Heat-Pump-Mania!

 Up until last year in my village (400 homes/apartments)....there were probably a total of a dozen heat-pump mechanisms existing.  In the past year....I'd say around forty homes are using heat-pumps now.

If you watch public TV, the 'hype' is there, and there's probably a segment (three to five minutes in length) at least once a week now on the trend. 

The plus-side of the heat-pump?  Well....it heats with zero natural gas.  

The negatives of a heat-pump?  I'd say four distinctive issues:

1.  It requires a trained and certified guy, and if you look around....most will tell you their schedule is filled in for six months minimum.

2.  It's a pretty hefty cost to get it installed.

3.  Most technicians will argue that it's mostly effective in what you'd call a normal winter.  If you went to a serious minus-15 C temperature....it reaches a limit and can't produce more heat.

4.  If you were an environmentalists and consumed with passion for carbon neutral crap....this makes you a four-star loser when you install.  

I sat and read through a Focus piece today.  

Habeck (the Minister of Economics) wants 500,000 heat-pumps installed per year....taking gas/oil heat out of the national grid.  The plan is six-million of these by 2030.

So a building specialist did an interview and talked over the plan.  'Crazy-talk' would be the best description of what the expert says of the plan.  

One key issue....the country would require another 10,000 heating technicians (certified and trained) to do this type work, so the 500k a year plan is utter crisis-talk.

The current production schedule?  Zero chance this would work with German or EU manufactured industry.

Then the expert points out one key thing....presently, by the time you do the survey, get permissions from folks, order the system, wait on arrival, then wait for a open period with the technician involved....it's a minimum of one year, and going up to 18 months.  

So the expert thinks this simply opens the door, with the rush.....to get Asian or Chinese-made heat-pumps.  

Why Habeck is so determined here?  I think adding another 500k less homes each year who are presently consuming natural gas....would lessen the natural gas cost crisis.  This would be a decent decision to make.....if the technicians existed, and the German industrial complex could make 500k per year.  

Where this leads to?  What Germany needs is some 'consumer-minister' who is given authority to pester and motivate the heat-pump industry to hire up double the manpower.  The technician problem?  You need to go and motivate 10,000 apprentice kids across the nation to engage up the skill set, and give them a military-like purpose to the job.