Ed Miliband will ban the sale of underfloor heating systems deemed to be using too much power in his latest Net Zero drive as he also sets his sights on electric towel rails, gas fires and storage heaters, with plans for new market controls designed to cut carbon emissions. The Telegraph has the story.
[The Energy Secretary] wants to bring in new energy efficiency requirements that will result in more than a third of so-called “space heating systems” becoming illegal to sell.
New rules will make temperature controls mandatory, while other regulations will mean some towel rails will only be allowed to operate for six hours a day.
It will push consumers to more costly modern alternatives that use smart functions to help limit energy use, such as restricting heating to certain times of day, or cutting a heating system off completely, for instance when there is a draught that would make it inefficient to continue running.
The changes will align Britain more closely with the EU, which has already introduced similar eco restrictions, with only the most energy-efficient products remaining on sale.
Labour believes the “excess energy” used by certain older products “creates an avoidable cost to society” in the form of greenhouse gas emissions – a problem it says can be overcome with “government intervention”.
It follows a similar sales ban on traditional tumble dryers that will push consumers to more costly heat pump alternatives that take longer to dry clothes.
Claire Coutinho, the Shadow Energy Secretary, said the rule changes were tantamount to “Soviet-level intrusion”, saying “our lives are being dictated by Net Zero legislation”.
She added: “Ed Miliband wants to tell you how long your towel rail can be switched on. He’s already decided how you are allowed to dry your pyjamas and now he wants to make it harder to have underfloor heating in your home.”
Richard Tice, the Deputy Leader of Reform UK, accused the Energy Secretary of making households “cold and miserable” to meet climate goals.
He said: “Mad Miliband’s latest Net Zero push to restrict underfloor heating and electric towel rails is utter madness. Even the Romans had underfloor heating.
“This Orwellian move could mean families in the 21st century having to limit the time they spend keeping their homes warm or drying their clothes.
“Labour is choosing to focus on tone-deaf green ideology rather than bringing down household costs.”
Worth reading in full.
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Why not have a personal carbon allowance for everyone instead? Then we will see the virtue signallers scream as they won’t have the credits to fly to the sun, etc.
Another “unintended” consequence of all this is that if this is to become enshrined in Energy Performance Certificates of new properties (which it probably will under Labour’s Soviet-style machinations), the housing market will crash and burn as people think twice about moving into a new property, clinging onto their current one for as long as they possibly can in the knowledge that life in a thermo-regulated new build will be cold and crap. (Are they coming for your kettle next?)
If this doesn’t happen, on the other hand, and the energy secretary moves to simply regulate the sales of BRITISH companies products only (this is the extent of their remit after all), the market will simply shift to relying on imports of the same products from the likes of China, hence increasing greenhouse gas emissions. (Not that that particularly matters, but it runs counter to the arbitrarily-set objectives of net zero).
I think the former is more likely, though.
Meanwhile plastering the UK with solar panels made with Chinese coal and building data centres that individually use half of Scotland’s power grid. How much longer are we going to allow these corrupt treasonous psychopaths to destroy our lives?
Where’s your smart meter Ed when the wind dont blow and the sun dont shine?
Gas fires are ideal for keeping houses warm during the blackouts in winter, which will be arriving soon. So ban them.
Storage heaters are an ideal way for space heating if gas boilers are to be banned, costing much less than heat pumps and delivering higher temperatures. They worked 60 years ago on off peak nuclear power. But we aren’t ordered enough economical nukes. They could also mop up excess wind generation. But no. Let’s ban them.
Why is Claire Coutinho the shadow energy secretary? She belongs to the Fake Tories who polled far less that Reform at the last elections.
Shouldn’t the post be held by a Reform MP?
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Market economics which made/makes us all more prosperous: when demand increases, increase supply. Prevent supply and force delays down = makes us poorer.
He is a psychopath.
Miliband – insane or evil?
Perhaps both.
I just refer to him as Nut Zero. I used to doubt his sanity; I don’t now.
Yes, both. But the DS loves him – posts his picture almost every day.
If the plan is about the overall design of buildings, it might work out for brand new housing. However, trying to retrofit systems in older buildings can fail, and lead to even more expensive, and thermally inefficient ( not always the same ) systems. Making it illegal to supply replacement products can easily backfire and cause extra costs. Of course, there are plenty of situations where equivalent products are no longer manufactured, leading to more expensive changes, but it should not be the Gov’s job to encourage it.
Coming for our fast speed kettles soon. Or so many boils a day, once we have the smart grid that our overlords seem to think we need.
Oh for goodness sake, someone please make it make sense. I thought that underfloor heating was one of the recommended methods of how heat pumps would make our houses warm. And, what is this restricting the heating to particular times of the day or switching off if it detects a draught? Of course, they’ve failed to get the assisted (murder/assassination) bill through Parliament, so in the middle of winter, with sub-zero temperatures, they will kill pensioners with limiting their ability to heat themselves. The moron’s bans are going to kill more people in this country than any war, plague or apocalypse.
Looks like someone’s tampered with your style sheets or something – unless the giant symbols between each comment are intentional?
I think it’s a software or platform problem. It was happening yesterday to me, but not today.
Yes, yesterday but not today.
I do not like this new comments format, it is awful, please can we have the old one back
He fails Thermodynamics 101: every watt “saved” by not having a towel rail on or underfloor heating is immediately “spent” by your boiler’s needing to create another watt, assuming that you have an indoor thermostat and that your towel rail is not in the garden.
PS: Miliband’s next target will be giant icons in comments.
Essential requirements for Net Zeroids: complete economic illiteracy, and complete ignorance of Physics.
There is a problem with the comments sections.
Another post has a comment from the moderators saying it’s being looked at.
What’s with the super massive icons? Is it just my phone? The comments are almost unreadable.
Same issue here. DS has messed up its CSS somehow.
Fluche your cash and bin your cookies!
I tried but it hasn’t helped. Giant reply arrow, no uptick/downtick.
That’s an improvement tbh… the arrows were accompanied by massive thumbs up and down earlier!
It’s Andy Burnham’s exhortation to Makersfield.
I wonder how much energy the mansions of these unexplainably rich politicians use to keep them heated.
Whar difference does it make how much power your underfloor heating or tumble dryer uses after his 95% clean energy plan is complete by 2030? Well, apart from the electric bill. At which point people will respond how they can.
He knows there will never be enough electricity to power everything
Yes, all their projections include/are dependent upon a large reduction in people’s electricity use (and also ignore unchecked immigration). Of course, solar and wind power is so cheap (sarc.) that normal price mechanisms won’t work to constrain demand, so it has to be done a different way. Next: ban on electric blankets and hair straighteners.
Reduction in electricity use will be helped enormously by banning gas boilers, wood burners, ICE cars
In equations:
Net Zero = Energy Rationing – The Economy + Support for Slave Labour in 3rd world countries.