When Gramps becomes a popsicle: UK winter plan for heat pumps is "Turn them off at night"

(AP Photo/Rebecca Horsbrugh)

So, when you live in Never Never Land as Greens seem to do , there’s nothing that the act of your merely saying it can’t make so. It has happened repeatedly with their empty promises of renewables carrying the United Kingdom cheaply and reliably forward into the 22d century and the Nirvana that is Net Zero.

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It is happening again with the mandates to switch the entirety of the British Isles – including the naughty north bits who routinely plunge into frozen wastelands come winter – to electric heat pumps. Even as folks intimately familiar with such technology, and the fact that the U.K. can’t keep the lights on as it is, insist with moral authority “Heat pumps are not designed for heating in C-O-L-D climates.”

…To his credit, one of the largest heat pump suppliers in the country has spoken up to tell the climate cultists in the government just that – heat pumps and winter do not co-exist.

…Lord Willie Haughey, the business tycoon, said the heating system is unsuitable for the Scottish climate as its performance declines markedly in freezing weather.

The Labour peer said some units can stop working properly at temperatures of -5C (23F), or require more electricity to function properly, resulting in higher bills.

Parts of Scotland hit -15C last winter and the country holds the record for the UK’s lowest temperature of -27.2C seen in Braemar in Aberdeenshire in 1982 and Altnaharra in Sutherland in 1995.

I’ll do the math for you, cuz I’m that kinda gal: -15°C is 5°F and that -27.2°C is -16.96°F. That’s frickin’ Arctic in any book and heat pumps – they cannae handle it.

Oh, NO WORRIES THERE, fellow Brits!

You friends in the climate cult have the perfect answer, and they’ll hit NetZero that much faster.

You just turn the heat off in the evening.

Seriously. That’s the plan.

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Feels good to save the planet, doesn’t it? Better hang on to that warm glow because you’ll need it.

Millions of families will be urged by a green quango not to heat their homes in the evening to help the Government hit its net zero target.

The Climate Change Committee (CCC) said people should turn off their radiators at peak times as part of a wider drive to deliver “emissions savings”.

In a document on “behaviour change” the body recommended Britons “pre-heat” their houses in the afternoon when electricity usage is lower.

Pre-heating your drafty crofter’s cottage or leaky-walled flat should work out great when it’s 20°F or so outside. I’m sure that’ll stay toasty for about a half an hour if you’re lucky. So what if the pipes freeze? Or even better – the heat pump freezes up and won’t restart?

Think of how much more you’ll save on those electric bills and Gaia will love you.

That’s the Greens for you – dripping empathy for their fellow man’s welfare. They are all about you.

But there are the skeptics, damn their eyes, who kinda sorta think that maybe it’s not all about lofty goals like Net Zero. Some people are wondering if this isn’t a smoke screen to get folks turning off electricity to essential appliances so that they don’t notice that there wasn’t enough juice to run them to begin with.

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Say…who would be that devious?

…It said the move would save families money, but critics suggested the real reason was that renewables will not be able to provide enough energy to cope with peak demand.

I’ll take Door Number Two for £10, Monty!

Energy in the U.K. is an expensive, unreliable boondoggle thank to jettisoning their natural gas, clean coal, and nuclear power plants in favor of Green schemes.

Millions of households will struggle to pay their energy bills this winter and many of the poorest will pay even more than last winter despite a forecast drop in the price cap, new analysis warns.

The energy regulator is expected to announce tomorrow that prices for most households in Britain will fall by about 7 per cent from October 1, taking average annual bills below £2,000 for the first time in a year.

…About 6.3 million households will be in fuel poverty this winter, which means they will spend at least a tenth of their income on heating their home, said National Energy Action. That is up from 4.5 million in October 2021. It is calling on the government to provide further support for vulnerable households and to make good on its pledge last November to develop a new way of protecting households from April 2024.

…Resolution Foundation estimates that 7.2 million households in England will face higher bills this winter. Last winter bills averaged £2,500 a year for a household with typical usage under the government’s energy price guarantee. The government also provided universal payments of £400 per household that are not being repeated this winter.

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Yeah, heckuva trade-off there.

Screencap Net Zero Watch

If I lived in NY, MA, or anywhere where they are pushing heat pumps, I’d worry, especially if it gets really cold. This is the next step in the lunacy, because they don’t have a practical answer for the grid they’ve destroyed. They have no back-ups now and no future back-up plans for the shortfalls they’ve created, where there didn’t used to be any at all.

Shame on them – and us – if we keep buying the same bill of goods.

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Ed Morrissey 10:00 PM | November 22, 2024
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