Rob Lihou

Climate Tech Lead @Tred_Earth | Founder Reactive Energy | Eco home enthusiast

[Rob Lihou @RobLihou]

It was a pleasure to work with @MikeBernersLee and his team at Small World Consulting over the last few weeks to improve @Tred_Earth's carbon tracking technology.

Our app now does a better job than ever at tracking your carbon footprint as you spend!

https://t.co/hPwoLd140G

[Rob Lihou @RobLihou]

@JohnGoodbody Yes, the property is 1910 with mostly uninsulated solid brick walls. Internal temp is set to 20 degrees.

[Rob Lihou @RobLihou]

My heat pump doesn't like running in the snow... It LOVES it! ❄️ ❄️ ❄️

It's been happily humming away all morning heating the home and keeping us all nice and cosy.

[Rob Lihou @RobLihou]

Cost of heat from heat pump: 6.6p/kWh
Equivalent cost using a gas boiler: 6.8p/kWh
Saving: 2.4%

** Conclusion: Heat pumps DO work in the snow **

[Rob Lihou @RobLihou]

These defrost cycles do lower the overall efficiency slightly but over the last 6 hours it's still averaged an impressive 286%! Running on off-peak electricity on Octopus Energy Agile this period has still cost less than if we had been heating the house with a gas boiler:

[Rob Lihou @RobLihou]

@NoPoke Interesting. Would you consider all of your domestic electricity use as marginal gas?

[Rob Lihou @RobLihou]

Is cooking with gas the best way to cook?

In a recent post I suggested induction hobs were better in almost every way... Turns out a lot of people disagree!

Cooking preferences aside, which is better from a carbon perspective?

[Rob Lihou @RobLihou]

@NoPoke I'm not convinced about using marginal carbon emissions for stuff like this.

Would you use marginal carbon values when taking a flight? If the pane is going to fly anyway then it makes little difference to the total emissions if you jump onboard...

[Rob Lihou @RobLihou]

Cooking with an induction hob results in about half the CO2 emissions.

So, if you’re still in love with cooking with gas, take a moment to consider the planet and you will realise… induction hobs are better in pretty much every way!

[Rob Lihou @RobLihou]

Induction Hob

Induction hobs are much more efficient, delivering 84% of the energy to the thing your cooking. To bring our pot of pasta to the boil requires just **0.12 kWh** of electricity.

Carbon emissions: **26 grams**

[Rob Lihou @RobLihou]

@AO7186252340513 @MarkM92252942 @OctopusEnergy I'm genuinely interested BTW - not trying to criticise the way you've calculated it I'm just trying to understand how you've done it 🙂

[Rob Lihou @RobLihou]

Earlier this year we said goodbye to gas at our home in York 👋

The meter was removed by @OctopusEnergy and we're now officially off the gas grid!

This will save us ~£100 a year in standing charges, but more importantly, we’re no longer burning any fossil fuel in our home 🙂

[Rob Lihou @RobLihou]

@AO7186252340513 @MarkM92252942 @OctopusEnergy 🤔 So are you assuming the heat pump has to output more kWhs of heat to maintain a similar indoor temperature?

[Rob Lihou @RobLihou]

@AO7186252340513 @MarkM92252942 @OctopusEnergy If we compare the input energy required for an 85% gas boiler to output 1kWh of heat vs the input energy required for a heat pump with a COP of 3.6 to output the same amount of heat:

Boiler:1 / 0.85 = 1.18 kWh

HP: = 1 / 3.6 = 0.278

HP vs Boiler: 1.18/0.278 = 4.2

[Rob Lihou @RobLihou]

@AO7186252340513 @MarkM92252942 @OctopusEnergy The number should be the same whether you compare efficiency against efficiency or input energy against input energy...

[Rob Lihou @RobLihou]

@AO7186252340513 @MarkM92252942 @OctopusEnergy Actually my COP isn't 4.2 it's 3.6, which if when compared to a gas boiler with an efficiency of 85% is 4.2 times more efficient:

3.6 / 0.85 = 4.2

[Rob Lihou @RobLihou]

@jimprice75 @ricster71 @OctopusEnergy It does indeed! Room temperature has been spot on even with negative outside temperatures.