Rob Lihou

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! linkedin.com/posts/rob-liho…

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

@RobLihou Really handy insights Rob, keep them coming. Looks like you've got a period property.... what is the internal temperature you're achieving / got it set at (if that's how they work)?

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.

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 **

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:

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

@RobLihou Its not a choice between gas hob or induction with no other options. Microwave, slow cooker, pressure cooker even the much advertised air fryer. There is also the option to not cook at all and have a cold meal. I consider my EV to be marginal gas as I have a choice to not use it

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?

@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...

@RobLihou You should use the marginal carbon figure as the additional load will be delivered by a gas fired plant (unless you live in Scotland or East England). If gas is your marginal supply then there is little difference from an emissions perspective.

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!

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**

@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 🙂

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

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 🙂

@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

@RobLihou @MarkM92252942 @OctopusEnergy I see 🥰 you’re comparing efficiency based on efficiency values, whereas I was comparing absolute energy input values, interesting, thanks for sharing that perspective 🙂

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

@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

@RobLihou @MarkM92252942 @OctopusEnergy 😜 4.2 COP does not mean 4.2 more efficient than a gas boiler ☺️more like 3.2x, which is still amazingly better! 🤯Cost wise, depends on tariff, but on a decent average elec. tariff, it's 2x more expensive to run a boiler; top heat tariffs will make boiler 3x more expensive 😊😍

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

@RobLihou @ricster71 @OctopusEnergy No, quite neat. Does this room get hot enough? In winter? I decided to stick with gas, I have a new extension added to 1920’s existing house. I was thinking of having a hybrid system but could not find any incentives so quite pricey. My thought is that the main house will be cold