The Energy Crisis

[smuts]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/65042314

Who cares that British Gas customer service is a complete pile of crap? Here's your 3 million plus bonus.

[Alan Pardew's Dad]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/65042314

Who cares that British Gas customer service is a complete pile of crap? Here's your 3 million plus bonus.

That headline is a bit click-baity. It’s actually the head of Centrica, who while technically is in charge of British Gas, is more akin to the head of BP or Shell.

I don’t see the outrage for footballers on £70k a week basic salary, which is the equivalent of what he earnt this year including all bonuses. His basic salary is £15k a week, which is a decent Championship salary. The difference is one will work massive hours, have huge responsibilities and potentially go to prison if something goes wrong on his watch. The other kicks a bag of wind around and has time to develop an excellent golf handicap.

The lefties want to blame everything on business and nationalise everything, while the right wing want to blame everything on immigrants and blame the poor for being lazy. We are living in sad and divided times.

[RichieRiv]

Spot on Chocolates Old Man.

Centrica pull it out the ground, they don't set the market price. We all do that collectivelu by sticking the heating on in September and having a million and one electronic devices all plugged in drawing current.

[DaveWHU1964]

The lefties want to blame everything on business and nationalise everything …

Everything? I can only speak for myself but as a ‘leftie’ I don’t want that.

I’d like to see key infrastructure and utilities nationalised. M&S, Pizza Express, the nice little pub I went to the other day near Saville Row, but whose name escapes me, etc? … no, of course not. I’d be amazed if any ‘leftie’ came on here to disagree with me on that one as they believed everything should be under state control.

[smuts]

If British Gas hadn't left my daughter without gas for over 3 weeks as their customer service team couldn't sort their meter out (she switched to Octopus who sorted it in one day) and also hadn't been appallingly hopeless when my mum died and I tried to help my dad access their account (contacted their bereavement support email, chased twice only to get a response 10 weeks after the initial contact to be told to email their bereavement support team ) I wouldn't be too fussed.

[RichieRiv]

If British Gas hadn't left my daughter without gas for over 3 weeks as their customer service team couldn't sort their meter out (she switched to Octopus who sorted it in one day) and also hadn't been appallingly hopeless when my mum died and I tried to help my dad access their account (contacted their bereavement support email, chased twice only to get a response 10 weeks after the initial contact to be told to email their bereavement support team ) I wouldn't be too fussed.

Incompetent customer services like this, deserved an email to the CEO (www.ceoemails.com) cc'ing your MP and/or The Daily Mail. Surprising how quickly they pull their finger out.

[Alan Pardew's Dad]

Everything? I can only speak for myself but as a ‘leftie’ I don’t want that.

Don’t worry Dave, it was a sweeping generalisation on my part in an attempt to characterise political cohorts in little more than a Daily Mail or Daily Mirror headline

[EvilC]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-65080014

[bonzosbeard]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-65080014

A hint of slightly better times ahead I hope.

[Hummer_I_mean_Hammer]

plans to link solar & wind from Morocco to the UK

Pod cast here -

[Hummer_I_mean_Hammer]

Samsung Launches the EHS Mono HT Quiet - A High Temperature, Low Noise Heat Pump

Not sure if it is just sales spiel or not, but definitely needs to be addressed, making sure HPs are suitable for older type heating & HW installations, if they want to make the move away from natural gas more feasible.

[SammyLeeWasOffside]

Samsung Launches the EHS Mono HT Quiet - A High Temperature, Low Noise Heat Pump

Not sure if it is just sales spiel or not, but definitely needs to be addressed, making sure HPs are suitable for older type heating & HW installations, if they want to make the move away from natural gas more feasible.

We went with a gas boiler in the hope that technology will move on in the next few years and we can then go the heat pump route. Was talking to the heating engineer when he called back, he is now trained to fit heat pumps and said nothing can tough Samsung at the moment.

One thing I didn't know until having to dig about to research a building control argument. If you have 2 major insulation upgrades (Windows upgraded and cavity walls filled for example) to your home you are required to have mechanical ventilation installed. All this sealing everything up comes at a cost of air quality.

[Johnny Byrne's Boots]

^^^^Would one of these be a direct replacement for a standard gas boiler? By this I mean take flow and return from existing system and connect them to the heat pump, leaving everything else (radiators, controls etc.) the same?

[EvilC]

I was told that the problem with heat pumps is that the water is much cooler, so you need to put bigger radiators in. The Samsung kit seems to negate this aspect.

Disclaimer: you would not let me within 100 metres of your house with a screwdriver as I am **** at anything practical, so please take this advice accordingly.

[mumbles87]

I was told that the problem with heat pumps is that the water is much cooler, so you need to put bigger radiators in. The Samsung kit seems to negate this aspect.

Disclaimer: you would not let me within 100 metres of your house with a screwdriver as I am **** at anything practical, so please take this advice accordingly.

Hot water can be an issue so work best with a tank , which is fine for people with the space for a tank

Once they get a combi replacement they will be a game changer

[SammyLeeWasOffside]

^^^^Would one of these be a direct replacement for a standard gas boiler? By this I mean take flow and return from existing system and connect them to the heat pump, leaving everything else (radiators, controls etc.) the same?

If they are getting the water temps up then yes it should do (I am no expert though). When we started looking into one we were told to go the under floor heating way and look at ways to top up the water tank temp, a few months later it was bigger radiators, a few months after that our friends took the plunge and they have old school radiators in (I think they had to have a couple extra fitted), now this new samsung one. Things have moved so quickly in about 18 months.

I'm not sure about the controls, presumably something like Hive would work with a HP but they do have controls that come with them.

[Johnny Byrne's Boots]

I've just had a new gas boiler fitted and the flow temperature is 64C, the Samsung having a 70C flow has piqued my interest, but as SLWO says, things are moving quickly.

[RichieRiv]

ASHP fitters are easy to find. Finding anyone to repair them, is a different matter.

Most people I know who have fitted them, have come to regret it and said they wished they had gone with a hyper-efficient gas boiler.

[chelmsfordhammer91]

What sort of savings we talking generally though?

I got a Worcester Bosch 4000 30kw combi thing in Dec '21, it was meant to be one of the more efficient ones at the time.

We had extra and bigger radiators put in during the refurb and it's coped fine. If anything, we've had to turn the boiler temps down as the hot water was nearly scalding and the heating was getting pumped out within a minute or two but too much.

[Hammer Matty]

One thing that’s not mentioned when they’re sold, and a lot of installers don’t repair them as they are literally trained to throw them in, is that in ultra cold weather like we had this winter at times, the unit has a defrost mode and switches between heating the home to heating the unit below about 5 degrees

One customer of mine said the unit spent more time defrosting itself than heating the home so went out and bought a load of electric heaters for the cold weeks