Boiling frogs

I read that the UK government is thinking of creating an energy rating for houses.   This is to encourage people to take measures to reduce their energy consumption, "for the planet",  (and install heat pumps).   The french government has such a scheme that has been in place for a few years now.

Every house that is put up for sale in France must have an energy rating A (good) to G (bad).   If you have an electric heat pump, this results in a better energy rating than you would get otherwise, regardless of how well or badly your house is insulated.   (Unless the heat pump is reversible so it cools the house down in Summer, when it doesn't get you any credit.) 

More recent legislation means that if you are a landlord, it is now illegal for you to rent out a dwelling that has an energy rating of G.   And from early this year, if you are selling a house with an energy rating of E or worse, not only do you have to pay for the energy rating study itself, but you also have to pay for a deeper and more expensive study to determine what work would be needed to be done (and how much it would cost) to make the energy rating "acceptable".   This of course is used as a stick to beat the vendor down on price.

(For some reason the government doesn't care if you cook with electricity or not)

Of course heat pumps are a Very Good Thing, and people should be discouraged from using any other kind of heating.   So gas boilers, that used to have VAT at 5.5%, and then more recently 10%, and as of yesterday, 20%, are being made more expensive so that heat pumps are more financially attractive.   An item on the main news on Monday pointed out that despite their higher initial cost, heat pumps, with government subsidies, can offer a payback period of only 15 years, (this is at current electricity prices that aren't going to increase, are they?) so they are in fact a real bargain.

I'm sure that this is all about saving the planet, and nothing at all to do with the fact that individual households can be denied electricity at the click of a mouse.

Cars of course are big consumers of energy and the government in France has a bonus/malus system in place - a subsidy on the price of a small new car, and a tax on the price of a big one.  In its original form it was very successful and cost the government a fortune.  Yesterday the definition of the size of a big car was reduced so the most popular mid-sized car in France now costs more than €1,000 more new than it otherwise would.

Cars also have a rating on the level of pollution they create, a "crit'air" rating (1 good, 5 bad).   Cities such as Paris, Marseille, and others, with more to come, prohibit cars with a crit'air rating 4 or 5 from entering the city.

How's the water temperature these days?