The number of Councillors or MPs that understand anything remotely technical is tiny
The Civil Service [snip] This is of course part of the reason we are in a bit of a mess, but ignoring (or being blind to) science or engineering facts happens to suit a small, but very powerful, minority.
[snip]
The obvious way to correct this is to rebuild a strong, technically competent civil service and elect a good number of MPs/Councillors who have qualifications in STEM subjects. [...]
The only other way I can see is that the good people in the industry get fed up with propping up the poor people, and themselves campaign for a reformed system. There are a few who are prepared to speak out and do so, but currently they appear to be in the minority, and many of those have probably concluded that its hopeless and their best bet is just to get on and do a good job. People who get pleasure from doing a good job are, after all, quite likely to veer towards doing just that rather than engaging in a likely futile campaign of reform.
I'm struggling, to be honest, to envisage a scenario under which this gets resolved.
Changes are already afoot.
Earlier this week I responded to the Ofgem consultation on the governance and remit for the Regional Energy Strategic Plan (RESP) organisations. The consultation was the final stage in the process of handing over operation of GB energy supplies to the new National Energy Systems Operator (NESO) and is authorised by the Energy Act (Nov'23)
The Ofgem proposals are for each RESP to have a Strategic Board and include representatives from local authorities, particularly those with responsibility for planning matters.
But the RESPs have the same overall vision as NESO, which is
to attain Net Zero by 2050
to decarbonise GB's energy supplies by 2030
So it will be necessary for Councils to engage with technical aspects of the strategy, and to take action. The days of merely passing Declarations of a Climate Change Emergency are over.
In case you were wondering what is meant by cross-sector actors with significant inputs to the process or interest in the outputs derived from it
... it appears that Ofgem have already decided that I should be included
The number of Councillors or MPs that understand anything remotely technical is tiny
The Civil Service [snip] This is of course part of the reason we are in a bit of a mess, but ignoring (or being blind to) science or engineering facts happens to suit a small, but very powerful, minority.
[snip]
The obvious way to correct this is to rebuild a strong, technically competent civil service and elect a good number of MPs/Councillors who have qualifications in STEM subjects. [...]
The only other way I can see is that the good people in the industry get fed up with propping up the poor people, and themselves campaign for a reformed system. There are a few who are prepared to speak out and do so, but currently they appear to be in the minority, and many of those have probably concluded that its hopeless and their best bet is just to get on and do a good job. People who get pleasure from doing a good job are, after all, quite likely to veer towards doing just that rather than engaging in a likely futile campaign of reform.
I'm struggling, to be honest, to envisage a scenario under which this gets resolved.
Changes are already afoot.
Earlier this week I responded to the Ofgem consultation on the governance and remit for the Regional Energy Strategic Plan (RESP) organisations. The consultation was the final stage in the process of handing over operation of GB energy supplies to the new National Energy Systems Operator (NESO) and is authorised by the Energy Act (Nov'23)
The Ofgem proposals are for each RESP to have a Strategic Board and include representatives from local authorities, particularly those with responsibility for planning matters.
But the RESPs have the same overall vision as NESO, which is
to attain Net Zero by 2050
to decarbonise GB's energy supplies by 2030
So it will be necessary for Councils to engage with technical aspects of the strategy, and to take action. The days of merely passing Declarations of a Climate Change Emergency are over.
In case you were wondering what is meant by cross-sector actors with significant inputs to the process or interest in the outputs derived from it
... it appears that Ofgem have already decided that I should be included
😎
Interesting thanks
I note that 'upper tier local authorities' will be represented, which excludes most planning authorities (planning, outside unitaries and Scotland, is the responsibility of the District Councils not the County Councils). I wonder if they realise this!
I observe that the few recent government 'studies' I have read relative to ASHPs essentially consist of a summary of opinions gleaned from third parties. This is one of the reasons for my concern. Policy, wherever possible, should be based on fact and tempered by opinion, not the other way round.
I fear that this is probably symptomatic of a Civil Service that doesn't employ people with the necessary expertise even to challenge. You don't have to be an expert in a subject to challenge the 'experts', however you do need some underlying engineering/scientific and analytical skills and be accustomed to challenging based on logical argument/deduction. Thus they must rely on others (who are almost certainly not motivated by the public good) to make recommendations.
4kW peak of solar PV since 2011; EV and a 1930s house which has been partially renovated to improve its efficiency. 7kW Vaillant heat pump.
The various levels of Councils were presented at intervals throughout the Ofgem Proposals@jamespa
I know the engineer who was tasked with putting together these proposals. He's from outside Ofgem and has been working on this since at least 2 months before the Energy Act was passed by Parliament.
Note that he's not a representative of Local Planning Authorities either!
What Ofgem decide to do will depend on the feedback they obtained during this consultation, which has been 'open' for 12 weeks. If a Council hasn't taken the trouble to respond, then they can hardly now say they want a seat on the Strategic Board of their RESP!
As you might expect, I had quite a lot to say... ... and it's generally reflective of what the more active members of this forum would expect!
As I was submitting responses as an individual, I was able to be fairly forthright, not needing to follow any collective opinion of an organisation. Eg: the start of my replies to Question 12:
... and we're quite a way off-course from discussing @burtis ' heat pump!
In 14 years in local government I encountered only 2 politicians who had a clue about even the most basics of energy (for example the difference between kW and kWh). One was a physicist and ceased being a politician when he got a job at CERN, the other worked, or used to work, at the BRE.
This post was modified 5 months ago 3 times by JamesPa
4kW peak of solar PV since 2011; EV and a 1930s house which has been partially renovated to improve its efficiency. 7kW Vaillant heat pump.
Just to show you how unbelievably random the Midea heat pump readouts are for the history of COP
It is either nonsense or possibly the dodgy system installed
I and some other Midea heat pump owners came up against this a while back. The problem is almost certainly rounding errors, as all the values are integers, whereas in real life they are not (they have decimals). The problem is no one knows how Midea does the rounding. If the display value is '2' what does that come from? Is it 2.00 to 2.99 rounded down to 2? 1.01 to 2.00 rounded up to 2? Anything between 1.51 and 2.50? This means that for short term COPs, the underlying kWh numbers can be misleading. For example if the rounding is as in the last example, actual use of say 0.1kWh that happened to take the actual total from say 101.45 to 101.55 would show up as apparent use of 1kWh, if that makes sense, a corker of an error (ten fold). Likewise, and actual use of 0.9kWh taking the total from 101.55 to 101.45 would show a use of 0kWh. Extreme examples, but you can see the problem. Over the longer term they should be better...
I got so fed up with all this I ditched the Midea app entirely, and now get data directly from the Midea wired controller. This includes the total lifetime energy in/out which are always integers and I suspect the source of the 'History Data'. plus Midea's own calculated values plus my calculated values eg energy in from volts x amps x time. For energy in, I also have the independent heat pump dedicated kWh meter.
This lack of transparency over how values are read and processed is a worry - how do we know Midea don't massage the numbers? - but overall, using various checks (independent of Midea ways of checking data), it does seem the data isn't a million miles out.
Midea 14kW (for now...) ASHP heating both building and DHW
@cathoderay absolutely I have added a ticket on their app about issues and possible future improvements so maybe one day they will get round to looking at it 😅
Possible some progress with the buffer thank mounting but not sure what they are going to "look" at
Thank goodness for that!
So they are at least a wee bit concerned at a Health & Safety risk!
Whatever they propose to support the weight of that buffer tank, and the pipework around it, the remedy must be founded on sound structural analysis. They need to provide you with a diagram, demonstrating how the weight is being 'transferred' down to the foundations through structural elements.
If they can't do that, then they shouldn't be allowed to start altering your house!
For example: Hiring a structural engineer for advice is a lot cheaper than trying to restore strength in a structural element which they've just cut through!
To avoid transfer of sound, they will need to propose a solution that avoids using beams and joist which connect to ceilings. That's tricky in an attic. But the starting point of the solution probably involves that post truss in the photo you shared on page-1 of this topic.
Is there a second post-truss behind the camera?
This post was modified 5 months ago 3 times by Transparent
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