Energy infrastructure

No matter what the cost of gas, if your house isn't adequately insulated, it will be impossible to heat it to a comfortable level with a heat pump.

Above a certain temperature gradient, the rate of loss of energy from the structure will increase to the point that it exceeds the rate of supply from the heat pump.

Prices won't come down irrespective of what the source is, €3-4k a year electricity bills will be the norm with the likelihood of a percentage of homes with no electricity.

What do you think of Micro CHP systems. They are about the same cost as a condensor boiler but more efficient. Although residential units currently run on NG only, there is work being done to allow them to operate on Hydrogen.

A micro-CHP boiler typically uses mains gas or LPG, so they aren’t considered a renewable energy source, however due to their efficiency and productivity, they can significantly lower carbon dioxide emissions and are widely considered to be the future of domestic carbon emission depletion. They may in the future be able to utilise bio-oils, fuel cells or other renewable energy sources, but at present the technologies that are currently ready for market deployment have been developed to use mains natural gas.

If there was widespread consumer adoption of this, it may also negate the need to build a lot of gas power stations as every home with one could be a small scale generator feeding electricity into the network. Also demand for electricity would be reduced as each house would also be generating their own.

I wonder what your definition of "crap" is? Our current house is a standard 1980's semi D, was BER E1 when we bought, but we've done windows, attic insulation and a few other things to improve it. But from insulation/air tightness perspective, I'd say its still low C's or D. Our heating bills aren't bonkers - we've used 8000kWh of gas this past year, and its a combi boiler so that includes water heating.

We were replacing our dilapidated oil boiler last year, and converted to gas. We did look at heat pump, but the feedback was unanimously from the few suppliers that we talked to that it would struggle to heat the house at all comfortably.

At the end of the day, you're still generating some electricity locally at a small and inefficient scale by burning NG while emitting CO2 (and NOx). It can't be considered "free" - the energy it contains has to have come from somewhere. Your replacing 1kWh of grid electricity with a locally produced equivalent with over 3 times the carbon intensity. And as the grid gets greener, this multiple will rise.

I don't see a way to avoid the conclusion that the domestic burning of natural gas has no long term future and a limited medium term future. And I don't see any realistic replacement - something that works right now - except for electrification.

Natural gas delivers a double whammy in terms of warming - not just the CO2 emitted during combustion (along with a bunch of other unpleasant pollutants) but the entire process of extracting it, storing it, transporting it and using it results in methane leaking into the atmosphere which is a highly potent green house gas.

Once natural gas is no longer required to support grid-scale renewable generation, then it should be retired from all other aspects of the energy economy.

The higher the prices the more jobs lost, higher transport costs will see many businesses close.

An i taught i read last week Eamon Ryan said they may have have a future as emergency back up stations

Where is the gas going to come from for these plants but?

So 70% decrease in next months bill?