Another day, another great idea from our beloved government. The great housing minister, Hugo de Jonge, decided that any replacement for the gas fired central heating systems should be a hybrid heat pump. Not an option, but a mandatory action.
Now, you might wonder, where did I hear this name before? Oh yeah, you can see here. Until last year we had this fine fellow as a Health Minister. Doing great things, of course. Like in these awesome episodes:
Let's not blame the unvaccinated, but let's do it in a clever way anyway
Dutch Government is the new Grinch
2G Access Passes won't stop COVID infections Part II
But hey! Enough Corona talk. At least for now, it seems that in the autumn might become fashionable again. For now we're focusing on cutting our dependency on natural gas, and how else, saving the planet. By making everyone's life miserable. Well, not quite everyone... some people are rich enough not to care. But let's say, for most of the people. And that's happening right here, in the Netherlands.
From this article:
Hybrid heat pumps should become the standard replacement for gas-fired central heating systems from 2026, housing minister Hugo de Jonge said on Tuesday.
By should Hugo thinks of will, since this will become a law. The reasoning behind this:
the need to become more energy efficient is high and the speed [at which this is being done] must be increased
Also you have to remember that, before the Corona shitshow, it was another one running called climate change.
The Dutch government has pledged to ensure all homes in the country are gas free in 2050, aiming for 2,000 in the first two years and building up to 1.5 million homes by 2030.
All homes will be gas free in 2050, and probably half of them with no heating source available. But something needs to be done, right? Even if the Netherlands accounts only for 0.41% of the World Total CO2 emissions (if we want to play that card).
But back to our talk. There are a couple of aspect to take into consideration when the government will enforce this rule:
- if this systems would be so attractive at this moment as replacements, then this would have happened already. But it's not the case. Why...?
- a hybrid pump (the cheapest version) costs around €6-8000. A fully electrical one can go up to €20000. Not sure if this includes all the costs related to installation, possible works to accommodate the units, etc. This is 4-5 times more expensive than the regular one.
- for the full electrical version, the houses must be well-insulated. This is not the case with a lot of housing, and this is impossible to be fully done for most of them.
- there are not enough skilled workers to install all these systems. Prices for installations will rise up making even more unaffordable.
- noise pollution for the external units.
- electrical grid is not yet (and it won't be for tens of years) capable to deliver so much electricity to all fully electrical pumps in the whole country.
- electricity is not cheap. And once the gas is out of the equation, the price will sky rocket even more.
- renewables (wind/solar) are not reliable by their nature. And the maintenance is more expensive that a gas power plant.
And a small exercise here: let's assume your consumption becomes more efficient after installing a hybrid heat pump by 50% and you'll end up paying €100 instead of €200 for the natural gas. With the costs of (a low ball of) €6000, this will give you a nice value for the return of investment after 5 years. But that ignores the electricity consumed by this unit and the costs of maintenance. And also the fact that at some point, the unit will die and it will require replacement.
De Jonge is mentioning the need to be more efficient. Well, it seems that needs to apply to the population and less to the government. But even with that, why he's assuming that the big chunk of people around here are inefficient in how they're heating their homes? Maybe we are already at our best efficiency. And even if that's not the case, it's everyone business how they burn or not the gas, or spend their own money. If the government tells us how to heat your home, how much electricity you should consume, how much meat to eat (or not)... well, the Communism is back!
So, NO, don't let the market decide which heating system makes more sense and it's affordable. Try to impose them your will.
But this is all part of a bigger European plan, some shit like the green deal across the ocean. Which will increase poverty and ... save the planet, or something like that. More on that, soon.
