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These free train trips might be nice, but they don't really reply to the issue at hand. The source of inflation in Europe is the godfather in Moscow shutting t

These free train trips might be nice, but they don't really reply to the issue at hand. The source of inflation in Europe is the godfather in Moscow shutting the valves on natural gas pipelines. Barring war with a nuclear arms power, the remedies are diversifying natural gas supply and lowering its consumption. I see far too little too late action on this front. I've been waiting for half a year now for a simple and effective EU wide coordinated effort. It's just not happening. Our political class seems to show very little sense of urgency. One example out of many. Heat pumps are still in stock in most of the EU, with installers available to install them. We're speaking of systems that easily cut domestic energy consumption in three. Still available, after over six months of emergency!

fy20 4y ago
Although I'm a big proponent of heat pumps, they are not the solution here. I ran the numbers for my country and it still works out cheaper to heat with gas than a heat pump. Natural gas works out to be 13c/kWh and an electric heat pump 16c/kWh of heat. Why would someone pay close to €10k to switch to a heat pump, if the end result is going to be bills will not change? The only case a heat pump would be cheaper today is if you have solar, as then you can produce heat and hot water without any grid usage for half the year (the warmer part though), and you probably have net billing for the other half. In my country (and most of the EU) the elephant in the room is a lot of the electricity comes from natural gas, so switching to heat pumps alone will not drastically reduce natural gas demand. The market rates say it's better to burn directly than convert to electricity and then back to heat. I hope this is finally the thing that forces the EU to decarbonise electricity generation and switch to green energy (inc. nuclear), but given how slow things have changed over the last decade I somewhat doubt that. We already have the technology but Russian energy has been too cheap, now though...
- kazen44 4y ago
  to add to this, a ton of houses are not build for heatpump based systems. Most radiator style heating (aka, anything build prior to the 2000's) will not work with a heat pump because the water temperature cannot get high enough to get proper cooling coefficiency. Replacing your entire radiator based system in many houses is not possible without an extreme renovation of the home.
  - flaviut 4y ago
    mini-split systems are incredibly efficient and much easier to install than central heating. I would not expect them to require extreme renovation.
- markvdb 4y ago
  The fact that you and I have to calculate if it makes sense to switch from natural gas to heat pump heating is an abject policymaking failure at several levels. This should have been abundantly clear months ago, with information campaigns and economic stimuli. Heat pumps are an important part of the solution. Even with 100% natural gas electricity production, they cut energy consumption in less than half [0] Simple measures and clear communication about them are desperately required. What about something like an EU level free energy voucher: - heating: local degree days [1] * 0.5 kWh/person for winter 2022-2023 - non-heating energy consumption: 500 kWh/person voucher for 2022 - voucher redeemable against electric bill, pellets or firewood, district heating bill, insulation, (shares in) new non-fossil electricity production/storage/interconnect capacity - clear communication about the future: less voucher/person, no more redeemable against Russian natural gas portion of district heating/firewood/pellet subsidies, ... [0] - natural gas electricity generation: 60% efficient - heat pump seasonal coefficient of performance: 3.5 (typical for central Europe, lower for northern Europe, higher for southern Europe) - heat pump efficiency: 3.5 * 60% = 210% - natural gas direct heating efficiency: 95% [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Degree_day https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Degree_day
moltar 4y ago
Spain doesn’t source gas from Russia though. Spain has some, if not the, lowest, prices buy far. Like 1/3 of German gas prices.
- markvdb 4y ago
  That cheaper natural gas is already flowing north quite a lot, either by lng ship where available, or under the form of natural gas generated electricity. It makes a lot of sense to lower domestic natural gas heating consumption in Spain in favour of heat pumps: - Heat pumps are more efficient further southwest in Europe. - More will be left to substitute Russian natural gas elsewhere in the EU.
yrgulation 4y ago
> I've been waiting for half a year now for a simple and effective EU wide coordinated effort. Hang on in there bud. Spain in particular and south europe as whole have little to say in the way the eu works. Unless a diktat comes about they’ll bark for nothing.

fy20 4y ago

Although I'm a big proponent of heat pumps, they are not the solution here. I ran the numbers for my country and it still works out cheaper to heat with gas than a heat pump. Natural gas works out to be 13c/kWh and an electric heat pump 16c/kWh of heat. Why would someone pay close to €10k to switch to a heat pump, if the end result is going to be bills will not change? The only case a heat pump would be cheaper today is if you have solar, as then you can produce heat and hot water without any grid usage for half the year (the warmer part though), and you probably have net billing for the other half. In my country (and most of the EU) the elephant in the room is a lot of the electricity comes from natural gas, so switching to heat pumps alone will not drastically reduce natural gas demand. The market rates say it's better to burn directly than convert to electricity and then back to heat. I hope this is finally the thing that forces the EU to decarbonise electricity generation and switch to green energy (inc. nuclear), but given how slow things have changed over the last decade I somewhat doubt that. We already have the technology but Russian energy has been too cheap, now though...

kazen44 4y ago
to add to this, a ton of houses are not build for heatpump based systems. Most radiator style heating (aka, anything build prior to the 2000's) will not work with a heat pump because the water temperature cannot get high enough to get proper cooling coefficiency. Replacing your entire radiator based system in many houses is not possible without an extreme renovation of the home.
- flaviut 4y ago
  mini-split systems are incredibly efficient and much easier to install than central heating. I would not expect them to require extreme renovation.
markvdb 4y ago
The fact that you and I have to calculate if it makes sense to switch from natural gas to heat pump heating is an abject policymaking failure at several levels. This should have been abundantly clear months ago, with information campaigns and economic stimuli. Heat pumps are an important part of the solution. Even with 100% natural gas electricity production, they cut energy consumption in less than half [0] Simple measures and clear communication about them are desperately required. What about something like an EU level free energy voucher: - heating: local degree days [1] * 0.5 kWh/person for winter 2022-2023 - non-heating energy consumption: 500 kWh/person voucher for 2022 - voucher redeemable against electric bill, pellets or firewood, district heating bill, insulation, (shares in) new non-fossil electricity production/storage/interconnect capacity - clear communication about the future: less voucher/person, no more redeemable against Russian natural gas portion of district heating/firewood/pellet subsidies, ... [0] - natural gas electricity generation: 60% efficient - heat pump seasonal coefficient of performance: 3.5 (typical for central Europe, lower for northern Europe, higher for southern Europe) - heat pump efficiency: 3.5 * 60% = 210% - natural gas direct heating efficiency: 95% [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Degree_day https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Degree_day

moltar 4y ago

Spain doesn’t source gas from Russia though. Spain has some, if not the, lowest, prices buy far. Like 1/3 of German gas prices.

markvdb 4y ago
That cheaper natural gas is already flowing north quite a lot, either by lng ship where available, or under the form of natural gas generated electricity. It makes a lot of sense to lower domestic natural gas heating consumption in Spain in favour of heat pumps: - Heat pumps are more efficient further southwest in Europe. - More will be left to substitute Russian natural gas elsewhere in the EU.

yrgulation 4y ago

> I've been waiting for half a year now for a simple and effective EU wide coordinated effort. Hang on in there bud. Spain in particular and south europe as whole have little to say in the way the eu works. Unless a diktat comes about they’ll bark for nothing.