We've seen this time and again: Giant windmills clutter the landscape with worn-out carbon fiber blades that can't be recycled, and by the way, also kill birds, especially raptors like hawks and eagles. Huge solar farms are hit by hailstorms and cost exorbitant amounts to rebuild. And subsidies put in place to help people replace traditional technology with "green" replacements go away in time, making the costly alternatives even costlier.

This brings us to Peter and Anne Watts.

It may come as a surprise to the most dedicated eco warriors that heat pumps don’t last forever. Those installing them now are in for a nasty shock 15–20 years down the line when their costly noisy power-hungry government-subsidised outdoor heat exchangers come to the end of their lives and need replacing. There won’t be any grants or subsidies around then.

According to the Telegraph some of the early birds are already suffering from buyer’s remorse:

Peter and Anne Watts made headlines when they became one of around four British households to have an air-source heat pump fitted in 2008.

That Mr and Mrs Watts, 88 and 82 respectively, had installed a heat pump a decade before the likes of Boris Johnson seized upon them as the future of home heating was highly unusual.

“We had a reporter up from the local paper asking us about our solar panels and our heat pump,” recalls Mr Watts. “In the days afterwards, we got a call from the BBC – I thought it was a prank call from the neighbours.”

Then came the rude awakening; the law of unintended consequences had struck again, hitting the ironically-named Watts household right in the wallet, or whatever they call those in Britain.

Yet 17 years on, the pump is nearing the end of its lifespan – and the price tag for a replacement is £17,000, around £10,000 more than they paid for their original.
Mr and Mrs Watts are in a highly unique quandary – one that shines a light on the shortcomings of the Government’s heat pump drive.

Households currently benefit from a £7,500 grant to install a new pump, thanks to the generous Boiler Upgrade Scheme run by the energy department. But no such generosity exists for early adopters whose systems are now nearing their end.

It begs the question: how do households – who relied on low prices or government grants to get their heat pump fitted the first time around – afford its replacement?

Unfortunately, Mr and Mrs Watts can’t retrofit a gas boiler because a) they’re not on the gas grid and b) because the house was expensively renovated with the installation of a heat pump in mind. Now it seems they haven’t the cash for a new heat pump. That’s an interesting development since it’s often the well-heeled retired who have the resources and time to fit a heat pump in the first place.

So, what's the answer, we may very well ask the climate scolds, to the problem the Watts's are facing? No doubt the answer from the scolds will be "more subsidies," the very definition of throwing good money after bad. We may also ask, what are we replacing? Will the short-lived and expensive heat pump be replaced with another short-lived and expensive heat pump? Or will His Majesty's taxpaying subjects be on the hook to re-remodel the Watts abode once more to accommodate a traditional HVAC system? 

Or will His Majesty's government just let the Watts's freeze?

Of course, all of these questions should have been answered before the subsidy for these "green" technologies was put in place at all.

See Also: More Climate Falsehoods From the British Met Office

The Energy Transition That Isn't - Growth of Renewables Just Isn't There

Here's where things promise to get well and truly out of control: There are, doubtless, thousands of households like the Watts. They took the subsidies to install questionable new technologies, the subsidy lapsed, the installed units eventually failed, and now these homeowners are stuck. They can either borrow heavily, sell their homes, or just freeze.

This was sold to them, remember, on the premise that it will prevent an average temperature increase of a few degrees over a few hundred years. For this, the climate scolds block roadways, deface art, throw paint on public buildings - and sentence elderly and credulous people to freezing in their own homes.

And, remember - the climate scolds would dearly love to force this same thing here, in the United States. We should look on Britain as a cautionary tale in many areas, and allowing the climate scolds too much say in their government is one of those.