As long as people think it's too cold in the UK for them to work or that you need to insulate your house to a level that'll make you drown in black mould, I don't have much hope
this post was submitted on 23 Apr 2025
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'You'll need new radiators, and ideally more insulation'
"Utterly unworkable, now fit me a new gas boiler"
(Imo, the thing really holding ashps back is the costs. Companies treating installation like a dark art, and using the government grants to print money)
We also have an issue that much of our housing stock is really old and actually relies on leaks for propper air circulation, properly insulating these houses leads to damp and mold problems as OP mentioned. Huge swaths of housing in the UK are just fundementally unfit for purpose.
You just need to fit a few treacle extractor vents. Takes sometime with the right tools a few minutes to do.
I like to rant about this, but it is possible to insulate old properties without causing damp and mould.
It requires understanding of how the materials work (breathability, etc), and more expensive materials, so it's often difficult to get it done for a reasonable price.
My previous house was a Victorian semi that had cavity walls. I phoned up about a green grant to get it done (as people two doors down had) and they wouldn't believe me until they checked Google Earth. Had it surveyed and it would have needed a lot of preparation work to get into a condition that it could have been insulated. Ended moving and I am unsure what the new owners have done on that front - not flash enough to make their Instagram account about renovating the house which I have been advised not to read as they are horrible people with bad taste. Although I get the gist as it often gets commented on at parties, especially as a friend's brother-in-law did the bathrooms.
not flash enough to make their Instagram account about renovating the house which I have been advised not to read as they are horrible people with bad taste
I'll take "slapping grey paint on every surface, then fitting grey laminate flooring and black gloss worktops" for $500, Alex.
That, and painting over every patch of damp with tanking rather than actually fixing it.
Too cold in the UK for them to work? We run them in MN where it can hit -25C in winter. On the coldest days they can't be the sole source of heat but they work just fine in the cold.
I know, I'm not saying that that makes any sense 😅 just seems to be a common thought here
Smarter devices support demand side response, which is welcome to make the grid more efficient. A good local energy-efficient solution includes in my experience three key ingredients.
First you need local energy storage to allow for extra flexibility to handle life's ebbs and flows. This could be an EV or dedicated storage battery, which can be charged when electricity is abundant, and discharged when supply is tight and something energy hungry needs doing.
Second the grid side will not know when I’m planning to do something energy hungry, or when I want the EV battery full instead of the usual 80% charge. Therefore some way of providing input is needed. It might be possible to learn reasonable local demand forecast models reflecting local behaviour patterns, but I’m not yet convinced about this and tend to trust human guidance more.
Third you need intelligent control to respond to grid signals (e.g. price changes) and combine those with local inputs and any local consumption and production (e.g. from solar panels or micro wind turbines) forecasts.
Energy companies will of course want to have the intelligent control in their hands as it creates them price arbitrage. For majority of consumers that will be the best solution. Some of us will not necessarily want to give them that control and prefer a local solution.
This will be a welcome move if it let's people get better control of their energy. I think someone has posted on here about their smart home setup that allows them to monitor their green energy production and usage.
Could have been me. I’ve been working on this as a hobby for over five years yers since we got solar panels, EV and a dedicated battery for storage.