Heat Pumps Won’t Improve EPC Ratings

By Paul Homewood

h/t Ian Magness

 

Who would have thought!!!

 

 

 image

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/net-zero/landlords-told-heat-pumps-wont-improve-epc-ratings/

The Telegraph report that installing heat pumps won’t improve energy performance certificate (EPC) ratings. Landlords must boost their ratings to C by 2030, in order to carry on letting properties.

According to research by epIMS, an energy performance advice service for landlords, the cost of running an air sourced heat pump is £1001 a year for a typical property, compared with £815 for a gas boiler.

As the EPC rating is a reflection of the cost of energy, it is unlikely that fitting a heat pump will improve ratings.

Full story here.

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January 4, 2025 at 05:10AM

CfD Subsidies Hit Record High In 2024

By Paul Homewood

 

 image

https://dp.lowcarboncontracts.uk/dataset/actual-cfd-generation-and-avoided-ghg-emissions

CfD subsidies hit a record high of £2362 million last year, beating the previous record set in 2020, when market electricity prices were exceptionally low because of lockdowns. The LCCC data runs up to Dec 22nd, so the final figure for 2024 will be slightly higher still.

Subsidies covered 30.2 TWh of generation, at an average of £78/MWh. In other words renewable schemes covered by CfD were paid about double the market price in overall terms.

Wind power accounted for £1970 million of the overall subsidy, with biomass adding a further £299 million.

Total subsidies for wind power tot up to  £9.1 billion since the CfD scheme started in 2016, with biomass costing another £2.5 billion.

image

 

 

Meanwhile subsidies for wind power via the Renewable Obligation Scheme cost a further £4.6 billion in the year ended March 2024.

In short, wind power is now being subsidised to the tune of about £7 billion a year, when constraint payments are included.

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January 4, 2025 at 04:49AM

Crosby DCNN7220 – The (Former) Coastguard’s Car Park.

53.49725 -3.05768 Met Office Assessed CIMO Class 4 Installed 1/1/1983

Many weather stations were located at Coastguard stations for obvious reasons. They are logically always coastal sites but vary from remote outposts to often seaside towns such as Crosby. However, Crosby Coastguard station was closed in 2015 and the site is now used by various different occupants such as the Liverpool Maritime and Fishing Survey Office.

The street view image indicates the scale of the problems with this site.

It is often sarcastically claimed that weather stations are drawn to air-con exhausts – it seems car parks and engine exhausts are equally attractive. The 10 metre circled image is centred exactly on the screen revealing 6 parking bays within the radius, it is under 6 metres to the rear of the white car shown.

I have no doubt that the Met Office inspector who assessed this site can justify the Class 4 rating (inaccuracy by siting of an additional 2°C) by precise calculation and measurement but surely common sense should prevail. The “H-pole” mounted electricity transformer, multiple lamp posts and double fencing to the north and western boundaries only adds to the unnatural nature of the site. Overnight vehicle parking further enclosing the screen will only affect temperatures upwardly. It should be also noted that the immediate surroundings are subject to potential development (overlooking the Burbo Bank offshore wind farm counting amongst other local attractions) and I do wonder wheter relocation is being considered. After All the Met Office allegedly planned relocation/closure of the likes of Manston and Gravesend in advance of ultimately non-forthcoming development.

The Met Office claims to employ multiple checks and balances to correct any serious discrepancies in temperature readings, though my review of Faversham calls such claims into serious question. However, in the case of stations such as Crosby, it seems almost inevitable that the readings are so continually artificially elevated that “discrepancy” becomes the invisible norm.

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January 4, 2025 at 04:32AM

2025 Looks Bleak For Germany…Energy the Most Expensive In Europe …Growing Speech Tyranny

From the NoTricksZone

By P Gosselin

2025 in Germany will be a year more energy inflation and loss a free speech rights

Effective today, Germany’s CO2 surcharge will rise from 45 euros a tonne to 55 euros, which will further fan inflation and social discontent.

Already Germany’s electricity prices are among the highest in the world, and the most expensive in Europe:

Chart: strom-report.com/ 

Germany clamps down on dissenters, free speech

But 2025 will not be an easy year for dissenters and critics of the government, as this is increasingly being criminalized in Germany thanks to recently passed laws and acts that aim to suppress free speech.

The former head Germany’s Constitution Protection Authority (Bundesverfassungsschutz), Thomas Haldenwang (CDU Party), suggested last February when presenting measures to fight right-wing extremism, that human thoughts and speech patterns need to be under surveillance and become the business of the government: “It’s also about shifting verbal and mental boundaries. We have to be careful that thought and language patterns don’t become embedded in our language.”

In a nutshell, the German government aims to regulate human thoughts.

Mocking the state now verboten

Haldenwang’s boss, Federal Minister of the Interior Nancy Faeser (SPD Party), wants to treat vocal conservative protesters in the same way as organized crime groups: “Those who mock the state must deal with a strong state,” she said.

Even legal speech to become suspect

“We want to take account of the fact that hate on the internet also occurs below the threshold of criminal liability,”said Federal Minister for Family Affairs Lisa Paus (Greens) at her press conference on February 13 on the topic of ‘Hate on the Internet’.“Many enemies of democracy know exactly what falls under freedom of expression on social media platforms,”

Meant by “enemies of democracy” here are opposition forces, even when democratically elected.

Unwanted election results may be annulled

In response to comments in favor of the conservative made by Elon Musk, German President Frank Walter Steinmeier hinted he would annul the results of the upcoming February 23 national elections if he doesn’t like the results.

So in Germany, it’s watch what you say and, if the old parties don’t like the election results, then they might just well annul them. Germany is slipping back quickly to darker times.

Happy New Year to the rest of you!


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January 4, 2025 at 04:07AM