Replace all pipework as too thin. What is the significance of this,? As long as any exposed pipework in roof or outside is properly insulated to stop heat losses to meet the low level temperature experience in the are then it is fine. If you are referring to ol pipe work worn this as it is in flooring then it may need to be replaced if nearing the end of its life. 

Heat Pumps as far as I am aware cannot be just sold as "the" answer, I believe they have to be fitted by MCS approved fitters, and the rules to do so are quite stringent, this means full house evaluation, room by room to establish what is needed. I suppose a rogue plumber could just come along and just fit one, but if a homeowner did that it would be plan silly.

Heat Pumps are at the moment areput forward as a possible answer to get people off of Oil and Gas which is the main goal as part of cleaning up our act. It will not be right for all, it is not a one size fits all solution, only where appropriate and when assessed and implemented correctly. There is also a lot of rubbish said about heat pumps, primarily from plumbers and gas fitters who see it as a threat to them nice replacing boilers and heating systems and quickly and easily and getting a nice earner from it. I know I have one over the road who hates them, even though he knows my yearly power usage is 50% less than his, and his bills are way higher(ignoring our Solar and Batteries).

There are several Council initiatives up North where they took blocks of flats that were costing the residents a fortune to heat and have hot water. They sunk latrge Ground Source heat pumps in the ground outside that flats, and then installed thermal stores in each house, highly insulated water tanks(with thermal stores) for the heating to use when needed. I cannot remember everything else that was done, but it was not OTT,  the result was they halved the residents bills.

The pipes to and from the heat pump need to be 25mm, to get the correct level of flow, and I think this is often the case with Oil and Gas boilers, certainly my parents Oil boiler had 25mm pipes initially. In most well designed central heating systems it is recommended to use 25mm pipes on long runs say in the loft or under floors that then feed radiators, not just in heat pump installations. Unfortunately builders and plumbers often shy away from this primarily to save on costs and because installing smaller pipes makes life easier, but not necessarily better fo the one, it will mean the system if less efficient and thus more costly to run in the long term. As I said plumbers come up with all sorts of rubbish about why ASHPs are not good, not all true!

Want to ride a Dolphin. Build your Dreams

My sister is selling her Taycan. It kept going wrong. Trading it in with her Cayenne for a new Macan. She also has an electric Fiat 500.

She had a petrol Fiat 500 for years. In central London it's a car that works. She drove it more than the Taycan.

After driving her Taycan, while fast in a straight line, it simply doesn't handle as well as the mid engine Porsche's without any shadow of a doubt, as I own one and have driven many. It's just too freakin heavy.

I'm coming around to the idea of

Hybrid

Mostly because I cannot see anywhere near the infrastructure we need for charging points in all the places we need them by the deadline

Most impressed with the Yaris we had for a few days
Slightly bigger car, more comfortable and more oomph would do it

I drove with a mate in a Caterham through France into Belgium. It's a great blast, as you say, raw driving at its best.

You're right about comfort. When it rains, it's such a pain putting the lid up that you end up not bothering. Just drive faster.

Getting back to EVs and the thread. 

Sue and I went to the Fully Charged Show held at Farnborough International Show Ground last Saturday. It is the first time we have been to such an event so we looking forward to the day. There were quite a number of first time seen EVs at the show, and BYD(Build Your Dreams) and ORA both from China had stands and cars at the show. Interestingly Audi, Jaguar Land Rover, Mercedes, BMW, Mini, Porsche, Renault, VW, and Volvo all declined to participate.  I suspect that this may be because several of them have recently have been sighted as being behind the curve in terms of getting to grips with what the punter wants from an EV, and producing good EV products that are VFM. Although the Audi E-Tron looks hopeful if you can afford one, and the various Porsche EVs give some hope, but it is rumoured that they are not selling as many as hoped. Anyway there were a great deal of other EV manufacturers at the show.

What was at the show in terms of EVs was generally pretty good and quite varied. Sue was rather taken by the Abarth-E in a nice shade of bright green, so much so she wants to book a test drive. Part of the reason for attending is our 20 year old run-around Honda Jazz is approaching the great scrap yard in the sky and Sue wants small-medium practical EV next time. She also thought the BYD Dolphin was good with a reasonable range of 270 miles around £35K. The ORA Funk Cat is striking to look at and has a strange feeling of being a 50's show back with a modern twist, it will be around £32.5k with 300 mile range I believe. She really liked the Genesis G60, but with them starting at £53K this is not going to happen, it does feel and look like a luxury car though. 

In the main exhibition hall we were told there were over 200 exhibitors, this ranged from large companies like Shell Recharge, Octopus, E-On, to very small ones showing newly developed EV charges. There were exhibitors offering Solar, Heat Batteries, Air Source Heat Pumps and various Green solutions for both domestic and commercial.  It did feel like we had entered EV Charger Gold Rush city as it seemed every other stand was offering an EV charger, some were very innovative designs that disappeared into the ground when not in use to be put in pavements in cities where people had dedicated parking bays, alternatively could be set up for multi-user usage. There was even a couple of over head chargers designed to be attached to lamp posts. So quite a bit of thinking outside the box to offer EV charging solutions. 

As can be seen below there were a couple of stands with EV Police cars, the two marked cars are a KIA EV6 and Tesla M3, these are genuine police vehicles in use everyday, also on display were two unmarked EV Police cars. I chatted with a Police Officer that drive them, he said that once they had adapted to planning their day and got their heads around charging them the EVs to be very good. He also said the public were very likely to see more police officers sat in them working on laptops, this created more of a police presence, they could be immediately on call and can also do their paper work on the laptops in between calls. Apparently all the British Transport Police fleet of cars will be EVS within a year, he said the cost savings were a major driver for this, plus the technology of the cars was an added benefit.

It was a interesting and fun day out with lots to see and do. 

There is another show in the UK in the North on Yorkshire Events Centre in Harrogate on 19th, 20th & 21st May 2023 if you are interested in a day out, EVs and other Green stuff. fullycharged.show/events/fully-charged-live-uk-north-2023/ 

Here is the South Show programme if you are interested in the North event and want to see what may be on offer. 
fullycharged.show/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Fully-charged-live-uk-south-2023-show-leaflet-21-4-23.pdf






An interesting and rather beautiful first time car is the AEHRA below, very striking and futuristic, it is Italian and will be marketed as a luxury sophisticated car which will use the best of available EV technology. It is supposed to be available early 2025, I believe the car at the show is a working prototype which is nearing final development prior to setting up a production line. By the way the doors are hinge wing doors that go up.

Its odd BMW seemed to be ahead of the others in EU but somewhere lost its way, I think the issue for quite a few has been the older board room executives fighting to keep ICE vehicles as they just do not believe their end is nigh. VW CEO had a big row with his board about 2 years ago and forced a vote, he won those that voted against him were sacked on the spot, result is a full ahead push to electric.