and right now in front of us we have the cheapest, cleanest energy around us, wind, solar, tidal, hydro. If we step out of the regressive oil industry methods we could the best civilisation on earth.
Whoever does it first and fastest will attract businesses with cheap energy, create jobs, an amazing economy and most of all a nice place to live with clean air. 😊
Thanks Fully Charged Show!!! Amazing video! Kee ip the amazing work!
Unfortunately... it looks like China has the most coherent energy policy right now.
One thing I notice is that with Solar, people seem to think you need the big Home Panels & big battery for a solution that cost £3,000 to £12,000, I get it they are a lot better solution but most don't have that money. However there are Solar systems designed for Caravan in mind, which cost about £500 to £800 with battery that could be use to power a Room of your house.
Small systems have merit, but if you have the money, or the borrowing capacity, building a properly sized system, and battery pack now, will pay for it self given energy cost.
Decoupling the cost of gas and electricity should surely be the number one aim here.
Not possible.
As a retired couple living off state pension and limited savings, we would very much like to have increased house insulation, solar panels and a power wall, heat pump, infrared heaters etc etc but at our age we are facing an uncertain future and are powerless to do anything about it.
I subscribe to Fully Charged but it’s all a dream for us 😢
There are grants available if your income is less that £31,000 - what's your county council? They should have a scheme going funded by BEIS ... but need to register soon.
@@bambit08 thanks bambit08 live in Hampshire Barton on sea, New Forest council and our income is less than that. I will make some inquiries. Many thanks.
@@andyl2201 EPC needs to be E, F or G as they are prioritising least energy efficient homes.
@@bambit08 we are band D 😟
You can start from the cheap stuff like an Infra-Red Heater (which is more efficient) and a smart thermostat. Maybe double glazed windows.
Excellent discussion! I was wondering about the name change and am so happy that you have decided to widen the scope of the channel and talk more about sustainability and home energy efficiency and alternatives. Looking forward to the future discussions . Thank you.
It's somewhat naive to simply say that energy production costs on renewable haven't changed. The reality is that almost all of the energy production prices are agreed for a set number of years well in advance. The government has granted a guaranteed, inflation linked price of £92.50 per megawatt hour for the electricity to be produced by Hinkley Point C. Compare this to the cost of offshore wind, which under a 2019 contract for difference auction, saw prices come in at £39.65 per megawatt hour. In addition to this approx 90% of our Gas is supplied from the North Sea with only 10% coming from other sources. To be clear the North Sea gas is pumped directly to the UK, there is no other destination and its in gaseous form, not liquefied gas so can't, easily, be sent/sold anywhere else. Fully Charged SHOULD be talking about the difference in consumer energy price costs that the UK is experiencing versus Germany who are 50% reliant on gas from Russia. You SHOULD be talking about the £10 BILLION that the Oil/Gas Industry receives every year from the UK Government in grants etc. You SHOULD be raising awareness of the financial penalties that will take affect in 2035 (currently £8 BILLION every year based on our CO2 emissions). You should be talking about the fact that the Windfall tax that has been applied to the Oil/Gas industry only took affect from June 2022 and that it can be reduced by upto 90% simply by those same companies investing in the same things that they were going to invest in already....... How about we talk about the "government help" that has already been announced, the fact that most of it ensures the money goes directly back to the Energy suppliers. If they invested that £10 Billion/year in installing Solar PV onto every house in the UK it would be approx £110 billion in total (circa 22million homes with £5k Solar PV cost) or the equivalent of 11 years of oil/gas subsidies. But that is never going to happen with a the Tory government as they are more than happy to let the fat cats of energy producers and suppliers make massive profits and pay "taxes" rather than actually helping the UK consumers. The current crisis can be traced back to the 1980's Thatcher Conservative government. In her effort to reduce the power of the unions, under a guise of free markets, they decided to privatize Energy and Water. Those things that are necessary for people to survive should NEVER have been privatized. Profits on the utilities are inconsistent with ensuring stable pricing and continued investment to improve services. Just look at what happened to the railway stock maintenance - the private firm, arising from the 80's, cut costs and jeopardized safety until the government had to step in an re-nationalize to ensure the continued running of the rail services and the safety of passengers.......
The supply of gas from U.K. waters is only around 50%, 30% comes from Norway and the rest is a mixture of LNG and some from the European inter-connector. Unfortunately gas is an internationally traded commodity so U.K. gas prices follow world prices.
The North Sea is criss crossed with pipelines sending gas to different countries. At this time, we are landing LNG in UK ports and then pumping it to Europe to fill their storage before the winter. We'd fill our storage too if it hadn't been closed down by the Tories.
I think everybody commenting here should use their actual name. It really bugs me that on social media it is all to easy for anybody to use a platform to slate governments (of any colour) and yet we have no idea what political agenda is behind the comments. And yes lots of governments have done a lot of bad things with regards to energy, often influenced by external parties be-it corporations or unions but continuing to go on about the past just helps polarise opinion when we actually need people to work together.
What ever you think about Boris, his government has put in place plans for a massive increase in offshore wind power (more than quadruple by 2030) and also onshore solar. They've also supported the creation of the battery factory in Blyth and other energy storage methods. Credit where credit's due. They've also steadfastly resisted the siren calls for fracking, to date. Indeed, it could be argued that they've been the greenest government we've ever had. It's too easy target them just because (in some cases) you despise the Tories. It's incredibly disappointing to hear the word "scum" used. To my mind, reducing the debate to that level is totally counterproductive.
@@trevorheley1045 in the uk we have a government that is openly flirting with making criticism of the UK government an offence, the reality, as much as you may choose not to see it, is that Britain is dealing with incipient fascism. Only a fool would deny the need for circumspection in Britain in 2022.
I'm 10 years younger than Robert, but still remember the panic surrounding the energy crisis in 1974. He remembers strings of cars outside petrol stations in Bath, but as I'd just moved to a new town with a lot of excellent public transport, I saw nothing of traffic queues outside petrol stations. Very few people bothered to own cars or seldom used them because there were buses and trains going everywhere.
This current situation - however - is much, much different. Lately, my local council has cut bus services so they are unusable on Saturday, completely absent on Sunday, and unreliable the rest of the week. When they do run, I've just discovered fare prices have risen 50% to pre-pandemic prices. I only just learned to drive a (petrol) car in time to meet with the pandemic, but the cost of just a couple of gallons of petrol is eyewatering now.
I'm not in any financial position to buy an EV, buy solar panels, or a wind turbine. All of that, the batteries, installation, the post-installation maintenance and battery replacement is just way out of our league.
However, my family reviewed our energy needs back in April, before energy prices went up 30%. We cut back and actually 'reduced' our monthly energy bill by £10. When the latest price hikes were announced, we reviewed again, cut back again - and the government assistance payment covered all but £1.41 of our bill...phew!
So we know now, we can afford to relax just a little bit. It was the just 'not knowing' that worried us most, not knowing how much more stuff we had to reduce/switch off permanently and how these would affect our bills.
Now, of course, with everything still up in the air - bills no longer covered for 2 years, assistance now reduced to 6 months - we have to start thinking of what to do when April comes around (depending, of course, what the next PM plans to do... Doesn't it all just get on your wick?)
Even if we could afford them, solar/wind turbine options with these fancy battery installations aren't the best for us: Scotland, clouds, high humidity, woodland, fusspot neighbours living to the south of us).
We're looking to perhaps using the stream by the side of the garden to drive a mini turbine (there's no fish in the stream, so not a problem for wildlife). We've begun looking into how we might be able to put one together using bits and pieces and using it to charge a leisure battery or two.
Be nice if the energy companies increased their SEG rates in line with the unit price for electricity.
I wish they would bring back FIT . i have extra panels i cant get SEG for so my neighbour pays for my excess and her energy company has free power
I see Amazon have put 11,000 solar panels on their warehouse in Tilbury. It has created enough energy to power 700 houses they say. That being the case shouldn't we be looking to cover EVERY warehouse, barn, supermarket, fast food restaurant and every new build with solar panels?
Robert you are The Admirable Crichton and I take my hat off to you. Keep doing what you are doing and call out the bad decision making of our politicians. I have a solar PV array , a battery system , a Zappi charger for solar diversion to my EV and an earthing rod so I can run emergency circuits when I loose the grid earth. If a dustbin mans son like me can see the benefit of planning to ensure continuity of supply why did an Eaton educated Prime Minister give the goahead for our energy storage system (Rough storage system) to be shutdown . Keep educating Robert you have helped to educate me. We need to spread the word on the benefits for individuals and society as a whole for these new technologies. There is such a thing as society and we are all members of it. Apologies all. Well meaning rant over
Perhaps a practical, concise, well designed and readable guide for insulating and eliminating drafts in houses, perhaps 3 price brackets and a quick guide to implementing each item, e.g.:
Low Cost: Foam core rods under skirting boards: ~£20-£40 (or free as newspaper), caulk gaps around windows and doors ~£15.
Medium cost: Loft insulation ~£150-£300, interior external wall insulation via wooden frame and thermal foam boards
High cost: Double/triple-glazed windows and doors with insulated frames from ~£2000, cavity wall insulation
A similar set of guides for heating technologies, another for electricity generation
When I first came to Europe from the US to work for a t-shirt company I remember that the UK was the main market for short sleeve t's in WINTER. Imagine this coming from Spain where many in the Malaga region wore sweatshirts inside their homes in winter and my salespersons telling me people don't buy short sleeve t's except in spring and summer. I also remember going to meetings in London and having to open the windows at the hotel because if was too HOT. Lowering thermostats can save lots of energy and does not cost any money. Installing smart thermostats also help reduce cost while maintaining relative comfort. It is not only a matter of insulation which a thorough job will take a long time to plan, design and execute, besides the money, which will not help you this winter.
It happens in the States as well. People who wear tanks and shorts in the winter and sweaters in the summer when they set their thermostats too far in the wrong direction, rather than let it move some degrees with the season and wear seasonal clothing.
Yep that’s a good point …… after a few years off having my winter heating set on 18c constantly ( which itself was a slight drop it had to be 20c minimum for a year or two when my kids were babies) … this year due to cost I’m going to set it a tad lower …… I’m thinking 14c … why that …… it’s the average earth temperature! If flat gets colder then that then the heating will kick in … but being 4c colder then before the heating will come on less often for not as long …… also at that temperature if you get cold unlike with no heating on …it’s as you say a different item off clothing or a tiny amount off exercise (literally seconds) can get you warm enough easily.
@@discodavid26 For comfort I installed 3 years ago a Nest thermostat which ensures that it learns how long it takes to reach a temperature and set the heater on to be where set at a specific time. For me I like it cold my wife sometimes does. Between the Nest and some other adjustments makes a big difference. Plus, helps to also have efficient appliances such as heat pump water heaters and clothes dryers. In Spain electric rates are today CRAZY and with the new rates I don't yet know if heat pump heating, even with its great COP, is less expensive than gas - NUTS!
To give a perspective from outside the UK, I live in the Netherlands and subscribe to a green energy company. My monthly bill dropped €20 per month in August plus I had no bill in November at all. And then it just dropped another €20 per month for next year because my end of year "catch up" bill was negative for 2022. How? I have no solar panels or geothermal or wind turbines. I'm a renter. My house is powered by gas. But the amount of money my green energy company made in 2022 was so great that they were able to pay for gas for my house and pay me something back. This is not every house in the Netherlands. Some people are having horrible huge gas bills. But this is how you take advantage of green energy's low cost instead of how the US and UK are doing it.
INSULATE and avoid unnecessary usage, which is EDUCATE.
Robert, et al, more videos on the above PLEASE.
But I can't get a air source heat pump grant as I haven't got double glazing the whole thing as a waste of time.. I can't get pv because there's no grant... I live in a rented property and there's not even an EPC for the property I live in.. house is heated by oil central heating which I cannot afford to buy.. 2-years ago it was as low as 25p averaging 40p now it's £1 a litre ..nevermind pay the electric bill what am I supposed to do... And I can't afford to pay the diesel bills, insurance road tax for my vehicle to get to work as I didn't budget for the massive increases.. every pound I earn immediately pay 20% in income tax to the government.. if I buy something they charge me with 20% vat...life sucks.. I think I'm going to go to my doctor saying I've had a nervous breakdown throw it all in let the government look after me... My landlord has put my rent up 43% in the last 3 years.. no one would have budgeted for this...It's like living in the dark ages.. all because of the greed of large companies and human beings.
.. I'll probably just throw in the towel and get the government to provide me with accommodation and food.
You sit there in your ivory towers.. say insulation is one cheapest solution.. yr living in cuckoo land.. just for me to buy 70 m² of PIR insulation for my property that I don't even own it would cost me £4,000 and that's not inc installation.. you really are not living in the real-world.
This is how it is for normal people.. no one seems to get it !!!
Great show guys, What would be massively interesting is starting a directory of reputable system designers / installers that can design these systems, even if its on a homeowners plan to implement them over a few years. Or maybe this things exists? Keep up the good work.
Exactly my experience as well. I am left frustrated by a recent solar installation because I have been sold what they had to sell not necessarily what is best for my needs long term. The advice they gave on reflection was ‘need to know’ so they could sell me a system and I didn’t know any better. Only since then have I learned about what would be better and definitely would have been prepared to build up a complete system over time instead of getting an off the shelf one now. This week I contacted 6 ‘installers’ about expanding my array and adding batteries and one replied. There is a real lack of system designers vs sellers.
It is strange that for many months my energy company (Eon) has been telling me that MY electricity comes only from renewable sources. So why am I paying for it as if it were generated from gas?
Great and very rational discussion as always. What I would love to see being discussed is not only topics for today e.g. insulation and gas prices, but also those for the future. Big containerships burn through dirty diesel like there is no tomorrow and we believe the technology is not there yet to replace it with batteries or green hydrogen. We have all electric ferries, but not ocean crossing tankers. I'd love to see an episode looking at the big industries we have not tackled yet due to technology not being there yet, but how are we hoping to solve this in the future. How much does it cost to cross the ocean for a diesel powered container ship and what needs to happen to match and lower that price with green energy.
Presently there is no alternative technology to substitute Air and Sea transportation . Efforts should be focused for now - on those sectors that can be replaced with carbon neutral technologies and procedures .... Leave air and sea for last when the bulk of the carbon emissions have been reduced
A good introduction, but it is useful to have a bit of context when big numbers are being talked about to address the energy price crisis. In 2021, British households collectively spent around £30bn on their energy bills. In 2023 that figure is expected to be in the region of *£170bn*. Anyone who thinks the potential £100bn intervention by the government is going to sort the problem is going to be disappointed.
I triple insulated my roof and underfloor. Added a solar hot water system (- that provides ~75% of annual needs, with immersion backup off-peak). Installed a log burner and have free firewood for all space heating needs. Run my car on LPG (- which costs ~40% of the petrol cost). I've tried to set myself up for low cost fuel pricing. I haven't quite got to the electric car part though. :)
The average home owner only needs 4-5 hours worth of energy storage to avoid 80% of their bill. If you have 5 hours of storage that you can run off of during the peak demand period you are going to avoid the worst of all the energy prices. EVEN if you do not have solar or any generation capacity. With a smart inverter you can set if up to charge during the night and for it to take over the household loads during the peak. And 5kw rack mount LFP storage batteries can be had now for less than 1500.
Got a link Dave? I've pulled 18 months of data off my smart meter, but can't find anyone free/available to help. BR8 in case ya close by 😁
A lucky person who now owns the semi detached house I renovated in Ambarrow Crescent has cavity brick walls that I had insulated with ICI foam insulation back in the late 1970s It also has a double glazed Velux window where the chimney used to be and double glazed french doors onto the back garden :) North sea gas was cheap back then so I used gas for central heating and cooking? Our car was a left hand drive Renault 4 that my wife brought over from France.
As someone who is pressing the button on a solar/battery system this week, I fully endorse this.
Me too, excited to get solar. Waiting time for installations is months though...
Really good to see these issues being discussed, looking forward to future episodes! I would love to see more discussion about what those of us who are renting can do. I live in a privately rented, very drafty, very energy inefficient basement flat and because I’m renting I’m very limited in what I can do with the property. Additionally landlord has zero interest in doing anything to improve the property from an energy efficiency perspective - including refusing to replace old wooden framed double doors at the rear of the flat that are so bowed a small gale blows through them on windy days 😣
Thank you for mentioning how important EDUCATION of the public is concerning the solutions for today's energy crises. And you folks are at the forefront of that extremely important effort.
A lot of the problems about getting governments to take energy seriously is all down to the fact that all these politicians are more concerned about not working with each other (even within the same party) for the collective good. Put simply where is the plan to be energy independent using sustainable energy and design that all the politicians back so that the people who have to deliver can get on with it rather than wait for the next U turn in policy. Iam trying to do my bit and also convince others so maybe that doing more actually costs less long term. We, and not some very dubious groups who normally have other agenda, have to do more.
In the US, central air for heating and cooling usually break every 8 to 10 years now. I found it cheaper to use window units. I have learned to buy the units made for infants/babies because they are so much quieter. A new brand has even come out, sold by Lows Hardware that gets a EER rating of 15. My electric bill is half in the summer now, its cheaper for the units and when the AC goes out, I can relie on the other units in the house and I don't bake for three days for the scheduled repairman to show up.
Your AC should have a 10 year warranty. So it shouldn't cost you anything to get it fixed. And they should last for about 20 years. As of next year the minimum SEER rating is 16 for new units, well in Canada anyway.
@@bubba842 When the company you bought it from disappears there is no warranty. They expect you to hire someone to come out every year and refill it at $300 a pop. I will never do central again.
Brilliant that you are doing the house stuff starting October.... Can I ask you one thing... Please please don't bang on about heat pumps, not all of us can afford them even with a grant and for some of us ( our family ) they won't work ( age of house ). So how about an episodes on 1) insulation, 2) solar, 3) batteries and invertors and the tech behind that, 4) other heating technologies, Sunamp, Mixergy, InfraRed radiators etc .....
I think a show on the actual cost of solar and battery installation would be helpful. I see adverts for 3.6kw solar and a 4.8 kwh battery installed from £11000. I know that is rip off, at those prices they are charging 7k just for the installation because the panels and battery are not that expensive. Let's make sure people are not being ripped of by solar salesmen like people were ripped off by double glazing salesmen.
price of solar has risen slightly due to the high costs of some rare earths and covid disruptions in China but yeh not that much!
It cost me £7500 for 5kw solar +5 KWH battery installed last year in Gloucestershire. Had 3 quotes all similar. Wonder if prices have increased because of increased demand and the high prices of energy.
Costs will vary wildly dependant on equipment quality/brands, availability, job complexity, access equipment (scaffolding) geographic location for installer availability and also local cost of living means a down south installer is bound to cost more than in the north.
Thanks for this episode. Can't see how Fully Charged can avoid discussion of the energy crisis becoming political, so it's good to see the presenters being honest about this. It seems to me that no matter which party is in power over the next few years, they will have to intervene in the market to avoid many many of our citizens freezing and/or starving, especially in winter. Assuming "no bungs" Truss becomes PM, she will have to pivot on this issue sooner or later, however the big question that I'd like to see politicians being forced to answer is who will pay the eventual bill for this. If it's the tax payer as was the case with the banking bailout, then I think things could turn very ugly. A wise government will find a way to extract the cost from the profits of the energy companies. Good to see the Fully Charged team making the distinction between the generators (mainly oil and gas companies) and the suppliers who most of us deal with. Many of the latter have gone bust as a result of this crisis while the profits of the former have generally improved massively.
In terms of future programmes, I'd like the team to explain the way the energy market works in terms of paying the generators, because as I understand it the current 'marginal cost' arrangement in which all generators who end up supplying to the grid in each 30 minute period get paid the same as the most expensive generator who is actually needed to meet demand in that period. That suggests that renewable energy generators (whose costs are often the lowest of all) currently make vast profits due to the high cost of gas. I'd like to think that these profits are being re-invested in new turbines and solar farms, but perhaps this is naive! Please investigate.
Another issue I'd like to see explored is the legislation around new-build houses. Having just returned from a brilliant holiday on Orkney, we were struck by how many new build homes there and on the Scottish mainland have heat pumps and solar PV. Much more than one would see in England. Are the Scottish just more sensible or is there Scottish legislation to force builders (many are the same companies who build in England) to include clean tech in their homes?
Lastly - I had to chuckle at Robert's observation of all the twinkling coloured lights in his garage. We have the same thing in ours (Mixergy, batteries, solar inverter, router, heat pump controller, etc) and it scares my wife when she considers my mortality...
Good that you bring up the 'marginal cost' arrangement, Richard. This is definitely something that the wider UK population needs to be made aware of and is one of the only real things the government can intervene in to create proper system change - sadly though it seems to be a very tightly held Tory value that they should not intervene in markets or restrict companies and individuals from maximising profits. I think I recall Boris Johnson or some other member of the government recently saying that a Windfall tax on energy companies was not something they would consider because it is against Tory values.
Changing this marginal cost rule, I would imagine, could allow renewable energy to be offered to consumers at a much lower rate than the inflated prices set by the international gas markets. This would be great for the energy transition because it would likely result in the movement of lots of consumers on to green tariffs and towards demanding more renewable capacity to supply their needs. It is a solution that could also be seen to fit well with Tory values of deregulating / low government interference in markets - effectively it would be freeing up the energy market to become more competitive and deliver better value to the consumers as a result.
(As an aside, I have a query around the dynamics of the 'marginal cost' thing as it stands because I have heard of some of Octopus Energy's minute by minute tariffs resulting in people effectively being paid to use excess energy from the grid late at night, I think maybe Robby Lew mentioned it a few times in the Fully Charged channels' output, so I wonder if there is already some way around this 'marginal cost' thing for that to be able to happen? Or maybe there was only renewable generation going on at that moment? Clearly, there is more to understand about the UK energy market's workings because this is a little bamboozling..)
Returning to the situation as it is, you mention how costs for renewable energy production remain low but it is also being sold for these higher prices, so the renewable companies should be making larger profits on the energy they sell. I suspect though that this is mainly still used to payback on the upfront investment in renewable generation infrastructure they have made. I say this based on my own experiences planning to install Solar at home and how it takes several years to repay the initial investment in energy cost savings. Whilst it is possible that these unexpected extra profits, or maybe it should be better termed the unexpectedly larger revenue stream could be going into executive bonuses and dividend payouts, I suspect it is mainly serving to bring the companies into profit faster as it pays off their initial investment, but that would depend on the company structures and policies to some extent and the source and terms of the funding they used to build their infrastructure. One would hope that it is seen as an encouragement to invest in more capacity due to faster payback and arrival at a stage of making real profit. Still, most will be aware that these prices aren't sustainable and won't likely hold long term, so will be cautious about making new investments based on current prices and payback rates. Perhaps the higher prices and faster transition to profit will encourage more ready investment from the financial sector. I'm clutching at straws here, trying to see some long-term benefits to the energy price crisis despite the desperate situation it will be putting so many in. Certainly, the inflated costs make renewables much more attractive, further extending their cost per Mw lead over fossil fuels and if people could afford to invest in their own solar panels on the roof and community windfarms it would be taking us in a positive direction with regards to self-sufficiency, efficiency and resilience. We just need a government that is prepared to invest in supporting people towards that. Zero interest long-term loans on the scale they are now proposing could be made available to energy suppliers and could be targeted at individuals and businesses to build their own renewable infrastructure instead, balancing the load on the grid, tackling energy costs for the 25 year plus lifetime of that infrastructure and so reducing inequality and eliminating fuel poverty whilst helping to make real progress in tackling the climate crisis in one fell swoop.
Of course, installing all that infrastructure would require massive investment in training and the creation of lots of new jobs, plus many would be left struggling whilst it is built if the prices stay as they are, so combining the two proposals - freeing the energy market to reflect the lower costs of renewable generated energy, and massive investment in individually owned and community-owned local renewable generation and energy storage, should go hand in hand. House building regulation should be updated to require energy self-sufficient housing (maybe passive haus standards?) along with separate waste and grey water drainage, along with rainwater harvesting because this will also help reduce flash flooding by capturing and storing much of rain that falls, thus also reducing the incidence of toxic sewage released into rivers and seas that excess water in the sewage system from heavy rainfall leads to, and also reducing energy use by avoiding wasting energy on purifying drinking water that is only flushed down the toilet. To enable those living in leasehold or rented accommodation to benefit from funding for micro-generation; property law needs to be reviewed and amended so that property owners/ freeholders are not able to prevent tenants from getting these systems installed, and where long-term ownership/costs of install fall on their shoulders they should be eligible for the same long term low-cost loan scheme.
As was pointed out in this episode, short-term subsidies/funding lead to a short-lived and precarious industry. We really need a long-term commitment with long-term goals which is unfortunately not what our current electoral system encourages governments to make. It tends to promote short-term "solutions" which are as much about appeasing the masses enough to win the next election as they are about anything else. Having been employed briefly in the insulation industry over a decade ago during a time of significant temporary funding I can attest to the fact that this not only encourages insecurity in the industry but it also attracts opportunist sharks who go after the money whilst it's there, they often don't provide enough training to the staff to do truly well informed and effective work which will hold up long term and as a result, they leave many problems behind like poorly installed or even inappropriate insulation which causes problems with the building structure. (It would be great if the Fully Charged team could gather some knowledge and advice for consumers and installers and dispel a few myths and fears around cavity wall insulation, setting people straight on when it's appropriate, possible problems, and alternative solutions). If we are to have a worthwhile long-term impact we need long-term funding and solid regulation so that companies can see a long-term future and invest appropriately in staff training, infrastructure and know how to do great work building homes and energy infrastructure that holds up over time.
Blimey! I got a little carried away there. I think I'm almost halfway towards creating a new party political manifesto!
Scotland have been offering 0% loans through HomeEnergyScotland and the Energy Saving Trust to help pay for stuff like solar and battery installs, Used EV loans, ebike loans. Im in the middle of trying to get a loan sorted for a planned ASHP. They don’t do the boiler upgrade scheme up here but do offer a more generous “cash back” scheme as part of the loans when installing renewable heating. A few catches to the loans though like, you must have minimum amounts of loft insulation first on your EPC or plan it in with the heating install.
Great chat FCS Team. Tips for future shows would be simply, cheap DIY hacks like draught proofing, pelmets above windows and insulating curtains/blinds, redirecting sunlight via polished/reflective surfaces for heating, additional insulation on pipework etc.
Oh and as an aside, we're really looking forward to seeing you guys 'Downunder'. We've booked our accommodation in Sydney for Fully Charged Live Australia. Just waiting on tickets to go on sale, then looking forward to an EV road trip from Brisbane to Sydney for the show. 👍
Excellent. I was actually moved (in a very manly way, obvs) by how much you guys care, and how hard you are working to help us achieve a sustainable world. You da best.
I have a modern 2008 built townhouse and have stretched my retired finances to put 18 solar panels on my roof plus 10.6 kw of Li batteries in my double garage in June 2022. Octopus energy says they are promoting air source heat pumps for 2-4 bed houses but, on registering interest, they immediately responded saying they were not interested. I would investigate getting a nearby firm to install this anyway in the next couple of years but there is a 'catch 22'. The CH pipework is 'modern' too, ie plastic narrow bore, so the whole property would have to be ripped apart for old fashioned expensive copper throughout apart from 2-3 times more radiators!
Most (panicking) neighbours say they are installing wood burners, but the flue in the next door 2 story plus velux's in added floor in roof cannot be installed at all as the flue would have to extend above the velux's and on the other side of the roof somehow, at vastly increased cost!
I would like to add a pelletised burner as an alternate to the impossibly expensive heat pump detailed above, but Installing it in the cold 27 by 15 foot sitting room on the bottom floor turns out to be very expensive for the unit (~£3500) and seemingly illegal and impossibly expensive for a 4 storey flue. Plus feeding /cleaning the thing and sweeping a 4 story height flue 2 or 3 times a year!
I have given up and am buying dreadful looking but dirt cheap hooded Chinese fluffy smocks on Amazon, sigh. I know I am old, grumpy and bewildered but can I go back to the late 1960's to live PLEASE! I dream of chicken in a basket, Deep Purple and an aubergine Cortina mark E.
I live in a slate roofed ex-council house built 101 years ago. I am going to add solar panels to the out buildings I have ( coal shed, bath/wash house, log cabins, caravan), but have run into the problem of deciding whether the structures are strong enough to take the weight. I started to engage with companies to have a ground source heat pump fitted but realised that I needed to obtain cheaper electricity supplies and have shifted my focus to installing solar and battery technology. Wind power electricity generating Companies/Projects seem to be difficult to invest in, why is this. We have no wind generation here in South Worcestershire, some solar on a few houses, and possibly some of the worst insulated properties. I am trying to educate myself about how to install many of the 'New Technologies' as it seems also most impossible to engage knowledgeable and competent trades. I am looking forward to your Property Focussed episodes. While I wait for the next one I shall keep busy by insulating my loft spaces and digging trenches in the garden for a spaghetti of electrical trunking.
Well said, if government was listening the situation in the UK would not be so grim, Robert for the next energy minister of the UK
You only touched on it, but there is a special extra meeting of heads of EU to discuss energy. One topic is to make the price of electricity not determined by the cost of gas. It's crazy that ALL electricity in a half hour window is based on the most expensive energy source, the last and least efficient power station turned on! That's what drives electricity to £1000/MWh= £1/kWh as what happened in Europe in last few weeks!
For many of us the cost to switch to renewable energy is out of our budget, the government need to support those of us that are in that situation. Looking forward to your future shows that may give guidance to help those of us on limited budgets.
Just found this channel. I think I've come to the right place.
Your lucky you have Elon.
I used to actively promote and survey for insulation products to be installed free through government funding but EVERY year, come October/November the funding would either change for the worst or just cut altogether!! Then the industry had to wait until March for them to get their act together with the new, often more restrictive rules on what would qualify. Needless to say, I got out. Terrible Government.
Unfortunately, wind power always lead to more use of gas. When we figure out a way to store enough electricity (yeah, no - Tesla power wall won’t be enough, unless you get literally millions of them) wind power can have a positive net impact on the grid, but as it stands the volatility means you can’t rely on wind power.
This crowd is likely numerically illiterate; and they are "religiously" against the type of statements you are making here.
The government should do cap prices for first 2000kWh that people use.
Abolish standing charges.
About 2000kWh cap prices at a much higher level (maybe £1 per unit)
Remove the cap on subsidies for heat pumps.
Offer 10 year unlimited and non-means tested interest free loans for people to install batteries, heat pumps, insulation, etc where it significantly cuts domestic usage. Even if this goes to wealthier people, it still reduces demand for the country as a whole.
Enable local councils to require commercial building to have an energy audit, and drawn up plans to reduce energy significantly.
For the Longer term: Set planning rules for Windfarms in England to be the same as in Scotland/Wales; permit tidal lagoons; continue with nuclear; subsidise grid storage.
Simple energy low cost house changes first. Here is mine. We have a south facing conservatory. Put an small toilet extraction fan through wall from conservatory into upstairs. Runs via thermostat. When conservatory warm it blows warm air into home. Cheap energy. Switched off in summer as too hot
Brilliant 👍🏻
I sit in the category Dan and Robert bring up here. I've done everything I can to insulate my own home, I've reduced my consumption as much as I think I can. That was before the current energy climate. Although I want to, I can't afford to invest in expensive systems, so, as far as I know, I have to stomach the increasing cost. I wish it was a simple as "20 ways to reduce your energy bill" but I've been doing all those tips for years - aside from switching off the heat or the PC I work on, I cannot reduce consuption. It'd be great to know if there are any lower-cost tricks I've missed, so looking forward to the upcoming videos.
I realized that the secret to making a million is saving for a better investment. I always tell myself you don't need that new Maserati or that vacation just yet. That mindset helped me make more money investing. For example last year I invested 80k in stocks (with the help of my Financial Advisor of course) and made about 246k, but guess what? I put it all back and traded with her again and now I'm rounding up close to a million.
@Emily HedgessWhat is your advice for a new beginner like myself, I have been trying to practice using a demo accounts, but I am scared that I don't know enough to start trading all by myself. What to do next.
@Emily Hedgess That's impressive. I've been looking for a good trader that can help me trade and make good profits, But it's very hard to see a trusted one....
I'm so happy I found this day
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@Emily Hedgess Thanks a lot dear I'll definitely ensure to do that..
Investing with expert mrs Kathy lien has been one of the best step I've ever took in life, may God bless the day i met her
Thanks for being a beacon of hope amongst all the madness around us. Interested to hear Dan say that the disruption is happening despite government. How much faster it could be if we had a plan and stuck to it rather than have sound bites that change on a daily basis ! One thing I would love to see is a discussion with Tony Seba from RethinkX on 100% SWB. Any chance of that ? Keep up the good work 🙂
Thanks guys n gals for keeping it 'real', so tired of the silly that permeates our governance. We desperately need clarity and informed options. Democracy needs enlightened minds with common decent social values. Middle policies give muddled thinking; We need to implement polices because they *are* right, not because they appeal to the right.
Agreed. I tend to favor a moderate cautious approach to things. But moderate doesn't mean "centrist"
Seem to remember a parable involving a baby which might be relevant ;)
Agree, I’d also add or because they appeal to the left
Very well said. I always follow your channel. If was younger i would be going Solar and buying an electric car. Unfortunately at 70+ with a State pension and a VERY small private pension (just enough to take me out of being able to claim pension credits) I doubt i will ever afford the above, unless i can swap my old 10 year old Corsa for all electric its a no. I hope the younger generations grasp the nettle and see what the future holds in renewables and electric cars. I will remain an avid watcher of your channel - Thanks Guys.
Citroen ami? Twizy? E-Scooter? In seriousness though, unless rural I wouldn’t have a car as a pensioner, it’s just a financial noose.
The more people who put in their own generation and storage, the less demand on the grid and therefore energy prices fall over time.
If you can afford it - Insulate, Heat Pumps, Generate and Store.
I live in a fully retrofitted house and the difference is spectacular.
Double glazing, Roof Insulation, Floor Insulation, Heat Pumps and then your own generation (& Storage)...In priority order.
Robert is the most ancient in the room.
I live in the UK and genuinely don't know what I am going to do. I struggled with my utility bills last year. I did have a new gas boiler installed this summer that should make a saving of 25%, which I thought would cut my bills, but bills are now likely to rise by hundreds of percent. Some talking of 500%-700% more than this time last year. I live in a purpose built flat. I can't install solar pv if I wanted to. I had an electric car but had to get rid when I moved here as no home charging and the council wouldn't install a street charger (despite having Govt funding to do so!). I can't install insulation easily due to the way the building was built in the late 1960s, and planning restrictions won't allow external insulation. Someone suggested battery storage using cheap night-time rates to help during the day. But if I could afford £5,000 for a battery, I could afford my high utility bills. To add insult to injury, my gas smart meter doesn't work due to fire regulations because living in a purpose built flat it has to be sited externally together with all the others for easy access by the fire brigade. So I don't have the benefit of that to help me manage my consumption. It's going to be a hard winter for millions. Let's hope it's not a cold one.
Maybe you could use me as a worst case example for a future show to see what can be done for someone on a low income who has their energy 'hands' tied behind their back?
Two areas I’d like explained are:
1) Are high temperature heat pumps a useful option
2) Why people with excess solar get paid so little to export power and the amounts have not increased with electricity prices
I live in Highland Region which is bigger than Belgium. We make hydro electric, pump storage hydro, onshore wind and offshore wind. We do not create gas generation, coal generation or nuclear. We pay the highest feed in tariffs in Europe for power generated, because We are far away from London. We pay the highest unit costs in Europe, and the highest daily charges. Something is very wrong with the entire market.
Robert you are my hero, everything I want to say out loud you say for me! Looking forward to advice to deal with this difficult time. Please remember many people are struggling to heat or eat, as much good advice you can provide will be really appreciated, thank you.
Love Robert's honesty and frustration! Robert for PM!!! Gt Wind energy offshore and onshore asap. Solar panel manufacture in the UK for future growth-so many large building roofs to be covered out there! Gas is the main target to reduce use of whilst keeping Coal out. We do need community involvement in all this!!
But the price of electricity is directly linked to the price of gas. Until renewables are unhitched from this market, it makes zero difference. I live in an Region that only has renewable energy, but we have the highest bills in Europe because of the price of gas.
@@gordonmackenzie4512 I did by fitting my own PV. The grid isnt the only way.
Using natural gas for normal/base power generation is incredibly stupid right now. We need to be using gas for "peaking"... Filling in the gaps when better (and cheaper) variable renewables aren't putting out enough. It is a filler until we get energy storage tech a bit better developed and then built out.
Also, shutting down well functioning nuclear plants is very dumb, but we won't be able to develop better 'advanced' plants fast enough or even build out conventional nuclear plants. That takes a few decades we don't have right now. Maybe it will be the "energy of the future" for the next transition, but we need to avoid diverting resources and attention away from the transition that is happening now.
I never heard the term "peak oil" mentioned in this discussion. But that is what we are really talking about. It is the reason I became interested in EVs. But most people do not want to think about it. So I focus on being prepared in my own house. Two EVs, solar panels, and a very energy efficient home.
@Capri Right! But, we are on the downside of the curve. Which is why Saudi and the rest of OPEC can not make up for the loss of Russian oil. And Russa is not completely out of the market. China is buying all they can at a discount. Guess what happens when Russia begins selling worldwide again. They will not have to discount to China any longer. Price hikes.
Thank you for saying what you said about the people who are running this country. I love you for that.
I built a house in Thailand that is 99% off-grid and powers my car from excess solar. I own some flats in the UK that I am trying to upgrade their Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) ratings, but I can’t get reliable information. EPC evaluations seem to be a lottery. Getting a flat to a C rating seems to be a challenge if you are not allowed to install a heat pump.
Good to see you talking about your concerns and your (serious) plans. Love the "ad hoc" studio space which feels "real" - not fake. I really like the format with the three people talking. It is a bit weird to hear about UK politics in Germany. But the general undertone is probably the same here. We just had the current chancellor blaming the last government for 16 years to massively stall the development of renewable energy. So there is hope for changes.
Another frustration is the generation limit of 3.68 kWh without a separate approval for more which in Northern Ireland at least is a costly (£680 just to apply with no guarantee of success) and time consuming process to even get approval. There may then be reinforcements or design of zero export relay costs to bear after that. I understand the need for limits on large solar arrays where fluctuations on import/export due to a cloud passing over would be huge and understandably require grid reinforcements. In a domestic setting however where so few people even have solar, it feels like those trying go green are hamstrung. I have 5.6 kWh of potential on my roof and would love to add more panels on my property but I am capped to generating 3.68 kWh. Surely the difference an extra kWh or two is going to mean diddly squat to the national grid? I think the underlying issue is they are scared of losing too much money! It doesn’t suit them for me to store energy in batteries to use at times of reduced solar. Ironically, my tariff promises to provide 100% green energy!
The Labour government did a lot to subsidise U.K. household insulation, I know, I benefited. Cameron was “going to be the greenest PM ever” until elected when HE decided to cut Labour’s “green crap” and overnight household insulation take-up dropped by 90%, followed by him cancelling of solar feed-in tariffs and on-shore wind farms and the start of the sale of fracking licences. DON’T pretend Labour are equally to blame and “they are all the same BS”, just to try to sound balanced, you should know better. Credit where it’s due or nothing will ever change.
I live in a flat in Scarborough. I only switch on my central heating when I receive guests, cos the heat just flies straight outside. How can I get cavity wall insulation? Also I need to replace my sash windows with double glazing - that could be a 'planning' problem...
Excellent video. But people need to act to change things. People are far to passive nowadays.
More videos on insulation would be good, e.g. case studies exploring what is needed. You would hope that for many buildings the easy stuff has been done: double glazing, roof and cavity insulation. But how do you go further? What do can we do with solid floors on the ground floor? What are the pros and cons of external insulation and do you have to have external render or are there other longer lasting finishes? In many parts of Europe external window shutters are common but not in the UK and yet they can keep heat in at night, keep the sun out in the summer, etc, so how can we retrofit them?
I've just bought 4 x 325W solar panels and am trying to run everything from that by reducing power usage around the home. I am concerned though that some people may install DIY systems without the required knowledge or skills and we may see an increase in electrical faults. Maybe these price rises are here to put the onus on the public to build the network up through home solar and other schemes, that will keep people in jobs, us become more energy self reliant and get more tax in to bolster the economy, that way we wouldn't need to increase tax. Plus, more money would be spent in the UK. I believe we should look into Solar Thermal projects too as these are far more efficient than heating water from electricity. I am trying this at home.
I would love for you to come and see what I'm doing on a tight budget at home.
You’ll learn what a struggle it is over winter.
@@edc1569 why if its over sized it will be fine our gas boilers are oversized by quite a margin
@neil i have been looking for an installed but the decent companies stopped quoting the remaining ones are price gouging. So like you an going to diy it to cover the houses base load of 350w i think i need 800w of solar to do that over winter
@@damiendye6623 Hi Damien, I've gone for roughly 1 x my daily kWh in solar panels and 2 x 240Ah lead Acid batteries. This as I have a 330W Solar panel at the moment that gets the sun all day, although it doesn't move just yet, where it is South facing out of the front of our property and at a 45º angle. I get a maximum of 2kWh from this stationary panel (700Wh on a cloudy day). So, the other 3 panels on route to us are similar in spec, will be wired as pairs in parallel and then those pairs in series (maximum of 80V and 20A) where I have an MPPT controller that can handle 100V at 30A max. The panels will track the sun with a ram that will move the panels throughout the day (only use around 30Wh max all day to move). At present we power a fridge freezer in the garage and all my other gadgets, plus charge anything that has batteries in there.
I hope to get around 15kWh per day from this system so we don't run the batteries below half power (sulphation occurs at lower voltages), but during the winter I think it may drop to around 5kWh per day, hence trying to reduce our consumption too.
With 4 panels tracking the sun I should be able to get above 50% more energy per day than if I mounted them fixed to a roof, so hopefully that's a good saving too. I'm basically experimenting with it all at the moment. Although, solar tracking will reduce the life of the panels, maybe I'll need to heat some water with them too (Solar Thermal from the back of the PV panel), hehe.
better to spend the money now to buy foam insulation boards and put 4 inches of insulation into the walls and ceiling of one room in your home (maybe one or two inches for the floor), then make a rectangular removable plug of foam board to insulate your window frame. this will allow peeps in cold climates a cheaper option to make it through this winter with insanely high energy prices. Insulation is cheaper than throwing money away every winter. What do you think?
It's even more concerning with the new UK government, with ex-Shell employee Liz Truss in charge and climate skeptic Jacob Rees-Mogg as the Business and Energy secretary. While the US and Australian governments have "come to their senses", ours is going in completely the wrong direction!
You mention in this video that heat pumps and other heat electrification technologies can help weather the current economic storm - but is that true? It seems to me that electricity costs have increased by a higher percentage than gas - despite gas being the major trigger for the problem. Am I wrong? My bills seem to be showing that electricity is the poor cousin here - which is massively frustrating as some of it comes from renewables.
Switching to electric only helps if you ALSO get solar - which is darned tricky at the moment! Solar installers are overwhelmed with work, and this choose only the most profitable of jobs.
The heat pump 'grant' is different in Scotland - it's not a 5k grant, it's a '£10k' loan of which you only need to pay £2500 back.
Could be interesting to do an episode (or online resource) on green funding - what loans/grants are available the UK regions, and details of local area based schemes. I only know about Scotland, but various council areas have different funded schemes with different criteria - we got internal wall insulation installed on a scheme run by Changeworks, and I know people that got heat pumps installed fully funded. The complexity is that it seems to be different in every council area.
Brilliant episode thanks, and glad you haven't held back addressing the obvious political backdrop!! Glad you are doing more episodes in future about the detail of DoingOurBit , the channel I use to share my experience to date, because you are right ..its not simple. Explaining the practical challenges so you make the right decisions so important. I'm looking at heating next and seriously considering air conditioning...would be interested in your take on that where air to water, over air to air is challenging in my small 2 bedroom property. Great work , and thanks for everything you do!!
Robert had it right the first time, back in 1974 - reject the whole thing (cars) entirely, and use bicycles and public transport instead.
Because, for moving large numbers of people from their various respective points A to B, the private automobile - however powered or piloted - is the _worst_ tool for the job. That's not a political position, or a statement of personal taste - it's a simple matter of geometry, arithmetic and physics.
The EVs that are at the forefront of the transportation revolution are not cars at all, but electric bicycles & other human-sized wheels, on the one end, and electric trains, trams and buses (optimally powered by wires) on the other. Between the two - if we can fix our car-brained mentalities and car-centric infrastructure - we ought to be able to get ourselves and our stuff around and between and into/out of our cities much better than with the automobile-as-default.
That is correct with regards to transportation, however the current crisis is mainly due the price of natural gas, which is used for electricity and heating.
So the solution needs to be insulation, heat pumps and renewable electricity generation.
I would argue that car usage is sometimes necessary, the alternative would take too long or isn't available, or would be even more expensive (taxi) Yesterday I had to run around in different directions going from one place too another, over fairly long distance. But I regularly use bicycles and some public transport to get around.
Great Show I have just ordered Solar Panels for my Narrow boat to avoid energy crisis in October currently on residential mooring linked to national grid.
Hopefully will be able to unplug from the grid soon and be self energy sufficient.
Houses don’t need all the fancy newfangled tech stuff. They need insulation, draught sealing and heat recovery ventilation. Only then can you can you assess what energy input you need, and the most sensible way to do so.
Fully agree there is a gap between wanting to do something on energy reduction, cost saving and knowing what offers the best ROI
I think Australia may have you beat on poor insulation. When I lived there they didn’t have any insulation in the walls, the insulation they had in the ceiling was simple aluminum foil, and the windows were single pain. This was new construction in 2006.
In the U.S. it’s R 19 in the walls, R 30 in the ceiling, and double paine glass argon filled, at a minimum.
my latest mini hack at home has been to change the back light setting on the telly from 100% to 50%, was 60w (ish) dropped to 40w, as I like the TV on with about 4 hours a day with the coming price cap increase it will save about £15 a year
It would be great if you could find some people with different houses and different budgets and help them reduce their energy usage.
They are welcome to use mine.