SteamyTea

It is were the corporation's step in. It is easier and cheaper to built RE in developing countries, and also much easier to rewild. We, in the UK, are often hampered by our own rules to protect nature why we have not had any new, onshore, windfarms for nearly a decade. Can blame Cameron for that.

I assume this is a gas boiler? Ask the resident expert @Dave Jones he claims his is silent, unlike all ASHPs which have to be noisier. I have recently been staying in a house with a gas boiler. I was surprised how noisy it was. Not a horrible noise, just a background roar. I will be back there next week, so may take some sound readings. I am also surprised, in my house, how good the cheap, panel doors are at reducing noise. I can heat my E7 cylinder heating up when I am in the kitchen, but not upstairs when I am next to it.

13°C is still chilly.

Was when we could pick up rolls for 3 quid. Think I spent less than £30. I keep meaning to have a read of my neighbours electric meter to see how much they have used, but think they both have smart meters fitted, so newer than mine.

I have just had a 5 hour car journey (68.7 MPG, with 3 paving slabs in the boot, shall take the seat out next weekend, save a bit of mass). I have had many thoughts on how we should be tacking our environmental problems. The first is to split it up into the main areas: Energy Food Nature Too often I think 'commentators' are talking about different things when they get into debate. I heard on the radio recently, think it was about plastic packaging, that there is serious food waste in developing countries. Think this was also mention in my weekly comic a while back. They don't have the infrastructure to harvest effectively, transport, store and process. I am not blaming developing countries, just highlighting that a relatively small investment can go a long way in some places, and not very far in others.

I spent very little, but I made sure it was effective.

I have just got home, house has been shut up for a week, but the windows have been 'on the latch', so the place is ventilated. 18°C in my kitchen, which is NE facing, so if there was sun today (think it has been rain), the kitchen has not had any since noon. It is 14°C outside. No heating on, not been on since March I think. Where in the country are you?

Yes. There is a reason they are called hydrogen fool sells. Another example of people not understanding the science. The simple answer to to ban combustion technology. That would solve the atmospheric emissions problem.

About 70%. But that is just the conversion, it does not include the water treatment, or compression. I kg of hydrogen takes around 55 kWh of electricity, 1 kg of hydrogen has about 40 kWh of energy. A lot of thermal energy is given off in the process. A fuel cell has ~50% efficiency. A lot of thermal energy is given off in the process. So before compression, storage and transportation, around 35 to 40% efficient. A Tesla Model 3 has a mass of 1850 kg. A Toyota Mirai has a mass of 1950 kg. Similar cars, except one is slower, more expensive, can't be easily refuelled and handles worse.

It don't help having to listen to Tony Blair on Broadcasting House this morning. He may well be right, but I hate listening to him.

Unless you believe in the multiverse, then there will be ~26x500 of them, in any combination, including not having any.

If I could go back to the second second of the universe's creation, I would edit it. But we are only given half an hour. Richard Feynman was asked to explain his Nobel award winning research in 2 minutes. He rightly pointed out that if he could do that it would not have been worth a Nobel.

Got out of mine in the wrong county, Buckinghamshire.

Yes. Try and establish if there is soakaway nearby. My basement used to get a good 6 inches of water in it.

Not one of the Isles of Scilly @pocster the pimple.

Welcome Which island will that be then?

@IanR I have to agree with you. Not sure how we are going to get the message across, hopefully the economic argument will do it, though this nation has a bit of history of making itself poorer.

A gas boiler could be converted to run on just about any fuel. Hydrogen has some specific challenges that need to be overcome first: Production in a zero carbon and energy efficient manner. This is not easy as there will be many calls on power being generated, and until some catalyst made from unobtanium comes along, it is more efficient to just store thermal energy in bricks and water, like 7 million homes already do. Transmission. Natural gas is a large molecule that is fairly inert, so is easy to pump, pipe and store. Hydrogen, at 101.3 kPa has a 0.01188 MJ.l-1, Natural Gas, at the same pressure, has 0.0364 MJ.litre-1. So you have to pump more litres as the existing gas system cannot be run at a greater pressure than it already is. Hydrogen Embrittlement. Because hydrogen is a tiny molecule/atom that is reactive, it wants to attach to other molecules/atoms. This can significantly change a material's properties. So reliability could be a problem (though I am told gas boilers are pretty unreliable anyway, usually the control systems). Cost. Even the cheapest hydrogen is expensive, and then the CO2 has to be captured and processed and put into long term storage (some real prices in this show https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0010qb7 ) It sounds a great idea, couple of wires into a bucket of water, tap of the gas from one electrode and put it into the gas grid. If it was that easy, we would have done it decades ago. Not as if we have just discovered hydrogen, been about since the second second of the universe's creation, well the middle bit was, the outer bit took 370,000 more years to combine with it.

I think our old mate Jeremy Harris had a Stiebel Electron one that was plumbed in after his cylinder. I think he found he did not need it and someone on here had it off him. @ProDave I think.

@Dave Jones will do it in 2, and fit you a new gas boiler during his tea break.

Too right. Could fit something like this:

Played with one of these, connected to a Raspberry Pi. http://plantower.com/en/content/?106.html It has a built in fan, but I am told the accuracy soon drops off. Some of those Honeywells seem good value.

Yes. Just calculate the energy in the tank, calculate the energy needed to raise the slab temperature, then work out at what rate you want to deliver the power. So if you start with 10 kWh in the tank, and it takes 1 kWh to raise the slab 1°C, and you transfer at 3 kW, then it will 20 minutes. The tank will therefore last 200 minutes, or 3 hours 20 minutes. The thing that is important is the starting temperature of both the tank and the slab, plus (well minus really) the losses they both experience.

Put me off my partner. Was hot 35 years ago, when Jane was almost 50.

84 now. May rattle and wheeze like a fridge.