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A view from Germany: Up to Russian invasion this February: old oil furnaces were being avidly replaced with natural gas ones. Solar installations were starting

A view from Germany: Up to Russian invasion this February: old oil furnaces were being avidly replaced with natural gas ones. Solar installations were starting to slack off. Lots of re-roofing and new exterior wall insulation. Since then: no slacking in the roofing and exterior wall insulation, but now everyone has a keen interest in heat pumps, and solar panels are being installed everywhere. Gonna be hard to convince people to take their chances again with a fuel from such an unreliable source in the next few years, I think, especially if this is a bad winter and rationing happens.

hellweaver666 4y ago
I'm currently renovating a house. My government are offering subsidies if you disconnect your gas supply and go all-electric. We'll be doing that alongside full solar (possibly with battery) and heat-pumps for heating/cooling.
- TacticalCoder 4y ago
  Be careful though: there are regions in the EU where electricity prices went crazy up. I know people who had a fixed plan at 120 EUR / month from an electricity company that went belly up who needed to take a new plan. My brother went from 120 EUR / month to 400 EUR / month for his electricity bill. Sister-in-law got 6 K EUR year-on-year adjustment for her electricity bill (so 500 EUR more per month on average). And a friend, for a big house granted, went from 120 EUR / month to 800 EUR / month.
z9znz 4y ago
Few people want to plan ahead (and spend the money that goes along with being prepared)... until they are in trouble. I won't say that good things have come from this war, but it certainly is a wake-up call for countries to get their future plans in better order. There is simply no excuse for the most industrially advanced country in the world (Germany) to have slacked off so much when it comes to energy. It must be some political angle, because not too many years ago Germany was one of the leaders in expanding their renewable energy sources.
TacticalCoder 4y ago
> Since then: no slacking in the roofing and exterior wall insulation, but now everyone has a keen interest in heat pumps, and solar panels are being installed everywhere. France here... Seeing how things were turning in May I turned my open fireplace into a closed one (way better efficiency) and ordered metric shit-tons of dry wood (I've now got enough for at least two years). Thankfully my house ain't using natural gas at all so at least I'm dodging that one problem. Now electricity may be rationed this winter: dunno, we'll see. But at least I won't be dying of cold. Heating oneself burning wood has this advantage that it's stone-agey enough: chop a tree into smaller pieces, let them dry for a year, you can heat now heat your house during winter. And nobody can "ration" me / prevent me from putting wood in the fireplace: that's the "stone age" part of it. The main french electricity company, on the other hand, is ran by state apparatchiks and if they decided to ration electricity (because, by "chance", half of the nuclear reactors are all simultaneously down), I'm pretty much sorry out of luck. Overall I'm pretty disappointed by the EU (I'm an EU citizen) and plan to GTFO. I tried last year but it failed (residency was hard to obtain where I tried to go) but I'll very probably try again.
- wikfwikf 4y ago
  EDF is certainly run by state apparatchiks, but it's hard to argue that they haven't done a pretty good job making electricity available cheaply and plentifully to French consumers.
  - WastingMyTime89 4y ago
    EDF is mostly doing a good job especially considering how the EU competition regulation hinders them but they seriously screwed up with the nuclear power stations maintenance situation.
- sofixa 4y ago
  > because, by "chance", half of the nuclear reactors are all simultaneously down What do you mean with the quotes? It's not by chance, it's due to backlogged maintenance (due to Covid) and some corrosion issues in a few reactors. The plan is to have all maintenance over before the winter.

hellweaver666 4y ago

I'm currently renovating a house. My government are offering subsidies if you disconnect your gas supply and go all-electric. We'll be doing that alongside full solar (possibly with battery) and heat-pumps for heating/cooling.

TacticalCoder 4y ago
Be careful though: there are regions in the EU where electricity prices went crazy up. I know people who had a fixed plan at 120 EUR / month from an electricity company that went belly up who needed to take a new plan. My brother went from 120 EUR / month to 400 EUR / month for his electricity bill. Sister-in-law got 6 K EUR year-on-year adjustment for her electricity bill (so 500 EUR more per month on average). And a friend, for a big house granted, went from 120 EUR / month to 800 EUR / month.

z9znz 4y ago

Few people want to plan ahead (and spend the money that goes along with being prepared)... until they are in trouble. I won't say that good things have come from this war, but it certainly is a wake-up call for countries to get their future plans in better order. There is simply no excuse for the most industrially advanced country in the world (Germany) to have slacked off so much when it comes to energy. It must be some political angle, because not too many years ago Germany was one of the leaders in expanding their renewable energy sources.

TacticalCoder 4y ago

> Since then: no slacking in the roofing and exterior wall insulation, but now everyone has a keen interest in heat pumps, and solar panels are being installed everywhere. France here... Seeing how things were turning in May I turned my open fireplace into a closed one (way better efficiency) and ordered metric shit-tons of dry wood (I've now got enough for at least two years). Thankfully my house ain't using natural gas at all so at least I'm dodging that one problem. Now electricity may be rationed this winter: dunno, we'll see. But at least I won't be dying of cold. Heating oneself burning wood has this advantage that it's stone-agey enough: chop a tree into smaller pieces, let them dry for a year, you can heat now heat your house during winter. And nobody can "ration" me / prevent me from putting wood in the fireplace: that's the "stone age" part of it. The main french electricity company, on the other hand, is ran by state apparatchiks and if they decided to ration electricity (because, by "chance", half of the nuclear reactors are all simultaneously down), I'm pretty much sorry out of luck. Overall I'm pretty disappointed by the EU (I'm an EU citizen) and plan to GTFO. I tried last year but it failed (residency was hard to obtain where I tried to go) but I'll very probably try again.

wikfwikf 4y ago
EDF is certainly run by state apparatchiks, but it's hard to argue that they haven't done a pretty good job making electricity available cheaply and plentifully to French consumers.
- WastingMyTime89 4y ago
  EDF is mostly doing a good job especially considering how the EU competition regulation hinders them but they seriously screwed up with the nuclear power stations maintenance situation.
sofixa 4y ago
> because, by "chance", half of the nuclear reactors are all simultaneously down What do you mean with the quotes? It's not by chance, it's due to backlogged maintenance (due to Covid) and some corrosion issues in a few reactors. The plan is to have all maintenance over before the winter.