The cost of living... what can we do?

I have a gas fire in one room and I dont intend getting rid of it anytime soon.
We dont get many power cuts these days but I just wonder if they are going to get more likely once everyone starts plugging in cars and 6kw heat pumps into a crumbling out of date grid with not enough capacity.

 

You have to be a bit careful when generalising about climates, though, don't you? I don't know about the first five, but France, Italy and UK have wildly differing climate zones even within the respective countries. I seem to remember a certain politician swinging the withdrawal of the Winter Fuel allowance from French ex-pats on the basis of fiddled statistics. The mean temps for the overseas territories, like Martinique, Guadeloupe and La Réunion were included, so surprise!, France is a 'hot' country. Tell that to the folks living in the Alps or the Pyrénées...
Even here in the South West I've experienced ten days of -12C / -17C and a metre of snow. The heat pump went into a deep sulk

 

The French government offers subsidies with two catches. It's only the material that attracts a percentage subsidy, and it has to be installed by an 'approved' (i.e. expensive) installer. In a lot of cases, it's cheaper to get a local chap to do the work

 

On the contrary, its a ground source refrigerant/ wet underfloor heating system with a superbly insulated house on top I'm not complaining about it...wouldn't have anything else.....but if that was struggling in those conditions, I wouldn't place much faith in an air source heat pump in the UK. Just sayin'....

 

I have cavity wall insulation and loft insulation, probably not up to the required feet that it is supposed to be these days, but its there.
On cold days the house can be not warm enough with the central heating running, in the required rooms, I dont heat the whole house anymore.

I cant think a heat pump is going to be any better than my gas boiler as all I hear is they run at a lower temperature, so I need bigger and more radiators.

Its pretty much rip the whole system out and replace it, not prepared to spend that kind of money, i'll never live long enough to get my money back, but if there is a thing churning away using 6kw I'll never get my money back.

 

Surely there is a maximum out put on these systems if weather conditions drop below those allowed for the system will struggle in the same way any form of heating does.

 

Why, I'm quite happy with what I have, its only this green push that is designed to make everyone feel guilty and spend lots of money on things they never thought they would be.

I could look into solar panels, but when I did I was told I dont use enough energy to make it worth my while.

It all costs money and its a long term gain for solar panels.
I'm yet to hear how much heat pumps save you per year.

 

Wood burner, Rayburn and a EFEL
Rayburn & EFEL runs on Dirty diesal
Wood Burner runs coal,wood & paper blocks + any thing else that burners

 

We live in a small bungalow and our stove does indeed warm the whole house when we open up the door on a really cold night(we had minus 10 last winter). It's not dirty, ours is very fuel efficient, a layer of coal then top up with well seasoned logs to keep it ticking it over and by using the the vent controls it will stay lit over night. I have used open fires/stoves for most of life and really would miss one. Heat pumps, well we are on a bit of sandy soil with solid rock a few metres down, I don't think they will work here.

 

I phrased it badly. The pump did what it was designed to do but it wasn't designed to cope with those conditions. Because, unless there is some residual heat for the pump to augment, it is relying solely on the grid, because it's a 'low-temperature' system designed to run at a maximum of 23C and because, even with good insulation, the prolonged low outside temperatures made themselves felt. Let's hope that it won't be called on to 'cope' ever again!

 

There are at least three kinds, burnie The 'boxes on the outside wall' are air/air or water. Then you have 'geothermal' although they're not truly geothermal...captors buried horizontally at 60cm circulating refrigerant with either underfloor heating (ideal) or radiators (not recommended). Then there's true geothermal. Not many folks in either France or UK opt for that as it involves captors in a deep borehole. Too complex and too expensive or like you, they're on rock!