I just wear my duvet, like I have the past ten years or so.

Heat pumps, solar panels, and enough of your own roof space to install them is going to be very popular.

Lol all of Europe sounds like it's living in Vicrotian Era bro. Honestly I'm glad I live in USA babyyyy 🇺🇸

Cringe.

We’re talking about the poorest minority of people here. In America, these people would be homeless, at least here they have homes—heated or not. And it’s not like we’re in Siberia here, UK (and most of Europe) have mild winters.

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>And it’s not like we’re in Siberia here, UK (and most of Europe) have mild winters.

And we still can barely cope.😅

Ikr? It snows for a few days and everyone suddenly drives around like drunk toddlers in go-karts.

this countries whether readiness, I saw cars rolling there wheels in place before the tires got a grip and could drive safely. What we have cannot adapt to anything.

This is a problem with britains infrastructure, they let everything run into obscensence instead of dealing with the problems immediately, thus floods, poor insulation, all terrain tires not being cheap or common etc.🤦🏾‍♂️

But hey, at least road infrastructure, insulation, and a poorly funded (but free) healthcare system are pretty much all we have to worry about.

We have it pretty good, all things considered. Especially considering what Ukraine has to contend with this winter.

At least they have a competent government. But you're correct, of course.

I’m with ya man. We need the treasonous Tories out of power.

We wish our friends across the pond luck in this venture

>Lol all of Europe sounds like it's living in Vicrotian Era bro. Honestly I'm glad I live in USA babyyyy 🇺🇸

Can you morons not make us Americans look like window-licking morons for just 5 minutes?

Heat pumps are trash.

Heat pumps are the best primary heating device for a modern home.

Is there a reason you don't like energy efficiency?

Right because nowhere in the United States has been having issues that seems more 1800 than 2000. It's been smooth sailing keeping American lights on, and pretty consistently available. There's no major flaws with the infrastructure .

Flint water crisis

>The Flint water crisis is a public health crisis that started in 2014 after the drinking water for the city of Flint, Michigan was contaminated with lead and possibly Legionella bacteria. In April 2014, during a budget crisis, Flint changed its water source from treated Detroit Water and Sewerage Department water (sourced from Lake Huron and the Detroit River) to the Flint River. Residents complained about the taste, smell, and appearance of the water. Officials failed to apply corrosion inhibitors to the water, which resulted in lead from aging pipes leaching into the water supply, exposing around 100,000 residents to elevated lead levels.

2021 Texas power crisis

>In February 2021, the state of Texas suffered a major power crisis, which came about during three severe winter storms sweeping across the United States on February 10–11, 13–17, and 15–20. The storms triggered the worst energy infrastructure failure in Texas state history, leading to shortages of water, food, and heat. More than 4. 5 million homes and businesses were left without power, some for several days.

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Yeah because a winter storm is a great source for solar panels.

Mate, you have millions people living in trailers without access to healthcare and the gun crime rates of a failed state. I wouldn’t be so proud.

Bollocks.

Edit to add: Double bollocks. We had a week and a bit long spell of unseasonably cold weather before it warmed back up into the teens. As Michael Winner would say: calm down dear.

Our whole country need ice skates right now. Wanna invade Alabama? Now's your chance.

Heat pumps don’t generate enough heat to be suitable for anything but new build properties - they need underfloor heating to allow a low heat level over a larger area to achieve a comfortable temperature - they are not a feasible replacement for gas in existing properties.

Shorts weather in Arkansas if you don't mind 5F. But why invade Alabama? For meat and cotton?

Figured if we give them Alabama it would drag them down to our level.

Since when are temps around 0 unseasonable .... in winter? Damn it climate change, why you speeding up??

Damn that's genius, should give em folrida too. Let Florida man work em over

I have one on a 1950 wood house that just survived a winter storm, keeping it toasty 20c inside

Honestly, America is feeling the freeze right now. It's brutal in New York.

See, the fun thing about solar off-set plans is, you generate more energy when you have sunny days, and that off-sets the cost of energy grid use when you're in a storm, at night, etc...

If your structure is completely uninsulated, and it's several degrees bellow freezing, sure, you won't be super warm.

But it's the most energy efficient option, even if it's not the only heat source. It's a viable way to drastically lower energy use from other means.

It’s usually closer to 6-8 at that time in December in the U.K. - the nasty stuff doesn’t usually arrive until January/February (it’s why a white christmas is such a hoped for anomaly)

Or just run the HP flat out in the day up to 23c and let it cool overnight. Most nights I don't use it, I use an electric blanky

I haven’t had sunlight for a month lol

Good for you. Most older U.K. houses are one brick thick (zero cavity) houses which are by their nature thermally dense. Thermally dense houses work by having the heating first heat the fabric of the house which then retains the warmth and radiates it back into the living space. It’s exactly the same principle as early man building structures from large rocks and having large fire pits within them - they didn’t choose large stones for shits and giggles. Heat exchangers don’t generate enough heat to heat the fabric of thermally dense buildings, nor are traditionally built U.K. houses readily suitable for additional insulation - you’re taking dry lining with insulated plasterboard to achieve ‘meh’ level benefits

And that’s current renewables summed up in one post - it’s an extra over = it isn’t enough by itself

Edit to add: it also sums up renewables in the U.K. as a whole. We’ve invested massively in wind power capacity, but the reliability of its output is distinctly meh. Many days it’s tootling along at a few percentage of it’s claimed capacity. But I doubt you, me, or aunty Jan care about that when we want to boil the kettle - we want power and we want it now. The grid recognises that so it keeps gas plants online, however, they’re not permitted to operate efficiently and generating the most efficient amount of power they can for the grid, nope, they’re kept tootling along as back up to the green wind energy ready to pick up the slack when the massive supposed capacity of wind generation invariably comes in at a few percent of claimed capacity. Gas plants operating below capactiy are inefficient and therefor expensive - so it’s uncanny that the cost to consumer of electricity across the board, regardless of where it was derived, is based on the cost of electricity generated by gas….

Really depends on your climate. The curve changes drastically. You can barely get parts for heat pumps just a few years old. I live in New England and it’s just not the way to go. Plus good luck finding an A/C tech out here. Most guys just know oil/propane.

Plenty of brick houses here have heat pumps. This 1950s house is matchsticks and cardboard. It's got the insulative properties of wet shorts in a stiff winter breeze straight to the testies.

It has "aux heat" a very powerful resitive heater it'll use from time to time. Usually for about 10-20 mins a day. That costs significant money. The rest of the time it cost as much as an aircon to run. Which, coincidentally it also is for summer time.

I mean sure, energy efficient devices are designed to work with energy efficient homes.

If you don't want to bother "making your house suck less" just throw a unit aimed at a larger structure at your home.

It's a ...year round... Ok no just don't get solar if you're that dumb dude.

Yup, banking your energy when you can is also a valid strat.

>Really depends on your climate.

Nah, all that determines is whether you need a fallback gas system or not. Even in cold climates, heat pumps can take up a significant chunk of the load on warmer winter days and in the shoulder season.

> The curve changes drastically.

Yes, which is why modern systems can choose whether to run the heat pump or the backup heat based on whichever would be more efficient based on current conditions.

>You can barely get parts for heat pumps just a few years old.

That's not a technological issue. In terms of parts and complexity, heat pumps are literally just air conditioners with a reversing valve, so they're not inherently any more expensive or difficult to fix than an A/C

>I live in New England and it’s just not the way to go. Plus good luck finding an A/C tech out here. Most guys just know oil/propane.

That just means that techs need to keep up with the times.

Similarly, if an area has a bunch of coal plant techs and no wind turbine techs, that's not an argument that the next power plant they build should be coal, it's an argument that they should start to train up some wind turbine techs.

Well those guys gonna go out of business becuase heat pumps are selling like crazy in the PNW.

I replaced a 1970s ThermoPride oil furnace I called "ol' smokey" for its habit of occasionally fucking up and spewing smoke right when you needed it most. Oil cost me 600 a year back then, it'd cost 1500 a year now. The heat pump was 10k and costs about 400 a year in electricty. Plus it's a aircon. Costco deal, with 10pct cash back. Have had zero problems getting it serviced. There is fuck-all to service on it.

The only issue is that it's loud. Not as loud as ol' smokey, but very loud for a 2019 appliance.

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It won’t work - ground source heat pumps are subject to the amount of land available and over an extended time period are subject to a diminishing rate of return. As for air sourced… I used to be a facilities manager for a national retailer and the number of noise complaints we’d receive in respect of AC and refrigeration plant would make your eyes water. What do you think the reaction would be to thousands of air sourced heat pumps being installed in a neighbourhood?

Do they also put on warm clothes and drink hot liquids?

I can see Russian media picking this up and using for their propaganda of how Europe is suffering without their gas

I hope so, I do alot of work in building decarbonisation. These options won't generally help things like the hard to treat houses or the serious retrofit costs for alot of stock. Essentially where they need serious insulation and ventilation upgrades to bring up to standard which can cost alot more than the heat pump and dispersion installation costs.

And for hard to treat builds like solid stone etc then higher flow temperatures than most heat pumps deliver so often alternatives are needed or heat pumps not in the cost range that are viable for domestic homes. The solar PV isn't great in Winter when we tend to need the energy more for things like lighting and heating (in some places). Smart, local level energy systems with local generation and storage are really needed to overcome things like grid constraints which are a risk to both heat and ev electrification . Any way happy Christmas !

Demonstrably, no.

I am lucky to live in a basement apartment right now. Normally it sucks, but it is 60°F in here with my heating completely off while being literally 12°F outside. Throw on a sweater or blanket and I am fine. Summers aren’t that bad either. I just throw a fan/air purifier next to my bed and couch…it is fine.

It is pretty bad, the Torys keep pulling miracle after miracle. As long as the snobby nosed clueless out of touch deluded deranged tossers keep getting richer then to fuck with everybody else.

Wouldn't shed one tear if all of them got assassinated. I would raise a toast.

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Well at least your honest and not patronizing about how Europeans need to 'tough it out' and 'its not that bad, it'll be over soon'

They already have propaganda videos talking about Europe turning into what 2/3rds of Russia is because of this war. It is sad that people believe it entirely.

Tories are making us Brits experience being American. We're being eroded to your standards.

Hm... I do not think it's propaganda if it's a truth. Porpoganda usually has a misleading nature.

This is why I love living in LA. Weather-wise, it's basically heaven for over 90% of the year.

>normally it sucks

Proceeds to say that it's good now and fine during summers too

... So when does it suck? =P

Dark, dank, potential for flooding to solidly ruin everything you own… also probably end up breathing a lot of radon

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And where is that power that you are “setting off” being stored? Your hopes and dreams?

lol funny how they use turning into Russia to insinuate that Europe isn’t doing well.

Even they acknowledge Russia is a shit hole

May I call triple bollocks?

Gas prices are going down, down, down.

These warm banks and small sacrifices in personal comfort are basically winning the economic war against the poo tin.

Yeah, at 17 C it's chillier in my house than the toasty 20 C I would normally have, but my gas consumption is down 40%.

Who is winning now, poo tin? 🤣🤣🥳

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So, how this generally works is, your net generation is recorded, for the year, and any surplus, for the year, is logged with your power company.

Then, when you use more than you produce, it is off-set by higher production time periods.

Your solar running a bunch of air conditioners in the summer pays your power bill running heat in the winter.

Our Western decadence is our downfall they claim but our downfall makes us look Russian. It is the logic from the smooth brains who claim they invaded a country that put them closer to NATO because they're scared NATO is getting closer to their border.

Proper insulation would be much better solution.

Had a basement apartment when I lived in Boston, one day some local plant roots grew into the septic line for the building, every time someone flushed their toilet anywhere in the building it all just came out our toilet.

And that kids is why the basement apartment is significantly cheaper than the others.

Russians wish they were half as effective at making others miserable as a tory government is.

Russian comrades, listen to me. Europe is on the edge of disaster but here in Russia we are one step ahead of them.

What the hell does that have to do with Britons struggling with heating costs?

With friends like the Tories, who needs enemies?

It has little to do with russia, but russia wants misery to be their fault because it tickles their tiny balls to think they’re making people as miserable as they are. Tories scrapped price caps, tories mismanaged the government for 12 years, tories precipitated brexit and bungled the aftermath.

It's called the national grid you absolute sausage.

The temperature properties of basements is one thing that is very good about them. Cool in the summer. Warm in the winter. Earth is a great insulator.

Yeah it does kinda sound like bollocks, they're in social housing so their main cost of living has been reduced greatly. The guy could be a labourer and earn more than his wife. I'm struggling to see how they're so short on cash unless freelance journalist is code for writing conspiracy theories on Facebook or something.

Nothing, it's a non-sequiter. After reading the comments, and finding mostly to be dismissive of the headline, decided to respond.

Anyways, Merry Christmas

How big is skid row now in L.A.?

It's quite mild today here in the UK where I am in Norfolk. I had the heating on for 1 hour this morning and that's it. These headlines are stupid.

They are...

And by cancelling their contracts but continuing to import russian gas they gave the russians a lot more money.

Why do you think houseless people assemble there? The weather is nice.

They can't just keep popping UK videos up and call them Europe anymore... UK has made it clear they ain't that

Except the core idea of the article "rising natural gas prices" is changing. The prices are starting to drop.

In fact, they were just historically low in 2015 and 2020 so people are mad about it despite the fact that prices were going back up higher from 2020 to December of 2021 before this war started

https://www.macrotrends.net/2478/natural-gas-prices-historical-chart

About the same: a tiny, tiny fraction of the city. Most of us virtually never even really go downtown. And even downtown has relatively nice parts. But this discussion is pointless: you're just here to shit on LA. Knock yourself out. I'm fine with people like you not knowing or appreciating what's on offer here.

Oh hello friend. Same thing happened to me once. Upstairs ran the washing machine. I walked into my bathroom and had to wonder why soapy gray water was coming up in the bathtub.

It’s been a pretty mild winter where I’m at in Alaska. Only -19°F today whereas -40°F is pretty common to see this time of year.

Congrats to your perseverance! Honestly, NYC is cold, but your on a whole different level of cold. I'd be fuckin useless to ya up there.

Sounds like they need new management

Is this abnormal? We've got quite a few warming centers set up. Mostly for the people who aren't lucky enough to have shelter this time of year, but also for those people who can't heat their homes. My city also sets up fresh water stations and cooling centers on overly hot days.

You need to learn how geography works

Just go hang out in the baked goods section at Tesco

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Welp thats what happens when you go to war with Russia

Balance of power politics. Russia lost its sphere of influence over Ukraine when the CIA did a western-back coupe in 2014 (victoria nuland was the mastermind).

USA knew that this could probably cause Russia to invade. And then Russia did invade.

obey us. you pretentious European vassal states 🇺🇸

but hey seriously lets negotiate an end to this Ukraine War.

While ignoring the fact that Russia has been like this for years and will be this or worse for decades to come unless they cut lose their tiny little leader

Absolute bollocks

Yeah NYC didn’t even feel that cold today, compared to yesterday. We escaped most of the brutality.

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So let me get this straight. You are setting off power by sending it to the grid. That power is absolutely minuscule but the government is paying you some money to make you feel better about your bad investment. Then, when you actually need power - at night in winter, when your solar panels are absolutely useless, you are relying on the grid like everyone else. The question, you moron, is - what happens when there is not enough power at peak demand? How are your solar panels helping then? You see, I’ve done the math whether I can make my country house off grid by installing solar panels. The answer is - no. Between the cost of the panels and the batteries required the cost is way more than I will ever save within the life of the panels and the batteries. It’s still cheaper to receive power from the grid - who would have guessed? So the answer to all power problems is not “solar”, idiot. The only reason small scale solar kind of works is because the government is paying you out of everyone else’s pocket to do not very much.

I know how it works but the fact you are generating power in summer when there is not that much demand and plenty of power doesn’t help in winter does it? It helps your bills, sure but if there is not enough power there will be blackouts and your solar is not going to help.

This reply is peppered with insults. Much like the pepper in a Cumberland sausage. But you'd know all about that wouldn't you? Ya sausage.

Oh, damnit... What's that word for punching oneself repeatedly in the face?

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The primary issue isn't lack of sufficient power plants, it's cost of fuel to run those power plants (alongside rank profiteering by literal criminal scumbags, but that's another topic).

Any fuel that isn't used "in the summer" is still available "In the winter".