Energy poverty, climate change and sustainable lifestyles

Transparent · 2022-01-21T17:12:06Z

I'm responding to some points made by @alec-morrow in this post but not specifically about heat-pumps or electricity so I've started this new topic. Posted by: @alec-morrow the industry is not fit for purpose as many are finding out. Absolutely. I agree. As we try to tackle energy-poverty, climate change and sustainable lifestyles we are presented with an ever more complex suite of technological solutions. So how does the wider public know what energy solution best fits their house and which installer they should turn to? Ofgem is already well-aware of this issue. Several years ago they highlighted lack of public knowledge/understanding as a major factor preventing us from embracing the plethora of innovative energy solutions before us. If you know a way to resolve this you can even apply for an Ofgem grant to help get you started. Posted by: @alec-morrow the reason this doesn’t happen is that those advising government have stakes in it not happening. Again, I agree that this is a significant issue. Energy suppliers are developing energy-saving measures, but these are predominately focused on strategies which help them rather than their customers. At the time of writing I believe it is still only Octopus who offer a genuine Time-of-Use tariff using half-hour time-frames matched to our smart meters. But all GB Energy Suppliers use software algorithms to buy and sell gas and electricity on the wholesale markets at 30-min intervals! So we can either wring our hands, moan about the government and do what we can 'under the circumstances'... ... or else we change the circumstances to achieve the outcomes we seek. That's what Forums (fora ?) like this are starting to do. We all have the opportunity to assist our neighbours in selecting the best energy solutions and installers. We don't need to rely on or wait for Government to take the lead. There's a lot to be said for a grass-roots movement, using community-based energy groups and open-source solutions. The Open Energy Monitor project is an excellent example of this. The GB Smart Meter strategy was conceived in 2013 during the coalition government when Ed Davey MP was Energy Minister. There's several areas of that foundation strategy which anyone has yet to build on (Auxiliary Load Control Switches come to mind). Other initiatives which were approved by Parliament are rarely taken up; community-based Energy Aggregators are a case in point. Returning now to the case of Heat Pump Installers - yes, it's a wild west out there! And I'm sure that many here can contribute to a list of good and bad installers. But we can also do more. We can, for example, collate a list of what prospective customers should expect, and must insist on, from their installers when they seek quotations. And that document can then be forwarded to BEIS/Ofgem with a request that it becomes enshrined into a Required Minimum Specification, just as MCS does for renewable-energy installations. We don't have to wait for the industry to change itself or for government to regulate it. Let's combine our efforts, pool our knowledge, and force through the standards which should be expected.

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Electricity, Tariffs, Monitoring & Providers

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Anonymous 4568

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21/09/2022 4:07 am

Climate change is the change in the long term weather pattern of earth. Earth weather keeps on varying year on year basis but over a period of decade or century it doesn't change much. Climate change takes place over a long period of time and slowly, due to global warming temperature has rose more rapidly to about 0.8 degree Celsius of pre-industrial levels. There are many reason for climate change like change in the amount of solar radiation received by earth or volcanic eruption but the recent, sudden and rapid climate change is occurring because of human activity.

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