SteamyTea

I do wonder why the government are worried about Stagflation. I would have thought that a stagnant economy i.e. no growth, and above normal inflation, would quicken things i.e. lower interest rates sooner.

It was on topic. Interest rates are a lot more than 1 single thing. If the currency weakens too much, interest rates go up, if currency strengthens too much, interest rates go up. If there is a sector of the economy that is driving inflation i.e. labour costs or energy costs, then interest rates go up. Interest rates are usually the inverse of Bond Yield. https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/why-interest-rates-have-inverse-relationship-bond-prices/ Bond Yield https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/statistics/yield-curves

Well it is good to see that you bothered to spend an hour this morning looking at data and finding out that happened. I would hate to think that you based your analysis on a politically right of centre viewpoint where no one else matters a toss and the 'sad cases' where not your family. Now you may not like being challenged, with data and facts, but without bothering to even take a cursory look at the underlying data, you are only expressing, as usual, an ignorant opinion.

The deaths in England was around 0.4% of the population. But that is just deaths, the numbers hospitalised was much greater. On March 1/4/2020 there were 13,432, 6/7/2023 there were 6,429. So it has not gone away At any one time since April 2020, 1% of the population is in hospital with COVID, on average, even today. Now, if you think that COVID was not reduced by physical separation, then there is no argument to be had, but if you do think that physical separation of people and basic precautions, then locking us all down did help. If the NHS struggled to cope with an extra 681,300 bed.days, how would it have coped with a 30% increase? As for the Furlough. There is a bit of a myth that the vast majority of people were on it for a full period. At Peak Furlough, 31% of the workforce were on not at work (12/4/2020), by October 2020, 10% of the workforce where on it. It then wen up and down as the winter waves came along, but only at about half the rate of the peak. I did read somewhere that mot people were only furloughed for a few weeks, and as others have said, they, and there family, carried on working. So there was probably only a hundred people that claimed it for the full period, wish I had been one. The majority of the longer term furloughed workers were in the hospitality and retail industries, and they were all back to work by August 2020 (Eat out To Help Out). During the first year (2020) there was little opportunity to spend money i.e. no holidays, moving house, car purchases, so people just saved. This saved cash was not in circulation, so no multiplier effect. This reduced, at that time, government tax receipts. That money is now coming back into the economy (savings being used for everyday purchases). So while I would rather have not had a pandemic, I do not think it hurt the economy as bad as people think, and it saved a lot of lives and pressure on public services.

It is why I very really mention price when talking about renewable/low carbon generation. But if you take the drastic costs reduction that has happened with PV and Wind Power, and how it has happened in a decade. Heat generation won't be far behind. I hope so, only go tot look at all the countries that are suffering from the exceptionally hot Northern Hemisphere summer this year. USA, Southern Europe, Central Asia and China. If we think it is expensive to fit a heat pump, wait till the costs of crop failures and migration take hold.

It is about CO2e reduction, not price. People overestimate their boiler efficiencies and never trust a properly set up heat pump efficiency.

Do you mean tinted glass?

I had a letter from EDF telling me they are turning off the radio signal for E7 (was meant to be March). So I need to arrange for a smart meter to be installed. Prices are now dropping so shall stick with E7 as last year was not to bad.

Gravel goes downwards. Why you get dust at the bottom of the cornflake packet. Charles Darwin did studies about rocks in soil.

In Irfanview you can edit by using the F12 key. You do only get the 1 undo though.

And add an A2AHP

Yes. Apart from the internal noise and the horrible looking fan units. Mind you, the units look no worse than a storage heater.

Almost. The building is leaking the heat away. What is probably the real problem is that they are too small, so are charged to maximum capacity, which is also maximum temperature, and then the rate of heat loss is greater at the start than the end. While there is not much to older style storage heater, there is a flap that closes when they charge and then opens up gradually, depending on temperature difference, during the day. Those can fail. I have around 30 kWh of storage in a 50m2 house, they keep the place warm and I limit the charging window to 4 hours (from 3AM to 8AM). While I would like to fit a heat pump, there really is not a problem with the existing simple setup I have. A tenant that struggles to work a storage heater will really struggle with a heat pump, unless it is a remotely controlled one and you have the control.

Not with that sort of claim. I suspect they topped up with £100 worth of prepaid electricty one week, and then claim it lasts a week. I ran into this problem when I was monitoring some social housing.

Usually yes. I grew up in Essex. All borders seem to be brick. The horrible light brick they use there. We have Cornish Hedges down here, and I have spent the last 5 days walking past them. They can look quite good if the right stuff is planted into them. Maybe a minute one of them. I do very much like @Big Jimbo's idea of a moat. The chickens would like that.

We have the copyright in that. I am sure, with a bit of thought, something interesting, and easy, could be made around it. The problem with brick is, in my opinion, it looks naff.

Can you grab the losses back elsewhere i.e. floor, ceiling/roof or the best one, lower ACH?

So most of the time you could be exporting, so MCS then.

I suspect it is a recording error on the meter. As other have said, something would be very hot. Can we also get kW and kWh sorted. There is a big difference between power and energy.

You what?

Can you cover it in rubber. Makes for a nice kneeling surface and can usually be washed down.

The views are set by your distance from the window, I get a good view of the telegraph pole outside.

Oh dear. Not going to happen.

Did you not think about this at the design stage? There is a lot to unpack here. When you say 'apartment', do you mean a flat in a block? The exposed areas, glass and walls, may be suck that you can easily collect several kWh of solar energy every day, but it cannot escape easily as it is walled in by other flats, that have the same problem. We really do need to get away from over glazing and 'lots of natural light'. In is an energy use nightmare.

Often, an easy way to check if water is from the mains is to put your thumb over the tap outlet and turn the water on. If from a tank in the loft, you can stop the water. If mains or pumped, you can't stop it.