I agree Toodles, he had far too much air time- he was very much on his soap box! His assertion that you need twin immersions on in your UVC 24/7 to prevent legionella was another choice remark. Thankfully the following caller put things straight in that regard. 

• If he’d have been put back in the box sooner then we could’ve heard more from the last caller who’d recently fitted PV and batteries who was upset that Octopus’s estimated bill was still £1700. No one had obviously said to them that it’s not quite how it works. But were they aware of export tariffs? 

You could tell which of the callers had done their homework but, like you say, there’s a huge amount of misinformation and a lack of practical, easily accessible information for homeowners on renewable technologies. My father-in-law had an ASHP fitted to his EnerPHit house and the plumber was pretty good but he was absolutely convinced that there was zero point in fitting an ASHP to any property of a lesser standard.

I have found forums like this one and MSE Green & Ethical Board to be a huge help in making a confident transition to Solar PV, batteries and an ASHP. If the Gov set up their one-stop-shop website then it should have links to helpful forums like this one to debunk myths and call out the snake oil salesmen.

@dougmlancs Though I knew the programme was ‘upcoming’, I was unable to hear it live nor could I offer to appear in the programme so sent the following email to You and Yours on Monday.

’First of all, I’m sorry but I’ll not be available during the broadcast time as I’m out for the morning but will set out some details of my experience here.

I have been considering and researching how and what to do to improve our home in terms of insulation and means of heating for some years. Some 18 months or so ago, I looked into improving the insulation and having solar PV plus a storage battery fitted. Much research ensued about having an Air Source Heat Pump installed too.

The local council granted the cost of improving the 75 mm loft insulation and we now have some 300 mm or so. We had an EPC carried out at this point and were informed w the hous had a rating of ‘C’ then and this could be brought up to a ‘B’ with Solar PV or a Heat Pump installed. The external walls were cavity filled in the early 80’s but we have put in double glazing throughout over the years since. We had Q-Bot underfloor insulation installed in Dec. 2021.

The solar PV project: We have 8.1 kWp of PV panels and a Tesla Powerwall (second battery is to be fitted in a few weeks). We export some energy to Octopus Energy ‘whilst the sun shines’ and carefully scrutinise the daily ‘Agile’ tariff for the cheapest (and cleanest!) time to charge the battery when solar does not provide sufficient for our needs. We are an all-electric household now with an induction hob in the kitchen, microwave combination cookers, and the laundry is dried in a heat pump driven tumble dryer that consumes approx 800 watts (about a third or less compared to a conventional design). Our lighting is all LED throughout, then there is the heat pump…

Much research was carried out before deciding on model, siting and arrangements to provide Domestic Hot Water. The greatest difficulty was in finding an MCS registered installer who was willing to work in our area and could even be bothered to visit to do a survey for the proposed installation work. I contacted 20 plus companies and only 5 replied - and of these only three were prepared to visit and survey.

I should point out we first tried Octopus Energy who were extremely helpful and arranged for two engineers who spent a full three hours each carrying out a survey. Unfortunately, our rather ‘less than standard’ install was beyond their scope but we were very grateful to them and I learnt a great deal from them about what was practical, desirable and possible. I should add that we wanted to avail ourselves of the government’s BUS grant of £5000 - and this we did when we finally chose our installers.

The MCS require a large hot water storage tank for our size of house but we did not have such a space available and opted for a Sunamp Thermino ePV 210 hot water system which is approximately 25% of the size and uses a ‘salt & vinegar’ solution to store the heat and is powered from our solar PV panels or the grid when sunshine is scarce and this is handled by a power diverter (Myenergi Eddi and Harvi). The Air Source Heat Pump is a ‘monobloc’ model which entails much less ‘gubbins’ and plumbing indoors as most parts are contained in the cabinet outside. I rejected the option of a high temperature heat pump that would have heated the domestic hot water as well as these tend to have a lower efficiency (SCOP) than the low temperature versions.

I feel that we have now done pretty well as much as we can do to become a good shade of green - we do not have a car - we are both visually handicapped so aren’t able to drive so no EV in the offing I’m afraid!’

I’ve heard nothing from Y&Y but am tempted to request a ‘rematch’ to attempt to set the record straight - I feel I might be on to a hiding for nothing though 😒. Regards, Toodles

Posted by: @toodles

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gas fitter from Bridport Dorset who I felt did the whole subject a great disservice.

Totally agree @toodles…

As a Gas Engineer I guess you might expect some bias but Steve Smith from Bridport really didn’t hold back in slating Heat Pumps. 

Apart from claiming the need for twin immersions he even started talking about multiple cylinders, overloading electrics and house fires because apparently the homeowner will need so many fan heaters to make up for the poor output from the heat pump. Quote “On the heating side of it [heat pumps]- Horrendous”.

His so called professional opinion was sensationalised nonsense. It doesn’t sound like he’s ever fitted one - only “encountered” one.

I could only imagine he feels threatened and he wants to keep the massive retrofit market for himself who will soon have a “hydrogen network” to solve the energy crisis so he can continue fitting condensing boilers.

Oh so true. I'm not sure the BBC does itself any favours with this type of subject. Remember the 'how to save energy on your heating' topic on PM back in the early winter? It took several programs, each correcting a little of the one before, until they finally got someone to explain how and why to turn down the flow temperature of a gas boiler. Steve Smith from Bridport was exasperating, I wonder how many ASHP owners were shouting at the radio?

To make matters worse the Archers seem to have had Jazzer knocked down by a 'silent' electric car!! Whose side are they on?

I’ve stopped listening to The Archers, (not wot it woz) however, sounds like the scriptwriters are having a joke as Jazzer is played by Ryan Kelly who is blind. He attended the same school as my wife (some years later than her however).

I do have a little sight but I do hear the approaching EV’s and feel a certain satisfaction in hearing that whirr of the motor(s) and the tyre sounds - which to me is far from ‘Silent’ yes even in a noisy environment as that which I live in. This may be bias on my part but, I’ll say it just the same, when waiting at a crossing point in a road, I find that I’m shown greater consideration by EV drivers than by those driving an ICE vehicle. Regards, Toodles

Sadly this is bound to continue imho for so long as the grant harvesting industry, aided by the MCS monopoly, continue to dominate heat pump installs and all too often, it seems, do a lousy job.  The hydrogen ready sharks must be delighted at how badly this is all going.

The sad thing is that it's clearly not a technology issue, it's a training and (over/inappropriate) regulation issue.

You and Yours is extremely biased. We were invited on the show a year ago. The presenter was ridiculously biased and the show was pre-recorded and they edited our comments to not come as being very positive. Terribly biased show.

@editor Not only bias but inaccurate! I have often heard them discuss subject that I am knowledgable on and their degree of ignorance using terms they don’t understand is beyond understanding. Frinstance, when discussing bandwidth, they don’t undertand or appreciate the difference between bit and bytes! Watts don’t appear to ever have a qualifiers (ie., hours) and many other ‘ shout at the radio’ offences on a daily basis! Regards, Toodles.

Maybe it's time for the BBC Reality Check team to give You and Yours a workout. They do ask on their news site What claims do you want BBC Reality Check to investigate? Or maybe Tim Harford should have a go at the fallacies  that keep getting churned out about heat pumps and EVs versus hydrogen etc

@heat-pump-newbieAs the saying doesn’t quite go:’Lies whizz around the globe before the truth can put its’ shoes on.’ Regards, Toodles.

Posted by: @dougmlancs

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the plumber was pretty good but he was absolutely convinced that there was zero point in fitting an ASHP to any property of a lesser standard.

Another major bit of misinformation. Within reason, any building can have a heat pump. You just have to accept (as I did) that old leaky buildings will cost more to heat, but they will always cost more, whatever the heat source. The instance on ultra-efficient insulation levels is a major obstacle to heat pump installation, because so much of our housing stock is old and poorly insulated.

I'm afraid the BBC (and the rest of the MSM), already well on the way to cloud cuckoo land, lost the plot entirely during the pandemic, and have never recovered. Once upon a time, I used to listen to the Today program every morning without fail. Nowadays, I only do so if I want to ruin my day. Should I have the misfortune to hear You and Yours, it invariably confirms my anti-BBC bias. Even its drama output, including the arch-propagandist Archers (always a subversive vehicle), has been consumed by 'the narrative'. On a recent episode of the Food Program, I lost count of the number of times the word 'sustainable' was used. After listening to such clap-trap, all I learnt was that the use of the word sustainable was itself very sustainable, while the broadcasting of genuinely useful or interesting material was clearly not sustainable.