Hi I have 3 responses to that: Flippant: in association with the Daily Express' surely tells you all you need to know.
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Technical: natural gas is mostly methane. Methane is a greenhouse gas many times more 'powerful' than Carbon dioxide.
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Grassland is a good carbon store if you leave it alone. Cutting it once a year might make it prettier but it worsens its carbon storage potential. Cutting it regularly would probably substantially negate it. So there's a double hit of making more methane and reducing carbon storage on the land. With any biofuel - wood chips, miscanthus, rape seed - you displace food production, reduce biodiversity and still emit carbon dioxide when you burn it.
Thanks for this @raisingirl , and apologies for the delayed response. I must admit my initial reaction was the same when I saw the Daily Express link! My next thought was about the carbon dioxide emissions aspect, but I'm not well enough informed to know if I was reading it wrong, so it's good to hear an informed opinion.
'If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.'
We had our 12 year old gas boiler serviced yesterday and were discussing with the engineer if it is sensible to consider changing it before legislation changes and it becomes impossible to obtain a new gas boiler. He told us that he has recently fitted about 6 new boilers where it isn't strictly necessary for customers with similiar concerns. Is that the law of unintended consequences in action?
Is that the law of unintended consequences in action?
As there are currently no plans to ban gas boilers except in new build houses, then no. It's more opportunism by the gas companies exploiting people's haziness about what the rules are or may be. They are being scammed
Gardening on the edge of Exmoor, in Devon
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
@raisingirl But isn't there an issue here - the same as electric vehicles. At some point, when the balance changes and the move away from gas proceeds, why will producers produce gas and isn't it likely that prices will go up, forcing a move away due to cost? Ditto for fossil fuel cars - at the moment charge points are the rarity, but at what point is it the other way round? And what price the fuel?
We had a pretty old (possibly 20 years old) gas boiler replaced earlier this year ... we were very open to the idea of a heat pump or whatever would be greener than another gas boiler ... we did quite a bit of research ... there was nothing remotely affordable that would work with the architecture of this house and it's situation ... we had to get another gas boiler. Very frustrating
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
When we moved here,the potterton boiler was 25 years old,needed a heat exchanger which we couldn't get. We looked at getting an electric boiler,only know one person who has one, running costs astronomical. The new A rated Bosch didn't save a penny,pa. Before that we had back boilers behind the gas fire. Easy,cheap service, vacuum the dog hair out!! I had already read that new gas boilers would be banned from 2033, according to WHICH? gas and oil boilers will be banned from the mid 2030s.
@steveTu If you had a business selling gas or gas boilers at the moment, it's in your interest to get people - as many as possible - to buy new gas boilers because that will tie them in for 15 or 20 years at least before they'll think of changing again. Even if the government bans the sale of all gas boilers (which seems highly unlikely given their reliance on the market to lead), there is no precedent in this country for a law to force people to change what's already there. They can therefore hope to see themselves out to their pensions on the backs of those people they persuade now. The one small glimmer of change is the idea that the heavy levies currently on electricity but not on gas might be switched, so that gas becomes dearer and electricity cheaper. But there's a catch in that, similar to the smoking ban - the government relies on the revenue so putting on a commodity that's being phased out and removing it from one that's being increased is going to be a hard sell in Whitehall.
People will only switch to electric cars when it's easier to get a charge than a tank of petrol, when the car itself is at least no more expensive or when running it is so much cheaper that it's worth the extra outlay. People will only switch to heat pumps when the relative prices of gas and electricity change and the mythology around how difficult it is to put a heat pump in anything except a new house is comprehensively debunked. At the moment, all the 'noise' is encouraging us to stick with the status quo.
Gardening on the edge of Exmoor, in Devon
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
Posts
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
But isn't there an issue here - the same as electric vehicles. At some point, when the balance changes and the move away from gas proceeds, why will producers produce gas and isn't it likely that prices will go up, forcing a move away due to cost? Ditto for fossil fuel cars - at the moment charge points are the rarity, but at what point is it the other way round? And what price the fuel?
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
The one small glimmer of change is the idea that the heavy levies currently on electricity but not on gas might be switched, so that gas becomes dearer and electricity cheaper. But there's a catch in that, similar to the smoking ban - the government relies on the revenue so putting on a commodity that's being phased out and removing it from one that's being increased is going to be a hard sell in Whitehall.
People will only switch to electric cars when it's easier to get a charge than a tank of petrol, when the car itself is at least no more expensive or when running it is so much cheaper that it's worth the extra outlay. People will only switch to heat pumps when the relative prices of gas and electricity change and the mythology around how difficult it is to put a heat pump in anything except a new house is comprehensively debunked. At the moment, all the 'noise' is encouraging us to stick with the status quo.
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”