A message from an acquaintance, John Elliott of Ebac
“My home is heated by heat pumps. On average it takes 1 kWh of electricity to produce 3 kwh’s of heat But electricity is about 4 times dearer than gas”
That says it all but I asked the question
Given that electricity is 4 times as expensive as gas, does that not make the use of heat pumps marginal and we still need to find the electricity to power them. With the government’s push for electric cars, are we not just going to run out of electricity? The new reactor is still 10 years away and, in that time, the old ones will have to be decommissioned. I suspect that they are preproduction Ebac versions.
We need a mix of energy, just like a mix of investments. We are too reliant on wind energy and if “full tilt” we would not be able to store it.
and his reply
think of it this way. it would take less gas to produce electricity to run a heat pump than heat a house with a gas boiler