Here is what we covered:
- ACT and TDC have piloted a new joint initiative to help householders and businesses better understand their use of energy, starting with electricity. Here is a link to this behavioural change session if you’d like to take advantage of this free offer.
- We fed back on the successful defence of all the Climate Change policies in the local plan. The examiner understood the importance of these policies and why they needed to exceed the current building regulations in reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
While ACT would want to see a much more ambitious plan on climate mitigation, we have to accept that the plan needs to remain within legal bounds. Nevertheless, some key policies were retained despite appeals from developers and some were even strengthened. - Many will have heard about the ‘smart grid’ and how this is an important component to decarbonise by electrifying heating and transport. The thinking behind this is to ensure that as capacity of the grid grows rapidly, we need to optimise where and when generation/consumption of this electricity happens. This is because many parts of the grid are unable to cope with the increased usage and reinforcing it is very expensive and time consuming.
As an introduction to this topic, you may want to watch this video about Virtual Power Plants (VPPs). Dave Borlace’s Just Have A Think is an excellent source of really good information put across in a captivating and accessible way. But even Dave occasionally gets carried away with aspects of what he is presenting.
We discussed whether, as claimed, VPPs are reducing the grid’s Carbon Intensity (i.e. reducing the overall ghg emissions from electricity). The jury is certainly out here in the UK, at least for the time being. Have a look and have a think yourself, let me know what you think!
To help you spot the bold claim, here is a hint. It is also a link to yet another website that has recognised the widespread ‘Greenwash’ associated with marketing ‘green’ electricity. Even Money Supermarket has a more nuanced take on this. - We briefly touched on the subject of offsetting, especially through tree planting. Here is what this offsetting scheme agent says about their offsetting offer “Yes we do, we love trees. BUT there simply isn’t enough land to plant enough trees. Also, we do not believe that you can successfully plant and nurture a tree for just $5. On average, 18% of planted saplings die within the first year, rising to 44% after five years. Some of the best recorded rates are 80% survival. So, cheap tree-planting is neither practical or effective and is often used to greenwash.”
Shame they didn’t also mention how long it’ll take before the tree starts to sequester carbon dioxide or how much. - We spent some time looking at a question about the energy efficiency difference between wall mounted radiators and wet underfloor heating (UFH), especially when using a Heat Pump (HP). Also, at what point would the investment in retrofitting to a wet UFH system pay back from the difference in energy efficiency?
The quick answer is that there is no or marginal difference in energy efficiency if all other parameters are the same. This is because the same amount of energy would be delivered into the same space.
However, because UFH gets the heat to the occupants more direct, they would feel warmer for the same energy input. This may (should?) result in them turning down the thermostat and indirectly reducing the energy demand. How much energy could be saved depends on several things, not least the building’s heat loss and thermal mass characteristics and the characteristics of the heat generator (esp. flow temp.). It is unlikely, in most situations, that retrofitting to wet UFH will itself pay back from potential saving in energy use. Nevertheless, if a deep retrofit is being considered for other reasons and UFH can be installed, it is well worth doing. - Some dubious claims on super savings from reputable sources such as this Guardian article’s claim. See if you can spot this (answer next month).
- Drawdown is a source of comprehensive advice on mitigating Climate Change. We didn’t have time to discuss who it is aimed at and what does it cover. We’ll try and do this next time, but do send in your views.
Some concerns include: Global calculations; aimed at corporate and government despite personal advice; data is not kept up to date; does not cover goods and services.
Written by Fuad
Energy group coordinator
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