As far as range is concerned, there are currently 2 schools of thought.
Batteries are expensive and heavy and cost a certain amount per KWh, so to reduce the size and cost of a car, there are quite a few cars that will effectively cover those who only do short range trips, eg new mini, Honda e, Mazda MX30. However just because most people can realistically use one everyday apart from the odd longer journey, does not mean that they will choose this sort of car as it is restricting in theory more than practice. If you do need to do a longer journey, you can charge on route, but it will take a long time and not all chargers are working, so it will annoy people
The other option is to pay more for a car with a longer range which you may not need that often. There are more of these cars around, eg all Teslas, Peugeot e208, some Nissans and the new Porsche - but they are typically more expensive due to the additional cost of batteries
The main issue currently is recharging, as many people cannot recharge at home and will have to start a journey without a full charge, which may then cause issues, as few work sites offer charging either. Charging speed is also a major factor as there are few sites and cars that enable us to get a good range as quick as we can with a petrol/diesel refuel - this is a big change. This is why hybrids as a half way house are good, if you only do short journeys but need to have more flexibility. However if you do only long journeys, then they are rubbish as the electric only range is 20-40 miles and after that you are carrying a heavy battery around reducing efficiency.
From my point of view, I do 40 miles a day, so a short range electric car is ok and I can charge at home each night. If I need to go on a longer journey, I will be forced to use my MX5 - happy daysā¦
We are in a transition period that is driven by environmentalists, but electric is not the long term solution - I believe hydrogen is, as there are less environmental issues, you can use it like a petrol car by filling up quickly. However there are further complications as hydrogen is more volatile and if you fill your tank it will have evaporated in a week as hydrogen atoms are so small, so there will be compromises. Development is still a way off, but there are companies like Honda with realistic usable cars out there - but again, no infrastructure.
Sorry - went on a bit thereā¦ must just use my MX5 more
The only recharge stations Iām aware of in my post code areas of circa 190,000 people are at a garden centre 4 miles from me.
Usuallyā¦staff cars are plugged into the two of them.
I might be wrongā¦maybe Google itā¦but they are certainly not in abundance.
I saw a statistic recently that stated that if we are going to have enough charge points by the time the Government wants all cars to be electric in 2035, we will have to install something like 50 a day (may have been higher), every day for the next 14 yearsā¦ not going to happen!
We already have a nation wide infrastructure ā¦ petrol stations! Many of these have for years been selling a compressed gas fuel ā¦LPG. Hydrogen is a compressed gas fuel.
Why canāt we add Hydrogen to the choice of fuels in the existing infrastructure instead of attempting to create a whole new set up with electricity? Iām no scientist, but it seems logical to me.
I agree. I donāt think we yet have the infrastructure for wide scale use of electric cars. If you donāt have off street parking with a charge point at home, what do you do? Itās not really practical to run an extension lead down the road. You would think they would give you the option of an extra battery pack for longer journeys? Mind you I guess this would weigh a bit much.
Well in 2025 you will not be able to buy a new gas appliance but if yours breaks new parts will be for sale until 2035. In 2040 gas is being turned off for good in this country. Thatās why they state āby the year 2040 we expect electricity usage to doubleā in the adverts. Gas heating is so outdated itās crazy anyway.
Because if this new homes will be bulky with bigger electrical supplies to heat the home as well as charging points for cars. It becomes more complex if you have 3 or 4 cars or more tho. But thatās how they plan on sorting infastructure. 1500 houses a week all with charging stations.
Why do you say gas is crazy?
We have just fitted a new gas Combi boiler & āintelligentā radiators which are the dogās dangles.
Plus a new fitted kitchen to include a 5 ring gas cooker. Ask any keen cook ( as I am) which they preferā¦itās likely a flame every time. We heat an older style home, albeit itās just us two now, which is properly insulated for a Dual Fuel monthly DD of Ā£70.00 per monthā¦and we have built up a credit even so of nearly Ā£300.00. In Scotlandā¦āThe Frozen Northā Our gas portion of the bill is less than 45% of the Ā£70.00, but then Iāve got the CH clock On-Off regime down to a tee. And, that includes a new livingroom gas fireā¦which our kittens really appreciate.
I cannot see going full leccy would beat thatā¦never mind using leccy cook rings which still pump out too much heat when all you want is a ārestingā of sauces etc. If anything, an induction hob would be the next best control equipment.
At least come power cutsā¦although I cannot see Winter of Discontent levels ever being allowed to happenā¦we can pop the fire on and heat a pan or two. At our ages ( 68) thatās a comfort.
By 2040 Iāll likely have been gas-roasted @ 1,300 degrees for 30 minutes till nice and crispy then grey ash.
Come to think of it, thatās some leccy Crem oven theyāll need to come up with.
Imagine a power cut.
Actually, I more fancy being sat upright in my Mk1 on a large log raft, set alight Viking style, and towed out into the Forth in a fiery blaze of final glory.
Pop-ups UP of course, hood down, throttle jammed on at 7k rpm.
Why is gas outdated for heating a house? Wow. Itās archaic. Heating water and pumping it to ugly radiators all over the house. You CAN use 2 port driven valves and a Controller per room to do individual timings and temperatures per room, but itās a lot of messing about to do what electricity can do better. It also costs a fortune to set up. If your boiler goes wrong every room in cold but if one electric heater fails only one room is cold.
Electric radiators can be ANY shape and colour you desire. But one that emulates a normal rad is cheap, efficient and silent. They heat via radiation mainly just like water filled ones. Sensible money is on infrared radiation however, heat the objects not the air. Much cheaper and more efficient. Currently infrared design is limited but itās coming along nicely.
Electric room heating means you get an app and can do everything by phone or pc like hive, or you can just use a multi zone wall controller, but you can set a different time and temp for each room. And like hive, algorithms know how cold it is outside so decide how early to start heating dependant on what time you ask it to achieve a set temperature. Electric radiators then turn down to a low heat to maintain a steady temp they donāt simply go on and off like a thermostat.
In a morning I get up and go to work. I donāt go into most of the rooms in my house so why heat them? Easy to heat just the rooms I use of a morning. I also hate heating upstairs before bed but want downstairs warm so I have bedrooms at 14 degrees at bed time but the living room at 20. Of a morning I have the bedroom at 21 so itās warm and comfortable to get up, but the living room heating is off, I donāt go in there.
Of a weekend the times and temps are different again.
You have no such control with old fashioned water boilers. Itās no longer a good standard itās simply common place.
As for cooking, hot plate style rings are ā ā ā ā Iāll not argue. I prefer gas. But recently discovered the beauty of induction hobs. They are super efficient, with gas most people stupidly use the smallest pan possible and the heat licks around the sides heating the room not the pan. Induction heat 100% heats the pan every time. Itās as fast as gas to apply heat and remove heat. It costs less and looks far nicer set into the worktop than my old gas hob.
Each to their own, but progress waits for no man. Gas is going. Thatās set in stone. It will run out in the 2040s so no option. Go on worldometers website and look at how much we burn a day and how much is left.
Okay I am with you on the induction hob as changed the kitchen last year and put one in. The wife canāt leave it on (they have automatic turn off if too hot) and burn the house down now. Or when we go out asks did I turn the cooker off!
BUT how does electricity compare price wise like for like to gas? That is generally the stumbling block for most folk.
So what are the best electronic heaters etc?
I have looked at āheat pumpā systems and currently they are far too cost prohibitive.
Ā£8000-18000 for normal and ground source Ā£20000-35000 according to Greenmatch on google!!!
All the talk here is of direct electric heating, which horrifies me from an efficiency point of view as the the sensible option to a fossil fuel fired central heating boiler is surely a heat pump. Coeficient of performance can now be 4, even for air source systems. Ok, a heat pump system is currently relatively expensive and needs some changes; for example, larger radiators as the temperature of the circulating water is lower, but it has to be the way to go. Not fuel cost competitive with gas at current prices, but they just about compete with oil and thereās plenty of the country not on the gas grid. They will certainly become commonplace if the governmentās proposed ban on fossil fueled boilers in new-builds strikes in 2025. Prices may well drop as a result.
That said, the first thing to do in any house is install good insulation. Then decent boiler controls and individual radiator thermostats. That way you can get which rooms are used heated as you wish on a day by day basis. With a 25 y.o. gas boiler, smart thermostat, radiator thermostats, extra roof insulation and cavity insulation my monthly energy bill is >Ā£70 for a modern (single occupant) 4 bed house. As for cooking, electric hobs can be no problem - ceramic hobs respond extremely quickly so you donāt need an induction hob and the cost of a complete new set of cooking pans.
JS
Insulation is beyond anything else the best thing you can do yes. And agree ground or even sir source heat pumps are extremely good for getting more out than you put in. There are developments where communal GSHPs feed multiple homes so the installations cost and complications are reduced many fold. They are run by electricity then. In some countries the local councils even control your thermostats and timers but thatās a bit far letās be fair.
The biggest problem with fossil fuels is they are running out. Itās no good waiting until we have none left then floundering around looking for Devine intervention. We need to act now. And if we must burn fuel itās much more efficient to burn millions of tonnes a day in a huge multi billion pound, highly efficient power station with fume scrubbers and chemical fume abatement. Then we have electricity. You can send that at high voltage and low current almost 100% efficiently. You only get a small percentage of transformer losses as the voltage is tapped from 440,000v down and down until itās 220v in your home. The emissions from this electrical distribution is zero. The total energy for consumption within the individual home produces less than 10% of the emissions that it produces by you burning it your self as a gas. You simply canāt do small scale individual home fume abatement. And do you want to start dealing with highly caustic compounds like lye at home? I donāt. I work on a tiny Ā£100million fume abatement planet and the results are simple beyond belief how it cleans the fumes we produce. Bigger ones are even better.
If you do have water pumped central heating (I still do in many rooms Iām mid conversion) then the main thing people forget to do is insulate the pipes under the flood boards. If you ever lift a floor board you get an icy blast under there because they breath to the outside world. If not you get mould. So the pipes under there are as good as outside.
As for oil fired heating. I have that. Itās brilliant! I have 2 hot water tanks and it heats both from cold in about 25 minutes. It uses about 0.5L a day for just water. 2L a day water and heating during the winter. Bare in mind I bulk buy when itās cheap and this year thanks to covid I had 5500L at 14.2p per litre including 5%VAT and delivery from boiler juice. I have a half acre garden luckily and behind my garage i have room for about 8 cars so storage isnāt an issue. Thatās not so ideal in a flat lol. Or even a small garden like a modern home.
Hang on a minute, heating oil fuel IS a fossil fuel too!
So gas isnāt brilliant but oil is.
So oil isnāt going to run out but gas is.
Oil heating surely is archaic too.
I thought you said in your previous post (just read them again) you had electric heating which you turned on and off.
Perhaps I misunderstood and you have a house full of electric heaters and oil fired central heating.
You canāt really have the argument both ways in my opinion.
No oil isnāt good for the environment but it works well to make water hot. The concept of pumping hot water about the house is ridiculous. Thatās why Iām changing it
Half my house has been done but Iām doing it room by room as I renovate.
If I built from scratch I would start with all
Electric but Iāve recently purchased an existing house. I have to deal with what I have to start with.
Perhaps a couple??!!