all 8 comments

[–]penelopepnortneyBecome ungovernable 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (7 children)

According to eugyppius, who lives in Germany and writes about what is happening there, these heating pumps were being required as part of the new Green policy but the problem is that many of the homes and buildings where they would supposedly be required are much older and would have to undergo massively expensive renovations just to put these in. So it isn't just homeowners who aren't buying them, it's building owners, whether they're apartments or office space or whatever.

[–]ageingrockstar 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

I don't understand how the buildings would require 'massively expensive renovations' to put in heat pumps. They don't intrinsically require any modifications to the building apart from installation. And installation is fairly simple; you install the interior unit, an exterior unit, and a pipe connecting the two.

Heat pumps are a fantastic technology. They move heat around rather than generating heat. So to heat a house they bring heat in from outside. This is just the same as a fridge, except in a fridge it works in the other direction. The heat pump in a fridge moves heat out of the fridge to the exterior environment.

I can appreciate that the feckless (and generally revolting) German Greens may have pushed this technology on the people in a ham-fisted and draconian way, which is stupid, but the actual technology is, quite objectively, a fantastic one. I say objectively because, from pure physics, moving heat around rather than generating it is a far superior approach.

[–]penelopepnortneyBecome ungovernable 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Good question and not one I have the knowledge to answer but from this twitter thread it sounds like the problem is converting from old gas systems to one that uses electricity. There was a long thread that I didn't save, unfortunately, where owners of apartment buildings were talking about what the renovation and the costs would entail. Supposedly the German government is saying it will subsidize 70% of these costs but I gather the public doesn't have much confidence in the current government.

[–]sdl5 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

Like every OTHER hard pushed govt forced "green" thing, they are utopian impossible to implement "goals" that seem designed to PUNISH people more than to save ANYTHING.

[–]penelopepnortneyBecome ungovernable 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

The amazing thing is that no one in authority noticed they were clearly painting themselves into a corner by cutting off cheap Russian energy while continuing to shut down all their nuclear power plants, with the result they ended up having to reopen coal production just to keep the power on.

[–]3andfro 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

They're not trained in chess, in looking far down the board to lay out all possible moves and outcomes in advance. Living in the moment has value, but planning for potential future moments (decision algorithms: if this, then that down every imaginable branch of action) should be an essential practice of those who make momentous decisions that affect nations and the world and those tasked with laying out the plethora of possibilities that make decisions truly informed. Defense industry contractors do this routinely for regions of possible engagement decades in advance.

[–]penelopepnortneyBecome ungovernable 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Some of the unintended consequences are obvious enough that even a group of high schoolers could figure it out. I'm fairly sure Germany's business leaders were pointing out that you can't get blood from a turnip but as usual, the political elite doesn't listen. Just as the Biden administration didn't listen when US oil industry experts warned about imposing price caps.

[–]RandomCollection[S] 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

https://archive.is/DCSAB

I don't think that this is a good thing, but the tactics the Greens used likely made this inevitable, as is the culture war