SteamyTea

Have you worked out the yearly CO2 emissions and the yearly running costs. That is what would make a difference to me. All technology suffers from that. But if you look at the improvements in vehicles over the last 40 years (Allegro to Polo say), the improvements have been incremental, nothing drastic. But in the last decade, you really can't ask for more improvements. https://rmi.org/the-rise-of-batteries-in-six-charts-and-not-too-many-numbers/

That will be in the region of 6 tonnes of CO2. My car is about 180gm CO2/ mile. Last year I drove 30k miles in it. So about 5.5 tonnes. Pretty similar.

Do you know how much they have generated? You can work out the embodied energy/CO2 payback time. Whenever I hear someone spouting on about renewables never paying back the amount of energy they take to make, I usually retort with 'why are they so cheap to buy then'.

But going a long way towards reducing overall CO2 reductions. The same argument is used about wind turbines and the amount of steel, plastic and cement is needed to build them. And EVs using more energy to be produced than an ICE vehicle. If environmental science was easy to understand, and had simple, binary, answers, then no one would have to study it at university. Maybe this will give some perspective. 1972 2022

It was something that was being looked at (not by me) when I was doing mt PhD, over a decade ago. It was in relation to smart fridges. Not sure what happened but at a presentation I pointed out that fridge loads, when running, are very low (a few 10s of watts), but massive when starting up (over 2 kW often, why they have 13A fuses, even on little fridges). You would have to start them all up over a matter of hours in an automated system, a shorter time over manual reconnect as power can be diverted to a zone when reconnected). The grid does not produce a smooth sine wave (or 3). But a rather messy, harmonically distorted one.

Another way to look at it is 'how much wiring can you do before you need a qualification'? Can you, for instance, design the installation i.e. circuit loads, diversity, safe zone routing, installation types. Could you physically run the cables, fit switches and outlets? Do a house wiring diagram? I feel that with my background, and having installed saunas, steam rooms, sunbeds and spa baths in the past, that none of the above would be particularly challenging with help from the wiring regs, onsite books and the occasional question on here. Domestic wiring is not a case of reinventing the wheel, everything is off the shelf and well understood.

Welcome. Two things have struck me about your problem. You want to sort your loft insulation out. You want PV. Can those two be done together? I.e. strip roof, sort mouseholes and fit the insulation and PV. You could then use the PV generation to heat the DHW (assuming you have a cylinder) and maybe use some to supplement the space heating (a fan heater costs a tenner). As oil boilers are pretty basic bits of kit (a fuel pump, a fan and a heat exchanger), can you get it repaired enough to get you though the next year while you sort the house out, thermally. There is a good chance that because if the Trump policies, oil prices will drop.

I think it was a North South temperature gradient, not the countries mean temperature. The European Grid is like the USA Grid, basically point to point. If one part fails, it cascades down the line. Switching off an overhead cable in Germany to allow a large ship to pass, caused a monstrous failure across Europe a few years back. Going to take a punt here and assume that you think the affects of climate change are not real, or at most, very minor.

Spring Shenanigans In spring's embrace, goldfish dance with glee,Chasing flashes of sun in a splashy spree.Courtship on waves, the aquatic parade,While ducks play bouncers, their turf mustn't fade. Pheasants prance proudly, the bravest of souls,With harem dreams lofty as springtime scrolls.Yet my beans sulk quietly, “Where's the renown?”As greens throw a party, I'm left in a frown!

@Pocster has always wanted a statue in his likeness.

Welcome I lived and worked in MK 25+ years ago, great place. I heard that they wanted to expand the place south, taking in Soulbury. Is that still happening? The local council may encourage self build, but it may just be a list of potential self builders, rather than a genuine scheme like Bicester has. Work in Si units and think of ways to integrate PV. Energy usage can be very low on a new build, but it has to be designed in from the very start. You can't change your floor insulation once you have a house sitting on it.

But. If a panel, or a wire even, goes bad, then you need to check all the installation. (Not really a fan of micro inverters, but they have their place)

Rerun the WUFI model with some full fill mineral wool insulation, a VCL and a normal plasterboard wall. It may be that WUFI does not like the 'moisture buffering' of wood fibre insulation.

You could use a low expansion PU adhesive. Something like this Lumberjack. Deal with the rust first.

Seems we have been wasting our time, and cash, buying water filters. Better than burning the wood. Slices of wood can filter bacteria and microplastics from water Water filters made from untreated wood can remove more than 99 per cent of particles, taking out many harmful bacteria and microplastics By Matthew Sparkes 18 April 2025 Douglas fir wood can be turned into a water filter Janet Horton / Alamy Stock Photo Slices of wood can act as water filters that remove bacteria and microplastics with more than 99 per cent efficiency, potentially offering a cheap way to protect people from water-borne illnesses. Previous research has investigated more complex methods to make wooden filters involving complex chemical treatments, but these would be impractical in lower-income countries where water-borne illnesses cause hundreds of thousands of deaths a year, say Antoni Sánchez-Ferrer and Jenifer Guerrero Parra at the Technical University of Munich, Germany. Aiming to find a way to make more accessible water filters, they tested discs of wood that were 5 centimetres in diameter and 1 millimetre thick. The discs were effective at removing particles around 100 nanometres and upwards – enough to catch many microplastics and bacteria such as Escherichia coli. While some smaller pollutants such as viruses may still be able to pass through, the simplicity and low cost of wooden filters could still save many lives, say the researchers. Wood is made up of xylem vessels, which transport water from the roots of trees to the leaves. Each vessel is only millimetres or centimetres long, but water can pass into neighbouring vessels through small holes in their walls called pits. It is these pits that allow wood to act as a filter, says Sánchez-Ferrer. “It’s quite a smart system. They have this kind of net, which naturally works as a sieve,” he says. “We’re taking advantage of this.” The researchers tested slices of yellow poplar (Liriodendron tulipifera), European beech (Fagus sylvatica), Douglas fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii) and silver fir (Abies alba). Two were clear leaders: European beech removed 99.7 to 99.9 per cent of nanoparticles and silver fir removed 99.3 to 99.7 per cent. But water flowed quicker through beech wood, so it was the researchers’ preferred choice. “The beauty of the system is that the only thing you have to do is to go to the forest, chop a tree, dry it. And then from here, you just cut the slices,” says Sánchez-Ferrer.

It possibly does. Being an all electric house here, I don't have the opportunity to experiment.

A new build, certainly. The big environmental improvements are going to be in the 20+million older houses.

About time that Europe developed one, with decentralised connectivity. I would suggest that The British developed one, but the ghost of Boris and his 'world class' software is still fresh in my mind.

And Rickets, Cholera, Typhoid, Scarlet fever, typhus and Smallpox. But the bed idea shows promise.

Could always keep you on a short leash, but I know that excited you.

Should be the same with the deals that Octopus keep offering. I see they have an unlimited single car charging deal for £30/month. At that price I would be tempted to buy an EV, but just know that the deal will be changed, after I have spent £15k on a qualifying car.

As Google is predominantly a data collection reseller, do you think that the Nest data was not useful to anyone?

Seems there is a large error bar. There is a lot more to growing plants than just soil. I remember reading a botany book at school that said soil was unnecessary for plants, all the needed chemicals could be delivered hydroponically. Judging by the number of vertical farms that have gone bust recently, I suspect they were wrong. An old girlfriend of mine grew up in the East End if London. She was fascinated, as a child, how plants would grow on the old bomb sites. I have a self seeded echium that has grown in the crack between 2 paving slabs, probably 6 foot tall now.

Well that would involve going out to the post office and buying a TV license. Or waiting until it is available for illegal download. That is a vision I care not to think about.

Would that be Bob Flowerdew, he never gets though a GQT without weeing on compost.