Dear Dame,
I was struck by your recent article about Milner Street Residents' Association which mentioned the "menace of heat pumps."
The Green Lobby tends to be very dogmatic about heat pumps. Where they are concerned, heat pumps are the only solution.
The truth is they are very expensive to buy, homes require retrofitting which means completely recking them, and are pricey to run. I also suspect that they are not as effective as gas at heating people's homes. Environmentalists say that the disruption having them installed is "only temporary." I suspect that many of these people are middle class "greenies" with plenty of money, who do not appreciate their existing homes, or are anti-materialistic. One needs quite a bit of garden space, or space outside, to instal a heat pump.
In a block of flats where people have individual heating systems, I think the logistics of everyone having a heat pump installed would be very difficult to accomplish. Every flat in a block of flats would have to have a heat pump installed at the same time, with all of the retrofitting modifications required (so that optimal heat is enjoyed by all residents) taking place at the same time, in every one's flat in order to insulate the entire building satisfactorily. It would be very difficult to get everyone in a block of flats "to play ball" in the way that proponents of heat pumps expect at the same time.
Some suggest that communal heat pumps might be a solution for green heating in a block of flats. Can you imagine a social landlord, for example the former Kensington and Chelsea TMO, or its successor the Council of RBK&C, managing to install a communal heat pump efficiently and safely, ensuring that all tenanted homes are retrofitted in concert with the installation of thye communal heat pump? It is debatable if a social landlord fitting a communal heat pump could legally require a leaseholder in a block of flats to carry out retrofitting modifications to their home at the same time that a heat pump is brought in to operation. In short, many leaseholders in the Royal Borough are hard pressed for money and find it difficult to pay mortgages and service charges in current circumstances.
Hydrogen gas heating systems are probably a better option for people in non-high rise blocks of flats. The Scottish Government acknowledges that much of the housing stock in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen are traditional "tenements;" Georgian and Victorian buildings. As a trial, the Scottish Government has provided three hundred properties in Fife with hydrogen boilers and hydrogen gas is supplied to these properties through the gas main. The results are being evaluated.
The manufacture of 100% carbon free hydrogen is progressing very nicely. A firm in Liverpool makes chlorine from brine (of all the things). They have found that the by product of this process is a liquid which if treated by electrolysis creates a totally green, carbon neutral, hydrogen gas. Other green hydrogen technologies are being worked on. Hydrogen gas can be run through the existing gas pipe network because the former Town Gas which ran through the distribution network was a mixture of hydrogen, carbon monoxide and methane.
When I replace my existing boiler, I shall buy a hydrogen ready one, which will work on natural gas, but can easily converted to run on hydrogen when the supply is changed.
An excellent piece looking at the practical considerations of "green heating."
ReplyDeleteThe performance of the Kensington and Chelsea TMO's Central Heating Team, under Kingsford, Black and Perry, was lamentable.
Alo a big issue is not all properties are suitable for heat pumps especially many of the older buildings despite some of the greenb lobby and those selling them telling you otherwise . Anbd there can be mould and damp issues with them
ReplyDelete....and we have all seen the horrors that dampness and mould cause which, resulted in one young boy's death. Hydrogen gas is a more practical alternative.
DeleteThank you so much for posting this. I was speaking with my local councillor recently, asking her what if anything the borough is planning to do to address these issues. I spoke with a local architect also - it seems the Borough is a long ways behind facing the challenges that are on our doorsteps.
ReplyDeleteComes as no surprise to me that the Council is "way behind" on this issue. Twasn't it always thus in RBK&C.
DeleteWhilst RBK&C Tories never embraced Thatcher's economic liberalism, they have always tended to take a laissez faire, hands off, penny pinching approach on issues that their Labour and Lib Dem Counterparts confront head on. Reluctance to spend and enthusiasm for skimping on capital projects, for example Grenfell, has always been the RBKC order of the day. This way of doing things, has consequences.
With Emma Dent Coad as Leader of the Opposition Group on the Council, she is unlikely to stimulate, persuade or encourage a Tory rethink.
Emma dent coad has gone into hiding as she probably knows she’s on her way out of the Council. For someone who claims to be a housing expert without any real credentials, she never has and never will provide sensible policy considerations.
DeleteEDC in hiding? On the way out. Music to my ears. Hope this is true.
DeleteEmma Dent Coad is not a "housing expert." She is one of these politicians who has done a bit of amateur casework who then claims "expert" status based on her own indeaquate experiences of life. Most politicians are expert in nothing, no marks, who find their way in to politics because the only thing they understand is how to be left or right wing. Emma is full of contradictions- a left winger would not think she does.
ReplyDeleteOh my days give it a rest for once. This article has nothing to do with EDC and you guys can’t help but mention the same crap every time
ReplyDeleteYes, this article about "Green Heating Solutions" does have something to do with Emma Dent Coad. She is currently leader of the opposition group on the council and has been quite justly criticised because her political style in the words of 14.17 above is "unlikely to stimulate, persuade or encourage a Tory rethink" on this serious matter.
ReplyDeleteIn the current climate emergency, and the local housing crisis, it is not "crap" to raise issues regarding the under performance of one of the key actors in the local policy debate - our very own Emma Dent Coad.
Emma needs to learn the art of oppositionism. Jeremy Corbyn style politics is not what is needed here. A more intelligent, reasoned,and careful approach is required to ensure that the Council makes good choices and ultimately good policy.
DeleteEmma and intelligence? Make good policy? Don't make laugh. She was a Director of the disgraced TMO for years and knew of the misery meted out to tenants. After the Grenfell fire, she was wise about everything that went wrong at the TMO. She said, "There was nothing an opposition councillor could do." Therefore, in her rather unintelligent mind, there is nothing she can do to encourage RBK&C down the right path on climate change
DeleteDoubt you could do any better. Put your big boy trousers on and stand for election. See how far you get
Delete11.34...is that your best shot? Pathetic!
Delete11.34 Emma Dent Coad is the weakest link in Labour Couincillors, goodbye.
DeleteImagination and intelligence is what is needed in a local authority opposition party. Scoffing, being incredulous and derisory is stuff of Kensington's ultra left councillors. Countering climate change is too important for EDC to play political football in the Council Chamber.
DeleteThey need someone who understand politics to manage Labour councillors.
DeleteLove to see it. You people bickering amongst yourselves over something no sane person gives a shit about.
DeleteAs you say, "No sane person gives a shit," so why are you giving a shit? Just goes to show that your cage is rattled; well and truly.
DeleteNot at all dear. But funny to see you guys are still in a permanent state of fragility over the same boring old, stuck record.
DeleteThe record is never stuck when it comes to exposing political stupidity.
Deletewhatever u say luvvy
DeleteDear Emma,
DeleteHow about telling us your strategy on climate change and green heating?
Do you unconditionally support President Zelensky of Ukraine or are you in agreement with Corbyn, the apologist for Putin, who blames the very existence of NATO for Russia's genocide in Ukraine?
Ta
I’m not Emma you fool. Try emailing her or something if you’re that bothered about getting an answer
DeleteWhy can't Emma tell the world on the Hornet her position on green heating and Ukraine? I have written to her many times, in the past, and not received an answer.
DeleteWe know that her "Socialism is Corbyn's Socialism but" she "is not Corbynite." The woman talks in riddles and is a crackpot. It is why the Labour Party put paid to her return to Westminster.
Putin is a barbaric bastard.
DeleteCorbyn supports him.
On whose side are Kensington's Labour Councillors?
Putin's ? ?
DeleteLabour Councillors failing to condemn Putin is like those who failed to condemn Hitler in WWII.
DeleteShe won't answer that. 08.57
ReplyDelete