Can you afford to be 'Green'?

[blueparrot]

There are two major changes upcoming in the not too distant future that could seriously affect your disposal income..the ban on internal combustion vehicles and current boilers for heating and hot water.

I'll concentrate on the ban on sales of gas and oil boilers in new properties in 2025. Heat pumps cost around 10k to install so the pay back rate of that will be far longer than installing a combi boiler for example. Normally you'd get the 'the technology will get cheaper' counter argument but that doesn't appear to be the case with heat pumps. They will be far more expensive to install than current options.

Are you perfectly at ease with this or are you thinking WTF (as I am)?

There is a separate discussion regarding electric vehicles as they probably will get cheaper but you will never charge one up as quick as filling a fuel tank in my lifetime.

There are 2 questions though, can I afford to be green and can my children and their children afford for me not to be ?

 

[denislawsbackheel]

You do if you want heat more than one room.

How does an air source heat pump require garden space?

 

[PannickAtTheDisco]

I can afford to be green with envy...

 

[Deleted member 77198]

I recently had to have a new boiler installed in my house, and asked about green alternatives. Apparently my garden wasn't big enough for the tanks for heat pumps, but my new boiler can be converted to hydrogen when technology catches up.
Haven't owned a car since 2003 as I live in a town centre and next to a main line railway station so walk everywhere locally, and catch the train if going further afield.

Cars are the biggest waste of money we have. May as well stand at your window throwing tenners out into the street, every day forever.

Nobody should need a car living in a city. Granted, public transport in Gtr Mcr needs to improve, but I still get about perfectly alright without a car.

 

[denislawsbackheel]

I need a car.
Hourly trains to Manchester.
No direct bus service at all.

 

[MellowJoe]

 

[Bill Walker]

I've often wondered why people in the UK don't use reverse cycle (heat pump) air conditioners for heating like people here in Australia do.
A reverse cycle air conditioner is actually more efficient when is working in reverse and heating instead of cooling.
If you got a good quality unit you can easily get a coefficient of performance of about 3 to 1 in the heating mode so every one kilowatt you feed it it will give you 3 kilowatts of heating.
Benefits are you can use it for cooling if you have hot summer days and there is no need for water pipes and radiators all over the house.
Also the warm air is instant you don't have to wait until the radiators heat up.

 

[Nightmare Walking]

I've often wondered why people in the UK don't use reverse cycle (heat pump) air conditioners for heating like people here in Australia do.
A reverse cycle air conditioner is actually more efficient when is working in reverse and heating instead of cooling.
If you got a good quality unit you can easily get a coefficient of performance of about 3 to 1 in the heating mode so every one kilowatt you feed it it will give you 3 kilowatts of heating.
Benefits are you can use it for cooling if you have hot summer days and there is no need for water pipes and radiators all over the house.
Also the warm air is instant you don't have to wait until the radiators heat up.

Why would we need cooling in the summer, in the UK?

 

[KS55]

There are two major changes upcoming in the not too distant future that could seriously affect your disposal income..the ban on internal combustion vehicles and current boilers for heating and hot water.

I'll concentrate on the ban on sales of gas and oil boilers in new properties in 2025. Heat pumps cost around 10k to install so the pay back rate of that will be far longer than installing a combi boiler for example. Normally you'd get the 'the technology will get cheaper' counter argument but that doesn't appear to be the case with heat pumps. They will be far more expensive to install than current options.

Are you perfectly at ease with this or are you thinking WTF (as I am)?

There is a separate discussion regarding electric vehicles as they probably will get cheaper but you will never charge one up as quick as filling a fuel tank in my lifetime.

The cost benefit analysis re domestic heating will change over time. Long term, I expect carbon based fuel prices to rocket.
Invest in Damart underwear, have more sex, eat porridge.

 

[staffsblue]

Cars are the biggest waste of money we have. May as well stand at your window throwing tenners out into the street, every day forever.

Nobody should need a car living in a city. Granted, public transport in Gtr Mcr needs to improve, but I still get about perfectly alright without a car.

Despite this, everyone else in the street seems car obsessed and seem to drive everywhere, including supermarket trips and school runs with are all perfectly walkable. I reckon the next generation of kids will mutate into some sort of legless creatures as they don't seem capable of using them!