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by bell-cot 347 days ago
Unfortunately, heat pumps in every home is the sort of absolutist policy that simplistic politicians and bureaucrats love.

"Proving that gov't can make the cure far worse than the disease is a tough job, but somebody's gotta do it."
1 comments
toomuchtodo 347 days ago
What leads you to this conclusion? Heat pumps can replace existing fossil fuel boiler units for heat, while also providing cooling as global warming continues to expose the UK to increased heating year after year.

Perhaps a home than can maintain temperature passively does not require a heat pump, but any home that requires active conditioning of either heating or cooling will benefit.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/sep/28/heat-pum...

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bell-cot 347 days ago
> What least you to this conclusion? Heat pumps can ...

Yes, at n=1, doing a boiler => heat pump replacement, in a cookie-cutter well-to-do house, will provide both cooling and reduced local carbon emissions.

But "well-to-do" is an important qualification, as your Guardian article notes. Because that expensive replacement work will likely be followed by higher utility bills in perpetuity.

Some well-to-do folks won't mind that. Others will. Less well-to-do folks will generally mind it more. Note that there are far more of the latter. And every one of them has the power to vote against the "heat-pump party".

There are other problems as you scale up - some noted in your cited article, some not. Britain isn't full of idle heat-pump factories and installation firms. You can subsidize - but the British Treasury is in iffy shape, and the pound sterling is no longer the world's reserve currency, to make that low-risk.

In theory (or your article), the right mix of competent policies and good judgement calls could make a British national heat-pump mostly-mandate work out well. But would a rational person, aware of the British government's very mixed track record over the past half-century or so, actually believe that they had the Right Stuff to do that?

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_dain_ 347 days ago
a lot of this would be solved by just getting rid of the bad regulations that prevent AC and cooling-capable heatpumps from being installed. it would organically increase demand. govt doesn't have to do that much active work, just stop sabotaging things.
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bell-cot 347 days ago
Perfectly true.

But, in a nat'l-gov't-level org, even "stop sabotaging things" is an enormous ask.

(If you're unfamiliar, talk to a few folks who've retired from the civil service. Or have a few decades of experience with mere local gov't.)

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