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Telling the truth about renewables

I write with reference to an item I read on a recent PHAM e-newsletter headed ‘EUA report predicts low carbon backlash’.

We are a small renewable energy company who install heat pumps, battery storage and solar P systems. We also provide R and occasionally solar thermal systems. We have been operating for 11 years and have seen the development of heat pump heating systems. We set our company up to help with de-carbonisation, so do not consider ourselves to be traditional heating engineers or electricians rather, we use those skills and technologies to fi nd solutions to help decarbonise.

I have noticed recently that the UA, a lobbying operation for the gas boiler manufacturers and energy supply companies who desperately want to keep selling gas for as long as possible, is starting to get more and more coverage in trade publications and the wider press. The danger of articles like this is that they cleverly attempt to appear as independent and impartial, while choosing questions for their surveys that give the answers they want to use to propagate a particular message. ne survey question highlighted in the report asks people if they would support the development of low carbon gas boilers that can easily be swapped for an existing boiler, but they might just as well have asked would you support a really cheap way of dealing with climate change that doesn t inconvenience you . It s too simplistic and I am only really surprised that 11% of people saw through it and said no or that 1 % were unsure.

I suspect if the same people were asked would you support attempts to develop heat pump heating solutions that have the potential to be 100 carbon neutral and can easily be swapped with your boiler , the answer would be the same or probably better.

I could go on, but please can your editorial team bear in mind that information from the UA is not bear in mind that information from the UA is not unbiased and, while I appreciate that you aren t an investigative news publication, all of our children s futures depend on the right messages getting out to the wider installation population so that renewables can develop as everyone agrees they must. The UA is looking to exaggerate the challenges associated with fi nding low carbon solutions (which keeping as much gas oil as possible for as long as possible is not). I am reminded of the latter days of smoking advertising and expect to see more of this deathrattle activity from the fossil fuel vendors using apparently impartial entities to push an agenda of fear, uncertainty and doubt.

Whether the established industry likes it or not, we simply have to embrace more renewable technology over the next fi ve years. We absolutely all understand the aff ordability gap between sticking in a replacement combi boiler compared to a heat pump, but with a government-declared climate emergency we all need to be moving towards being on a warfooting to deal with the challenges.

Government subsidy will, I am sure, be required to bridge the gap, but we need to be fi nding solutions, not trying to create reasons to stay with the status quo or maintain it as long as possible.

Although I suspect the UA will disagree, I do think it is the role of a properly advised government to guide us as a country to do what must be done for the greater good even if it is unpopular to some of our population. ot everyone is going to be happy moving to electric vehicles either, but it has to happen so we might as well stop moaning and fi nd solutions. f course most people will say if asked that they would prefer not to pay more for their heating system compared to paying more but that isn t the real comparison. aybe try asking people if they would pay a bit more rather than see catastrophic climate change eff ects on their grandchildren.

The wording of surveys and reports like this matters. Mike Stephenson H2-ecO Limited, Poole

Controls gobbledygook

Regarding David Newton’s letter in June’s PHAM News about smart controls: ‘Simplicity is the missing element in heating controls’.

I agree 100 . When wireless controls fi rst came on the market, I booked a course to learn how they worked. Unfortunately, it was cancelled and moved to a new venue. I then booked again, only to be told that once again it was moving to a new venue. After the third cancellation, they returned my fee. I then asked, why all the cancellations I was informed that it was due to lack of numbers, but how would installers know about the course if the company had not advertised it

As a result, I kept clear of wireless controls – after all, if things go wrong, who is the customer going to phone

Fast forward in time last year I fi tted some radiators and two months later I got a complaint from the customer saying that they were not heating all over. A quick check traced the fault to a wireless thermostat programmer.

As this customer had a contract in place with an energy supplier, they contacted them. An engineer arrived who poked a few buttons and then disappeared. Another engineer then arrived, blamed the system and tried to sell them a diff erent system, after which the same problem arose again. Following a further call, another engineer arrived who fi nally changed the thermostat programmer.

While this was all going on I contacted the manufacturer and requested technical information on the thermostat programmer, only to be sent four pages of gobbledygook. Could it be I was not talking the controls language I then wrote a rude reply and fi nally received the information I had requested before

The customer then purchased a new set of wireless controls and did not understand the booklet sent with them. I used my copy to help out. eedless to say, I will not buy this company s controls.

If manufacturers want their products sold, what is stopping them from setting up a network of trained installers

RS Watt Aberdeen

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