Hacker News Reader

Comment by gambiting | Hacker News Reader

Yes, have you replied to the wrong comment?

Besides, very soon all new construction in the UK will be required to be heated exclusively by electricity, so for new housing heating costs will be absolutely huge compared to gas.

View on HN

for new housing heating costs will be absolutely huge compared to gas

Isn't it more nuanced than that? Don't know UK rules, but since you mention new housing: aren't these required to adhere to some minimum of insulation, likewise for renovations, thereby drastically reducing the energy required in the first place (I mean if I just compare our renovated house with my parent's, energy requirement is 4 to 5 times less per square m)? Moreover depending on climate, cost to produce a given amount of energy is lower for heta pumps than for gas?

I mean, yes, there are standards, but the standards are sometimes shit. As an example - my friend just bought a very expensive brand new house, fancy insulation, but.....all radiators are like 2 feet wide? Even for the living room where intuitively, that cannot be the correct size of a radiator for that. But apparently(having complained) nope, these are regulation size etc. Now he spends 2x as much on heating for a house the same size as his old one built 20 years ago, because predictably, the rooms never get hot enough in winter with those crappy undersized radiators.

Again, that's just anecdote, feel free to ignore it.

Wrt insulation I really meant law, not standard. I hope there are no laws limiting the size of radiators? That would not make a lot of sense i.e. story sounds more like whoever was in charge of calculating the size completely messed up.

My rough calculations me that switching my 1970s UK detached home from gas to electric for hot water and central heating would triple my usage costs (and that doesn't include the cost of switching in the first place).

I'm still interested in doing it though because it would massively simplify the heating system. Removing gas from the system would mean I could do all the regular maintenance by myself whereas at present I'm obliged to use a registered, gas-trained plumber on the boiler itself because the law requires it.

It's an interesting point. The law actually allows a competent person to work on their own gas systems themselves but doesn't define exactly what that means. I've seen people claim that it only narrowly applies to previously qualified Gas Safe engineers who have allowed their registration to lapse but I think that is a stretch.

Also, I think the idea would be to install an air source heat pump rather than resistive electrical heating.

You could use a heat pump if your radiators allow it.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com