SteamyTea

Our garage workshop was the same. But hangers and old, leaky, workshops are special cases. For a house, even built to minimum regs, it should be possible to heat the air directly and just let the rest come up to temperature naturally. If I had more time, I would have a stab at working out the duct sizes, but down in St. Ives all morning 'gripping and grinning'. Something I hate doing.

I seem to remember that Channel 5 was the first to broadcast digitally from Carn Brae. You can see that mast, at night, all over the country (well not quite, but a fair slice of Cornwall). Not sure where the digital radio mast is, but when it rains heavily, DAB stops.

As soon as I see 'works like a refrigerator in reverse' I get annoyed. They work the exactly the same as a refrigerator, just that the cold bit is outside and the warm bit inside.

What amazes me, is that after 60 odd years of centrally heating homes (on a mass scale, I know the Romans had a go at it), radiant heating has never taken off. Not as if we have not been able to manufacture electrical radiant systems until recently. I think the UFH would have been the norm, even though it is not the most efficient, if we had not had a vast stock of housing to retrofit in the late 60's and during the 70's. Retrofitting, along with a relatively cheap gas supply, was the only economical option for home owners then. I don't know how much our 'too cheap to meter' nuclear program cost us in the early days, but I suspect the government of the day spent more on gas installations. I can remember the gas man coming around our house and changing the jets because of the swap from town gas to natural gas. I also think that the selling of radiant heating systems relies on the general public's lack of knowledge. How often do we hear it being compared to an open fire or the sun. While the effect is similar, the temperatures involved are very different i.e sun is about 6000°C, a fire is about 600°C. But what really amazes me is that we are now, in effect, fitting two heating systems to new builds. We have an UFH, radiator or forced air radiator system, then we add on heat recovery and ventilation. Some even put a duct heater in for heating and cooling into the MVHR. Why are we not combine the two from the start? We have had hot air heating systems for decades, and though there have been problems with them in the past, mainly noise and burning dust, I am sure these can be over come with better design and modern control systems. Yes you would need bigger ducts, but if you double the diameter of a standard MVHR pipe, you can quadruple the mass air flow rate for the same air speed. Has anyone ever worked out what size ducting and air flow rates would be needed for a modern, relatively low energy house? Probably not as large or complicated as people think.

It is worth zipping and encrypting just as good practice.

40 higher than my heat load.

Down here, in Cornwall, the RH has been high. Can always tell by how quick the freezers ice up.

Kind of shows that functionality, is setting the price. Not size. The market is a complicated place, it is also driven by irrationality.

So does that not show that it is the amount that can be borrowed is setting the price, rather than the build cost?

What planet you from. One with very low gravity.

@Ed Davies Could that not be done, in time, with NFC. Just tap the device to the phone, router, box of tricks and let it set itself up. Might also be a way to hard wire in encryption.

Oddly, since getting a half decent smart phone, I use it more. I like that I can go for a walk and see how my steps match my heart rate, the route I have walked, speeds and climbs. I can also post nonsense on websites, find out the time of tides, take pictures etc etc.

They probably meant that particular model, that weighed the same as a motorcycle battery, had limited coverage (a term that was not associated to the technology at the time), was very expensive etc etc. I think people wanted a mobile phone, and could see the benefits, they just did not like what was offered at the time. Bit like the the Matra/Renault Rancho. Now the best selling cars are based on the same concept.

I heard that the CLIC cancer charity had to change names from Cancer and Leukemia in Teenagers. Why is Exeter University so up itself?

Like asthma caused by the fungi.

I can be a bit off with quips. Having renovated 3 old buildings in the past, I would say yes, not worth the effort. In hindsight, the last one I did, I should have gutted out and then dealt with the core problems, the lack of foundation (was a 1860's stable block converted into 6 cottages. Built on the old beach in Weymouth). I like modern materials, they can easily be shaped to look like an old building. It really should not be hard to build an airtight, and therefore watertight, box. Then add things to make it look pretty.

First thing is to look for any very obvious leaks. Damp and mould is really the secondary sign there is a problem. Then knock down and rebuild to modern standards.

No, was there a decade ago doing my Masters, then it was a miserable building down the arse end, as far from the car park (they charged) as possible. I have been to the 'innovation centre' should be called 'hopeless dreamers'. Is the Falmouth one where the art goes on?

A door needs to be accessible from outside. Here is my secret code, it is embedded in the shame.

I am watching paint dry (literally), so have just read (skimmed) a paper about embodied energy to make Lithium Ion batteries. The materials takes 391 Wh to deliver 1Wh The processing takes 763 Wh to deliver 1Wh Total is 1154 Wh/Wh. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2212827119301015 So as soon as you have 'used' the battery 1200 times, you should be into energy negative. The interesting thing is that the vast majority of the energy is in the processing, this will only come down in the future, and, so say the old worn out meme, if that energy comes from a low CO2e source, it does not matter too much environmentally.

The very first commercial wind turbine was installed down here, between Falmouth and Helston at Sewogan. It sat unused for decades, but I think it has gone now. Was pretty ugly.

It is always a problem in small houses, but even worse when the place is longer and thinner. My house is 3.5m wide, almost a metre is taken up by staircase, leaving 2.5m. Pop a sofa in, and now down to 1.25m (ish). Put a TV in and you are about a metre from it. I don't have a TV. The point I was making, was that for the same area, layout can be a lot better than what I currently have. I only have one bathroom, and very little storage.

Vaguely. I found Penryn campus a bit of a rip off all over. Was not a happy time in my life down in the Geography department. They charged extra to put butter in a bacon sandwich.

It should be, though if the fan is out of balance, or the case not fitted correctly, then it could make more noise. You probably have, there are thousands used as A/C units. Usually a few feet up a wall. Have a look around bars, small supermarkets, offices.

Prepared or forced.