Domestic Air Source Heat Pump [image credit: UK Alternative Energy]
Massive hidden charges scupper a home heat pump plan. Meanwhile we’re fed tales of millions of UK heat pumps running on Moroccan solar power by 2030, in pursuit of ‘net zero’ climate targets as per government propaganda. Reality suggests otherwise.
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A County Down woman has said she is “overwhelmingly disappointed” that a connection charge of thousands of pounds has dashed her hopes of installing an environmentally-friendly air source heat pump at her new-build house, reports BBC News.
After a lifetime working in the environment sector, Celia Spouncer and her partner, David Thompson, wanted to build a home that was as efficient as possible and would allow them to be part of what Celia thought of as the green revolution.
“It’s driven into you, it’s all about air tightness in the build,” she said.
“We have really thick insulation and we got the thicker cavity wall and now we’re feeling the benefit of that.
“We have a wood stove and we’re putting in a mechanical heat recovery system so that means the heat is redistributed evenly through the building, and that just left what choice we had with regard to our heating source.”
But the dream ended when Celia contacted NIE to arrange connection for the air source heat pump they had chosen.
“We were told that, where we are, that we would need to spend a lot of money on increasing the capacity of the transformer and putting in extra wiring, and it was going to come in at something like £16,000 to put in that additional improvement to the network so that we could put a low carbon energy source in.”
‘Big green tank’
The transformer, a grey box on a nearby pole, distributes power to the houses connected to it.
Celia says NIE told her the box did not have the capacity to support an air source heat pump, while maintaining supply to the other connected properties.
“I’m just kind of overwhelmingly disappointed that’s where we’re at.
“So we’ve reverted to an oil boiler and the heart sinks really to see that big green tank outside and particularly the current situation with the energy crisis and everything.”
Full report here.
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June 6, 2022 at 06:19AM
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