A new report from the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee (PAC) severely criticized the green housing subsidy program, which was supposed to renovate 600,000 homes with insulation and green heating systems, but only ran for six months earlier this year Then it was abandoned.
Only 47,500 houses received subsidies, and the taxpayer for each property eventually spent more than £1,000 in management fees.
PAC stated that the plan did not take into account the shortage of businessmen who could carry out the work it should fund.
The National Audit Office launched in 2013 to reduce carbon emissions by providing loans for house insulation, and found that it had already saved “a negligible amount of carbon dioxide” when it closed two years later.
Near Cambridgeshire, where I live, the county council has invested £12 million in community heating systems powered by ground-source heat pumps (transferring heat to/from the ground), including a government grant of £3.2 million.
It should be a test bed for how to heat all properties in the future. However, by the end of December, only 47 houses had been signed.
Therefore, unless there is last-minute interest, each house will eventually cost more than £250,000.
However, the ministers intend to force us all to adopt a similar plan. You may have heard of the government’s proposal to ban the installation of new gas-fired boilers from 2035.
What is less known is that the end of oil-fired boilers and LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) boilers will come sooner-4 million households use gas pipelines.
According to the “Heating and Building Strategy”, new installations of these boilers will be banned from 2026, in order to meet the government’s legally binding goal of eliminating net carbon emissions by 2050.
I either have to make room for a bulky biomass boiler (burning wood chips) or install an electric pump. This can extract heat from the air outside your home or the soil under your garden.
But heat pumps are very expensive-an average of 12,000 pounds, and their cost is three times that of oil-fired boilers. In addition, they are more expensive to run, and according to some, they cannot adequately heat the house.
This is why the government is keen to explore alternatives, such as using the advantages of economies of scale to heat homes through public water pumps.
SwaffhamPrior’s plan should be a test bed for how all properties will be heated in the future. However, by the end of December, only 47 houses had been signed
Therefore, Swaffham Prior Heat Network should meet the requirements. The plan is to lay pipes under a field on the edge of the village to extract heat from the soil and use it to pump hot water to the residents’ existing radiators.
When the water starts to flow in March next year, in the cold winter, it should flow out at 72 degrees Celsius, and in the summer, it will be slightly cooler, when it will only be used for bathing or showering.
For example, many homes in Copenhagen are heated by public systems that pump water around the city. Nottingham also has a regional plan to use the heat from waste incinerators to deliver hot water to 5,000 homes.
The most absurd thing about the plan is that even if the 300 houses in the village have been signed, each property still costs £40,000.
This is almost four times the cost of installing a heat pump per resident. How can anyone think that it is worthwhile to spend £12 million on a heating plan for just 300 homes?
It is true that pioneering plans always cost more before prices tend to fall. But it is far from affordable.
This is a typical scenario for climate change policy-all financial awareness has been left behind.
In the government’s panic attempt to achieve net zero emissions by 2050, it will invest money desperately.
Many residents are reluctant to participate in the plan because a clause in the contract says that if the result is not feasible, the plan can be terminated with two years’ notice. This leaves them without heating at all.
We all want clean energy. But the fact is that there is not yet any form of heating on the market that can rival oil and natural gas in price.
According to government data, there are already 2.4 million households in the UK living in “fuel poverty”. Unless technology changes quickly, this situation will surge once oil and gas central heating is banned.
If the Swaffham Prior project is feasible, you need to have the wealth of a millionaire before you consider joining the unsubsidized district heating program.
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