Why heat pumps won’t ease energy crisis – Yorkshire Post Letters

I WRITE in response to the assertion that “the Government is advocating heat pumps as a solution to soaring energy bills”.

In fact the advice to change to heat pumps is designed to cut carbon emissions by changing from gas boilers to electricity powered heat pumps.

Such a change, if done internationally, may help the environment but will have a horrendous impact on fuel bills. Energy consumption is measured in kWh (kilowatt hours).

On checking my own bills I find that 1000kWh of gas costs £27.30 (without regard to VAT or standing charge). For 1000kWh of electricity the equivalent charge is £153.94, almost six times as expensive.

If gas doubles, triples or more in price, it will have a huge impact on my bills but it would be infinitely worse if all my heating was by electricity. It is also worth mentioning that whilst petrol/diesel is “expensive”, it is heavily loaded with tax and once an equivalent tax is levied on electric cars, drivers will find their dream fuel has become a nightmare.

Our efforts, sadly will not affect the environment in any way since the major world polluters will ensure that economics will play a greater part than any green moves on the part of the UK.

To be successful, the UK must use science and engineering to cut the cost of producing and distributing electricity quite substantially before introducing such draconian measures as this race to an electrically powered society.

From: Dennis Mackay, Leeds.

THE continuous increase in world temperature can only be stopped if every country in the world makes drastic changes to its way of life.

I very much doubt that these changes will happen, at least as quickly as needed: many countries will continue to behave in what they consider to be their own best interests.

Faced with such lack of co-operation the best solution would be for each nation to become, as far as possible, self-supporting. Recent problems caused by the dependence of the EU on Russian gas and the threats by France to cut off the supply of electricity to the Channel Islands illustrate clearly the dangers of becoming too dependent on other nations.

If we look at a table of users of fossil fuels we will find China and India at the top and the UK near the bottom. We should ask ourselves why? One reason is that their populations make up about one third of the world population. However, another reason is that China has become the workshop of the world. As customers we can only buy what is available to us in the shops or online. The result is that many of the goods we buy may carry the name of a British company, but tucked somewhere in the small print it says “Made in China”... or in some other country where wages are low.

So China, as the workshop of the world, is pouring out heat and carbon dioxide. The fault is ours. Before buying anything we should ask ourselves if there a truly British-made version of the product?

Support The Yorkshire Post and become a subscriber today. Your subscription will help us to continue to bring quality news to the people of Yorkshire. In return, you’ll see fewer ads on site, get free access to our app, receive exclusive members-only offers and access to all premium content and columns. Click here to subscribe.