SteamyTea

I used to do a lot of kayaking, was not unusual to put a K2, which was 6.4m long on a cheap 1970s universal roof rack. On the top of an MGB GT. I always tied the ends down as that stopped movement and bouncing. Needed a flag at the end as well. Make a triangle from the end ropes if you can, that stops the loaf shifting side to side. Accept your paintwork will get damaged.

Well one advantage of doing it yourself is you don't have to think up excused. Keep posting the interesting bits up.

Think it of it as how much fuel is in the car (thermal capacity) and what MPG it does (thermal resistance or U-Value) As a general rule, the faster you go (bigger temperature differences) the more fuel you use (greater thermal losses). Easy now isn't it.

That is an interesting question. You can work out the thermal inertia for each element, from that you can calculate the power delta over time. As long there is enough stored energy in the floor to last 18 hours (for a cold winters day), the difference then gets taken up by the insulation thickness. s = J m⁻² K⁻¹ / (t i u) Where tiu is the thermal inertia calculated from J m-2 K-1 s-½ for the materials chosen. Easy.

It is the depth of the joists that stop the bending, not the width (that reduces lateral movement). So if the new joists are not attached properly at the end, they are not doing much. Get a vapour control layer in, best practice to fit one anyway. Also check the condensation risk on the skylight and the associated upstand. As you have a felted roof, I take it no one will be walking on it, ever. No surf here today.

@miike Nice to see the software reports the battery power, rather than the energy stored.

Rolling Coal I am trying to clean my DPF ATM, I must start using the back lanes instead of the A30. I did keep it at 3000 RPM at the pedestrian crossing in PZ earlier, people crossed quicker for some reason.

This is the big problem really. It is like predicting day after tomorrow's weather from the 1990 to 2020 climate data. Gives you great central tendancies and extreme values, just not when they happen. The only ways around it are storage, imports and tight usage control. Or financial incentives. If you knew that you could sell your excess power at a significant price above imports, but maybe limited in quantity (say 15 kWh per session @3 times import price), then it would possibly be worth a number of individuals to invest in extra storage and management systems.

Suspect mine was similar.

A lot will depend on the energy requirements for the homes. 10 kWh/day, not really a problem, 50 kWh/day, a big problem. A car can gobble 50 kWh pretty easily.

I would like to know the details of the energy management for this product. If the home owners don't the full control over what is on their own roofs, then I can see it failing. https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/aug/07/new-all-electric-town-in-kent-strikes-deal-to-supply-power-back-to-the-grid

Do they need to when you are away, or maybe on a timer to limit usage.

Those two are probably the biggest users. Your PV should have covered them I would have thought.

Should have joined the Sea Scouts then.

Me neither, but look closely, there is no mud insight, unlike your 'sea views'. Best place to meet single mothers that will do anything for a packet of Hobnobs.

Like the Happy Shopper brand you shoplift.

Have you checked recently, them 3 have put a new 5G base station 200m from me. I have a month contract with Smarty (repackaged 3) that automatically got upgraded to 5G, only £16/month. Shame I am too tight to buy a 5G router, though a new phone would be cheaper and do me just as well.

Probably the most, I go to work at 6:15 and usually don't have a mug of tea when I get home. Instead I drive 34 miles (about 25 kWh of diesel) and pay over 3 quid for a coffee. Sometimes life makes no sense.

Yes, thanks for spotting that, have changed it.

I just checked how much electricity my kettle uses. Since 20/07/2025 05:00 to 08/08/2025 05:00, it used bang on 4 kWh. 4 [kWh] / 456 [h] = 0.009 kW, or 9W It obviously peaks a lot higher, 2008 W As I am on E7, to work out a price is a bit tricky, but if I take the median value of 24p/kWh, then the price is £0.98. Add on the VAT and it is £1.03, or 5.4p/day. Fridge next I think.

I thought they then just bypassed the whole panel. I think that there is a risk of too low a voltage to be effective on marginal systems and it can play havoc with the inverters maximum power point tracking.

We all like to think that we are unique individuals, just like everyone else. In the UK, we used to have the Colour Council, this was an organisation that set what colours would be available to the general public. They did this by convincing/coercing companies to sell goods in a limited range of colours. That morphed into the World Colour Council, but has split up into more regional areas now. This is why you often get the same colour, from different manufacturers, under different colour names. What this means for the consumer is that you really have limited choice, but does mean that refinishing is easier as many coating companies sign up to the Council's codes. As for what you actually want, that really will come down to what you have next to it. Greys can look either dark or light depending on wall colour and the amount of natural light. White can look odd as it can reflect colours.

Most domestic modules have built in bypass diodes for this very reason. Not many installers will ever mention this.

You don't really have a choice, colour is predetermined. https://aic-color.org/page-18104 Other organisations of colour are available.

The Global Energy Shift Is Happening—Quietly but Surely By Leon Stille - Aug 04, 2025, 12:00 PM CDT Renewable energy is steadily displacing fossil fuels despite their current dominance, with solar, wind, and EV adoption accelerating globally. Emerging economies are leapfrogging coal by integrating renewables and cleaner natural gas, while EVs and storage drive electricity demand growth. The energy transition is a “tortoise” strategy: gradual, economically driven, and durable, slowly squeezing fossil fuels to the margins mid-century. At first glance, the energy transition seems stuck in reverse: fossil fuels still dominate, political winds have shifted, and crises abound. Global energy headlines fixate on wars, inflation, and shifting priorities. Yet beneath the noise, something far more powerful is happening: renewables are growing, almost entirely on their own, while fossil fuels creep toward irrelevance. Fossils still dominate... but only in headline share Critics point out that fossil fuels still supply roughly 80?percent of global primary energy, only a bit down from 85?percent in 1990. On the face of it, that’s a depressing statistic, and a central argument in Dan Yergin’s The Troubled Transition for example. A recent excellent piece by Liebreich in Bloomberg NEF shows why that logic is misleading. Because it is all about growth rates. Renewable energy is expanding faster than overall energy demand, especially in power, transport, and electrification. If that pattern continues, fossil fuels will eventually be squeezed out, even if their absolute output stalls rather than plunges. Think tortoise, not hare, like Leibreich proposes. Renewables now dominate new growth, global trend, no regional footnotes The UN and Ember report that in 2024, wind, solar, and other renewables made up 74?percent of new electricity growth, and 92.5?percent of all new installed capacity. Globally in 2023, renewables reached a record 30?percent of electricity generation, up from 19?percent in 2000, and clean sources made up nearly 40?percent of generation overall. That’s no rumor, new fossil additions are lagging badly. In China alone, wind and solar comprised 89?percent of added capacity in the first four months of 2025, with solar growing 75?percent year?on?year and thermal sources barely expanding at all. That’s not substitution, it’s replacement. Related: EU Probe Puts ADNOC’s $14B Covestro Takeover at Risk Emerging economies aren’t stuck in a fossil detour. Many are leapfrogging coal and oil altogether and going straight to renewables, often pairing them with natural gas when gas is there. India, Brazil, Southeast Asia, and parts of Africa are fast-tracking solar, wind, battery storage, and cleaner gas rather than building new coal. In India, renewables already make up 46?percent of installed capacity as of late 2024, a target of 500?GW by 2030 is on track. Transport: EV growth is electricity-powered Electric car sales cracked 17 million globally in 2024, over 20?percent of all new car sales, propelled by China where electric vehicles accounted for almost half of new car sales, and rising elsewhere too. China now sells more EVs annually than the rest of the world did in total just two years earlier. By 2030, EVs are projected to reach over 40?percent of global car sales. Crucially, that didn’t happen because of deep climate conviction, it happened because EVs made sense economically and to cut urban pollution. That’s why renewables don’t need moralizing; they grow organically from demand and cost. Why the critics are seeing choppy waters, not the deep tide of change It’s true that fossil fuel demand hasn’t plummeted. Oil, coal, gas still generate record levels of power, fossil generation rose in absolute terms in 2023, even if its share dipped. That’s inevitable. Infrastructure built over decades doesn't vanish overnight, and many economies still rely heavily on fossil heat or fuel. But to expect fossil fuels to collapse overnight was always fantasy. Breaking down vast refineries, networks, pipelines, and fleets would be costly, disruptive, and politically explosive. The real strategy lies in building out the alternatives that gradually displace fossils, without wrecking energy systems or economies. That’s exactly what target-setting in the 2010s and early 2020s accomplished. It shifted narrative and capital toward renewables, grid upgrades, battery storage, EV manufacturing, hydrogen research etc. The result? Renewables costs have plummeted, and adoption accelerated, and now even reducing subsidies doesn’t stop the momentum. Meet the tortoise: slow, steady, inevitable Liebreich’s Pragmatic Climate Reset asks us to stop expecting miracles and heroics. Instead, we should support robust, affordable climate action rooted in real-world economic drivers and lived energy needs. I fully agree with that. The tortoise isn’t sexy, but it wins in the end. Renewables deliver real energy in real places. Demand-led growth in solar, wind, storage, EV charging, and electrification is slowly squeezing out fossil share. The widespread adoption of clean energy isn’t rhetorical; it’s measurable and accelerating. China leads in almost all clean sectors: renewable electricity, EVs, battery exports, and component manufacturing. In 2024, clean-energy technologies accounted for over 10?percent of China’s GDP—around $1.9 trillion—making clean energy equivalent in scale to conventional power systems and larger than real estate or agriculture in economic contribution. Meanwhile, India continues to expand renewable capacity aggressively, rising from just a fraction to nearly half of total installed power capacity by late 2024, and is well positioned to reach its 2030 goals. Yes, it’s slower than hoped, but far more durable No, we’re unlikely to hit net?zero by 2040. Emissions are not plunging off a cliff. A 1.5?°C path is still extremely challenging. But the pragmatists weren’t wrong: decarbonization without social or economic upheaval requires pace, but also stability. If clean energy growth continues faster than demand, fossil fuels are shoved toward the margins sometime mid-century, just not overnight. A pragmatic reset rejects radicalism that fuels backlash. Instead, it strengthens the systems that make renewables cheaper, reliable, scalable: grid investment, flexible markets, industrial electrification, EV support, energy storage, and policies aligned with inclusive economic growth. The bottom line Political shifts and crises may dominate the headlines, and fossil fuel share may shrink only gradually. But behind the scenes, the energy transition is alive and winning. Renewables are eating fossil share through economic logic, technological progress, urban demand, global investment. Criticism is loud precisely because fossil decline threatens entrenched actors, but the global energy system is shifting anyway. So yes, it looks slow. But it’s steady. And what Liebreich calls a Pragmatic Climate Reset isn’t defeat, it’s the real strategy for long-term success. Renewables aren’t just competing, they are winning, everywhere, one kilowatt-hour, one EV, one solar panel at a time. By Leon Stille for Oilprice.com