Heat pump left us cold
I READ with interest your article describing the transition to alternative heating solutions in order to reduce the impact of heating our homes on the environment. Whilst in principle I agree with the need to change to reduce our carbon footprint I thought it would be beneficial for your readers to hear of our experience of an air source heat pump.
Our home is modern, well-insulated and double-glazed. When built approximately 10 years ago we were seen as trailblazers having an air to water heat pump installed. Unfortunately we then spent the next five years trying to have this removed as our home was never warm, we had inadequate hot water to meet the needs of our family and in winter the pump struggled to operate when the ambient temperature fell below zero. The cost of running the pump was more than £400 per month and when we finally managed to change to a gas combi boiler our costs reduced to around £150 per month. The system required a great deal of space internally and externally. I am therefore unsure how those living in a traditional Glasgow tenement will manage to transition with ease to such a system, particularly if they are not situated on the ground floor.
Whilst well intentioned I am not sure exactly how much thought has gone into the practicalities of such a policy for the majority of existing homeowners required to retrofit such a system.
In addition we also transitioned to having an electric car but have changed back recently as the current charging infrastructure was completely inadequate to deal with the range of the car. We would often find that chargers were faulty when we tried to charge and with time the charges became disproportionate in comparison to the cost per mile of diesel. Depreciation of electric cars is also great with our car only retaining around 30% of the cost when new at three years.
We all need to pull together collectively to address the environmental impact of fossil fuels but we also need to ensure that the wider impact is understood, particularly in these times when inflation is high.
Dr Craig Wheelans, Melrose.
Green is not so green after all
THE Prime Minister of the UK vows to not concrete over the countryside.
Meanwhile elsewhere the First Minister of Scotland puts out the welcome mat to allow Big Energy to engulf the Highlands in concrete and China’s coal-roduced steel in the name of “green” against the will of his rural communities.
It is nothing more than pollution relocation as the virtue-signalling plastic-straw-banning politicians feel good about themselves while ignoring the unregulated industry, slave and child labour and the toxic shambles left behind in other countries supplying us with “environmentally friendly” materials and products.
The Scottish Government is also backing the hacking down of millions of CO2-absorbing trees and the ripping up of thousands of acres of ancient carbon-holding peat; all for thousands of wind turbines that have been shown to shed micro-plastics and toxins from their blades into our oceans and environment only to be buried in landfill at the end of their inefficient lives.
There is nothing more nauseating than illogical green-sloshed politicians requiring spine transplants who don’t have the ability to stand up and speak the increasingly obvious truth about how “green” is not so green after all and how Scotland’s rural citizens are being flung under Big Energy’s gravy train by their own government.
They would be well advised to start listening to communities because people have had enough and are coming together to fight back against the unnecessary over deployment of wind energy and its environment trashing transmission infrastructure.
Lyndsey Ward, Beauly.
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