Heat pumps vs Gas boilers

FreeBear

Ganga said: How long before every house has a large windmill generating electricity in their garden or attached to their chimney .
I have all ways wondered why countries with underground heating sources ( Hawaii ,Italy , etc ) do not build super sized generator plants and get the free heat to produce the power ,after the build cost- free electricity.

Iceland is a major user of geothermal energy. Whilst we could make use of it in this country, it would require some very deep boreholes to do so (1Km+).

Nuclear batteries would be an alternative - Free heat and endless electricity in a package about the same size as a shipping container (smaller versions also available).

Ganga

FreeBear said:

Ganga said: How long before every house has a large windmill generating electricity in their garden or attached to their chimney .
I have all ways wondered why countries with underground heating sources ( Hawaii ,Italy , etc ) do not build super sized generator plants and get the free heat to produce the power ,after the build cost- free electricity.

Iceland is a major user of geothermal energy. Whilst we could make use of it in this country, it would require some very deep boreholes to do so (1Km+).

Nuclear batteries would be an alternative - Free heat and endless electricity in a package about the same size as a shipping container (smaller versions also available).

I am sure this was tried in the UK , somewhere like the south west ,they drilled down two shafts at an angle that met underground ,pumped cold water down one and it came back up heated from the other ,cannot remember much more about it .

Le_Kirk

Section62 said:

Because smart meters were effectively a brand-new technology that can only be installed with the cooperation of the customer.  The benefits of having a smart meter are marginal for most people, and in some cases there will be a disbenefit. There have been some very good reasons for customers to refuse to cooperate in having their meter changed.

I don't think the smart meter roll out was a simple task. It was (and remains) an incredibly complex project.

It would have been simpler if primary legislation had empowered DNOs to give consumers 7 days notice that their meter will be changed, that entry could be forced if nobody was at home, and that the roll-out was tackled on a street-by-street basis rather than ad-hoc.

I don't think the government of the day would have got that legislation through Parliament.

The installers would have to make sure the Smart meters would work in the are BEFORE they ripped out the old ones.  My neighbour had two payments from Eon because they failed TWICE to install his Smart meter and had to reverse it, having left him without electricity (no gas in the village at the time) for eight hours on the coldest day of the year.  Reason they failed is "we can't get a signal".  I received two pay-outs from Eon for non-attendance of the engineers and told them I didn't want one - still don't have one.  To balance the equation another neighbour had his meters fitted (yes we now have Gas) without trouble at the time but then didn't get a proper electricity bill for a year because there were "connectivity issues" Sir!

FreeBear

Ganga said:

FreeBear said:

Ganga said: How long before every house has a large windmill generating electricity in their garden or attached to their chimney .
I have all ways wondered why countries with underground heating sources ( Hawaii ,Italy , etc ) do not build super sized generator plants and get the free heat to produce the power ,after the build cost- free electricity.

Iceland is a major user of geothermal energy. Whilst we could make use of it in this country, it would require some very deep boreholes to do so (1Km+).

Nuclear batteries would be an alternative - Free heat and endless electricity in a package about the same size as a shipping container (smaller versions also available).

I am sure this was tried in the UK , somewhere like the south west ,they drilled down two shafts at an angle that met underground ,pumped cold water down one and it came back up heated from the other ,cannot remember much more about it .

https://geothermalengineering.co.uk/united-downs/ - Boreholes down to 5Km, but no power being generated yet by the looks of it. A tender has gone out for a 3MW power plant, so they are getting close.

Rodders53

Section62 said:

The current draw of a single-phase motor is typically much lower when running than at start-up.  There could be issues if lots of people have heat pumps which all start at exactly the same time. But less so if they are all running constantly.

Inrush currents are not the issue... it's only for a few cycles of the mains until the steady state (running current) is reached.  Incandescent lamps, and cooking/heating elements also have inrush currents when switched on.  It's the running current to supply millions of heat pumps that will become the issue with local supply cables/sub-station capacity.
 
It's the colder days when the pumps need to run at maximum output virtually continuously that will give problems. 

Doozergirl

Rodders53 said:

Section62 said:

The current draw of a single-phase motor is typically much lower when running than at start-up.  There could be issues if lots of people have heat pumps which all start at exactly the same time. But less so if they are all running constantly.

Inrush currents are not the issue... it's only for a few cycles of the mains until the steady state (running current) is reached.  Incandescent lamps, and cooking/heating elements also have inrush currents when switched on.  It's the running current to supply millions of heat pumps that will become the issue with local supply cables/sub-station capacity.
 
It's the colder days when the pumps need to run at maximum output virtually continuously that will give problems. 

Aha, yes we were having power cuts in Portugal when it was hitting 45 degrees; All the air con units going full steam!