General > General Technical Chat
"Gas Armageddon": Energy/electricity prices in EU/UK (and how to deal with them)
tom66:
You can install air to air heatpumps yourself in the UK if they use propane, which some systems use although they seem to be uncommon now.
Anything using fluorinated gases requires training, which is about £1,000 to do, but probably cheaper than paying an air con tech. But I can't bemoan anyone wanting to charge for their labour!
nctnico:
--- Quote from: tom66 on August 28, 2022, 11:11:19 am ---You can install air to air heatpumps yourself in the UK if they use propane, which some systems use although they seem to be uncommon now.
Anything using fluorinated gases requires training, which is about £1,000 to do, but probably cheaper than paying an air con tech.
--- End quote ---
You can typically find an airco technician who wants to check & fill your system for a friendly price. But nowadays a lot of systems come prefilled. With some research, the right tools (all available from Aliexpress) and pre-made pipes (makes the flares correctly is a specialist job), it is very possible to install an airco yourself. I did that last year.
madires:
--- Quote from: Alti on August 28, 2022, 11:00:23 am ---
--- Quote from: madires on August 27, 2022, 05:00:17 pm ---Another thing to know is that heat pumps can be switched remotely in Germany (via a dedicated power meter) to prevent grid overloads.
--- End quote ---
Could you provide some reference? What is the name of such service?
I did hear about off-peak resistive heating based on tariffs where the ON/OFF was driven by distribution company (based on time or remotely). However, a user could always override that, just paying higher tariff price. While your post suggests this is another application - stabilization of the grid where in some situations users are prevented from heating their houses.
--- End quote ---
The term for this is 'EVU-Sperre' (simply search for this term, the corresponding law is ENWG). The electricity suppliers offer special tariffs for heat pumps which are a few cents lower (about 10ct lower, normal tariff is 30+ct). They will install a dedicated power meter for the heat pump which can be switched remotely. The drawback is that the electricity suppliers usually switch off the power for the heat pumps at peak times. But there are some rules they have to follow. For example, they can't switch off the heat pump for longer than two hours at a time. If you have only a heat pump for heating the house the maximum power-off time is 6h per day. So most electricity suppliers choose morning, noon and evening (3 * 2h). If you're happy to pay the normal power tariff you can run your heat pump without enforced breaks.
tom66:
--- Quote from: nctnico on August 28, 2022, 11:50:24 am ---
--- Quote from: tom66 on August 28, 2022, 11:11:19 am ---You can install air to air heatpumps yourself in the UK if they use propane, which some systems use although they seem to be uncommon now.
Anything using fluorinated gases requires training, which is about £1,000 to do, but probably cheaper than paying an air con tech.
--- End quote ---
You can typically find an airco technician who wants to check & fill your system for a friendly price. But nowadays a lot of systems come prefilled. With some research, the right tools (all available from Aliexpress) and pre-made pipes (makes the flares correctly is a specialist job), it is very possible to install an airco yourself. I did that last year.
--- End quote ---
Yes, but unfortunately even pre-filled systems it's illegal to do so, in the UK at least.
Now, whether you get, umm, any recourse for such actions is probably unlikely.
NiHaoMike:
--- Quote from: madires on August 28, 2022, 01:08:52 pm ---The term for this is 'EVU-Sperre' (simply search for this term, the corresponding law is ENWG). The electricity suppliers offer special tariffs for heat pumps which are a few cents lower (about 10ct lower, normal tariff is 30+ct). They will install a dedicated power meter for the heat pump which can be switched remotely. The drawback is that the electricity suppliers usually switch off the power for the heat pumps at peak times. But there are some rules they have to follow. For example, they can't switch off the heat pump for longer than two hours at a time. If you have only a heat pump for heating the house the maximum power-off time is 6h per day. So most electricity suppliers choose morning, noon and evening (3 * 2h). If you're happy to pay the normal power tariff you can run your heat pump without enforced breaks.
--- End quote ---
Wouldn't it make more sense to have all electricity switch between the discounted and full rate with smart switches to disable devices at peak time? In that case, the heat pump could be required to have a smart switch and additional smart switches can be installed on other devices as the customer wishes.
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