Zero emission road vehicles.

[shane]

I never could understand how they thought this would work. The power supply to a green cabinet wouldn’t support more than a couple of kW.

[Nick]

I assume they were thinking to use the trunking to connect to a larger AC supply or maybe it was never expected to work!

[pre65]

The London fire brigade have an EV fire engine, it cost double that of a conventional fire engine but apparently it's never actually been on a "shout".

Seems the EV range is not too bad but when pumping at full capacity only lasts 20 minutes.

Perhaps they should paint it white and cover with elephant decals ?

[shane]

Food for thought:

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/ ... SApp_Other

[Neal]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cnv6e5l588jo

[brig001]

Not surprising unfortunately
Hydrogen is inefficient to produce
Needs a lot of energy to compress it to store
Is difficult to store and transport as it makes everything it touches brittle
Has low energy density compared to petrol and diesel

It also leaks out of any practical container, but I had hope for this project as they would use it immediately, unlike in cars etc.

Brian

[jack]

Not surprising unfortunately
Hydrogen is inefficient to produce
Needs a lot of energy to compress it to store
Is difficult to store and transport as it makes everything it touches brittle
Has low energy density compared to petrol and diesel

It also leaks out of any practical container, but I had hope for this project as they would use it immediately, unlike in cars etc.

JCB are pressing ahead with it...

[brig001]

Prof Tom Baxter In the article doesn’t paint an optimistic picture for them, but who knows?

[Paul Barker]

Likewise putting a % of hydrogen in the gas grid. By the time the gas reaches the destination the hydrogen has leaked out. Boilers have been modified to work with a % of hydrogen and methane. But the grid leaks methane all over the country, no chance hydrogen will remain.
Its all smoke and mirrors.

I installed a new gas boiler in 2017, two years later the guy said: “Ive got a grant for air source heat pump which is great for the environment. He was granted £15k, but he had to pay 15k of his own money beyond that.

Last Saturday he asked me to go and recommission his gas boiler. He said the electricity bill for the air source heat pump was twice as much cost as he paid in his gas bills.

He removed it himself and will never go back to it.

[Paul Barker]

Testimonies from other gas fitters are the cost of repairing the heat pumps are far beyond expectations. You could have bought a new one for less. You got a grant to switch to it, but nobody will refund you when you are forking out £20’000 to repair it.

But the bigest wake up call is the cost of electricity today.

I asure you lawyers will latch on to this, it will become the next money maker for lawyers.

[Paul Barker]

Arecent story of woe about heat pump repair costs.


cider
Joined25 Jul 2008
Messages9,118
Reaction score2,674
LocationBristol
CountryUnited Kingdom
5 Feb 2026

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#1
I installed a nibe 2040 monobloc air source and internal cylinder/tower for my sister in her rental cottage around 10/12 years ago.
Its been fine bar an issue with an internal controller which a company came from exeter way to Bristol to fix.
Last year it started to run increasingly inefficient. I suspected low gas and recommended they change the lot for a different make monobloc and third party cylinder. The same company came up again and repaired a known weak joint on the nibe and re-gassed it. Two trips due to 24hour leak test regulations. Cost around £2000.00
It failed again 2 weeks ago and i said again no gas. The company can monitor it remotely and said they couldn’t see an issue. Another visit last week. Apparently something went bang and has damaged the wraparound coil. None available in the country and if they can get one £5000 plus to install it with a limited guarantee. Alternatively its a new entire external unit at around £7000 with 5 years warranty. Only 2 available in the country then theyre all gone. If they have the new 2040 its incompatible with the internal tower. The internal tower is obsolete. If that goes its a new external unit as well. Basically its all scrap. Im pricing a Grant 290 and normal cylinder at family rates hopefully less than the £7000. When all the units going in now start failing out of warranty its going to be carnage. No grant second time around.

[Paul Barker]

The Grant 290 is a good old Oil boiler…

[brig001]

I think storage heaters and a time of use tariff makes more sense than heat pumps in a lot of cases. Much cheaper to install, and redundancy built in

[vinylnvalves]

Radiation panels are also good too…. Heating bodies not air. An electrician friend of mine has been installing 300w panels over beds in nursing homes, as the latest low temperature radiator regs for vulnerable or young people make conventional radiators useless and Myson forced convection heaters are expensive and noisy.