Gas price

Anyone see the news report on these lithium battery fired at recycling plants ? Spontaneous combustion . Electric cars are going to cause one hell of a huge issue in 50 years time . The waste from them is undeniably horrific . There is evidence that a 1 ltr petrol engine is far more kinder to the environment than any electric motor long term . Air sourced heat pumps are another con . I worked on the green deal when it was introduced. We all new it as a con then . Ask anyone who as been forced to have one installed about their electricity bill .

 

The company I worked for previously installed hundreds to replace electric storage heaters in social housing. Up to 60% saving on the electric according to the residents.

 

Lithium ion batteries contain many valuable components such as copper, aluminium, cobalt and nickel so there is plenty of incentive to develop technology to recover these materials. Lithium ion batteries can cause spontaneous fires but generally that is confined to very cheaply made batteries. As the technology develops the quality of manufacture should improve. I agree that electric car manufacture has a higher environmental impact than building Internal Combustion Engine vehicles but the overall environmental cost over a 10-year lifetime is massively worse for traditional gas guzzlers. Whilst I do worry about the mining impacts with battery manufacture, that is small in comparison with the global damage caused by carbon dioxide emissions. Apart from the batteries, the rest of the vehicle is no more (in fact less) of a recycling problem than traditional vehicles.
Air-source heat pumps are not great but if we move quicker towards renewable energy production, then this becomes much less of a problem. Ground-source heat pumps represent a much better option.
Insulation is vital if we are to get away from fossil fuels, there was a very interesting article about a recent housing development in Norwich which shows what can be done.
https://www.theguardian.com/society...ing-bills-passivhaus-goldsmith-street-norwich

 

Ground source heat pumps are superior by a country like . However, the footprint required to lay the pipes is large and can only really be installed in large gardens or new build on large plots . I’m not convinced by battery at all and the cost of charging these vehicles is rising higher than oil . They are now less economical than a 1 ltr petrol over the lifetime . Also the way it’s mined undermines the push for electric vehicles in my opinion .

 

Thats on the old electric heaters which were expensive as hell .

 

You’re comparing the cost of charging at a public charge point and petrol? Charge at home and you’re at 10p a KWh, I know home charging is problematic for many but if you can do it at home using cheaper off peak electricity or better ‘free’ solar you’re on to a winner.

 

The cost of EV charging is governed by the price cap which could be massively lower if our government did what even the CEO of Shell suggested and properly impose a windfall tax like they have in France and most of Europe.
Ground-source heat pumps is only viable if you have enough land as you say. Air-source would be more viable if we had sensible energy policy (see above).
I conceded in my last post that mining for minerals used in battery technology (particularly cobalt) is horrendous - but localised, CO2 emission from ICE vehicles (and air transport, domestic gas, shipping etc etc) has a global impact.

 

How deep do you have to bore to get a vertical ground heat source?

 

A mate had it done about 10 years ago, he's got half an acre of land also covered in solar panels - his bills are pretty well zero. I believe the deeper you have them the better, this suggests a minimum of 1 metre.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ground_source_heat_pump
Edit; Sorry I missed the word "vertical", I would imagine that would need to be deeper than horizontally laid pipes.

 

I think you misunderstood me, 1 meter is for horizontal systems over several square meters, I mean a deep bored hole.

 

See edit above.

 

Found it - typically 100 m but can be as deep as 200m.

 

Which cars are those though

 

On average around 100m deep but can be half that or even up to 200m plus. Btw 200 meters is about 25 normal UK houses in top of each other.

 

Or it will controlled mercilessly and drip fed to society for a hugely inflated price ...

 

That's quite a hole...

 

or as I heard recently fuel prices go up like a rocket and come down like a feather.

 

I wonder how that would work in barnsley with all the minings underneath us