looking at one issue within a global problem which requires all sectors of industry and most developed populations to change is still doomed to make one look like a grumpy old man.
Sure as bears defocate in woods politicians do dumb things for many reasons, not always loose women and blow supplied by lobbyists. But if it ups the debate on how we need to look holistically at how we behave as a species it is at least meandering in the right direction.
I haven't had gas to a house in over 20 years. they just never ran mains in where I lived and a propane pig is too much hassle and cost.
What DOES interest me is if there are any unbiased comparisons of air source/ground source heat pumps vs central heating for the normal use case of someone out the house 8AM to 5PM. MK1 eyeball suggests the numbers won't quite stack up.
Sure as bears defocate in woods politicians do dumb things for many reasons, not always loose women and blow supplied by lobbyists. But if it ups the debate on how we need to look holistically at how we behave as a species it is at least meandering in the right direction.
I haven't had gas to a house in over 20 years. they just never ran mains in where I lived and a propane pig is too much hassle and cost.
What DOES interest me is if there are any unbiased comparisons of air source/ground source heat pumps vs central heating for the normal use case of someone out the house 8AM to 5PM. MK1 eyeball suggests the numbers won't quite stack up.
At the moment it's still possible to get free gas central heating installed here Nest | nest.gov.wales
One probably shouldn't give humans more credit for rationality than they deserve.
I recently looked at heat pumps about a house presently heated by natural gas central heating.
Considering, installation cost, costs of running and maintenance, break even on investment.
The conclusion is, definitely to stay with natural gas.
The air-air heat pump, the widely advertised system, is clearly no good.
Electric energy is much more expensive than natural gas. The heat pump tutted high efficiencies only exist when it is no so cold outside. When really cold you even have to waste energy to heat the outside exchanger to prevent frosting.
I do not need heating, when it is not so cold, I rather wear a warm suit.
There are tax compensation, but I do not even want to know about this money dug out from taxpayers.
It is clearly a rip off. Many people love it.
This is big business.
Considering, installation cost, costs of running and maintenance, break even on investment.
The conclusion is, definitely to stay with natural gas.
The air-air heat pump, the widely advertised system, is clearly no good.
Electric energy is much more expensive than natural gas. The heat pump tutted high efficiencies only exist when it is no so cold outside. When really cold you even have to waste energy to heat the outside exchanger to prevent frosting.
I do not need heating, when it is not so cold, I rather wear a warm suit.
There are tax compensation, but I do not even want to know about this money dug out from taxpayers.
It is clearly a rip off. Many people love it.
This is big business.
Yes you are very right about the air-air heat pump just as well on the air-water heat pump i.e. most devices for central heating depending on a compressor. The colder it gets the more difficult it is for it to heat the house up. I have heard there are Scandinavian types that do work efficiently but I haven't seen those yet. Strange that these are not introduced if they exist...
Water-water heat pumps however....
Anyway the 3 completely new built city districts where air-water heat pumps were installed to be "gasless" have been converted to natural gas again. Extremely high energy bills, still a cold house etc. Still big business for the companies that install them. They are a rip off but an open eye to the technology does not hurt. It may work OK one day when COP is even higher than it is today.
The reasoning by a certain political movement here that electrical heating is green is that one has also solar panels producing electric power. They don't see the difference in timing 😀 They also debate that the grid is a kind of battery which it absolutely is not. So they reasoning is that if you pump energy in the grid at noon with the solar panels and consume it at 18:00 with an air-water heat pump that is green. Burning energy that one has produced to inefficient heating still is wasting energy compared to a solution that costs less energy or is more efficient. The cold truth is that excess energy that is produced at noon by for instance solar and wind turbines is simply not used.
Water-water heat pumps however....
Anyway the 3 completely new built city districts where air-water heat pumps were installed to be "gasless" have been converted to natural gas again. Extremely high energy bills, still a cold house etc. Still big business for the companies that install them. They are a rip off but an open eye to the technology does not hurt. It may work OK one day when COP is even higher than it is today.
The reasoning by a certain political movement here that electrical heating is green is that one has also solar panels producing electric power. They don't see the difference in timing 😀 They also debate that the grid is a kind of battery which it absolutely is not. So they reasoning is that if you pump energy in the grid at noon with the solar panels and consume it at 18:00 with an air-water heat pump that is green. Burning energy that one has produced to inefficient heating still is wasting energy compared to a solution that costs less energy or is more efficient. The cold truth is that excess energy that is produced at noon by for instance solar and wind turbines is simply not used.
Last edited:
I had a house with a 1/4 hectare garden once that would have worked for a ground source pump but I couldn't tally how even a 3:1 efficiency helped where you had to have the system running 24 hours a day vs about 3 hours a day I need central heating (jumpers and thick duvets in this house).
But a roofspace heat exchanger to keep the air in the house fresh whilst minimising heat loss seems to me to be good technology. If only they didn't cost so much and fail so often...
But a roofspace heat exchanger to keep the air in the house fresh whilst minimising heat loss seems to me to be good technology. If only they didn't cost so much and fail so often...
Indeed. I work with and supervise people in their 20 to early 30s. The complaints I see here and elsewhere are pretty far off the mark. Very much in the "Get off my lawn you damn kids" category. Most criticism of today's youth that I read bears little resemblance to what I see in person.
Grumpy Old Man is the natural default unless one has to deal with them 😉 People that age needing to still be supervised says it all 🙂
Last edited:
Absolutely true until a sufficiently efficient and truly “green” battery technology is developed. Until it is absolutely needed (or too late, needed years ago) it simply will not be developed. Remember the Ferengi rule of acquisition “The speed of the advancement of technology is NOTHING compared to short-term quarterly gains.”
What if you had a centrifugal fan drawing air through a tube, because of the Venturi effect the pressure and temperature would drop in the tube, so it would absorb heat, then go through the fan ( picking up more heat ) the into your house, reducing in speed and increasing in pressure - and temperature, there by heating ( and ventilating ) your home, the excess air from your home could be vented over the Venturi tube to recirculate the heat. Very cheap to make, but I have no idea of the efficiency.
Last edited:
Hydro electric can, and is used in reverse, taking excess electricity at none peek times and using it to pump water up hill, to be used when demand is high.
Sadly in uk all the suitable hydro sites are already in use. Dinorwig is amazingly good at pumping money up and down a hill (take free electricity at night to pump it up, sell back when its at max price). Some people are trying to use electric cars as load balancers but I cannot see how that will end well.
I do whatever work I can get my hands on. My bread and butter is inspecting buildings and making recommendations to building engineers. I also get called when it hits the fan and they need advice to get the building up and running ASAP.
I'm too old and grumpy for regular employment. I've been told by more than one person that I'm unemployable. That's funny (but I concede it's true) because before 2008 I was a hot commodity. I was recruited relentlessly. Now I'm persona non grata, a pariah.
Anyway, all the guys I work with are over 50. Younger people just aren't reliable, and they know nothing. That's my experience.
My buddy has a 40 year old son. He didn't even get his driver's license until a few years ago. His father had to put his boot in his **** to make him get it. He said it's time he started driving them around, since they're getting old. Ditto for getting a job. His father had to boot his **** to get him to get a job and start contributing to the household. At 40. In fact, he'd never leave his room if they let him. I don't think he's ever even had a girlfriend.
I see my neighbors. Some of their kids go to college but they move back home. My neighbor has three adult children living with him. No horizon on when they're going to grow up.
This is the opposite of my generation. We all had our driver's licenses, first car, and first apartment at 18. We couldn't wait. Car + apartment = girlfriend. Living with your parents was considered a disgrace.
I know the world has changed, and that I don't fit in at all anymore. But I just don't see much in the young people I've known.
I have 3 adult daughters. All left home. One is doing a PhD in France, one is about to qualify as a midwife and one is about to become a teacher. All doing what they wanted to do and with no pushing. And that's despite their parents. So I disagree with your assessment.
Hello Pano,
I guess you are kind of biased because you dont wanna frown upon your staff.
When i was at secondary school we had an old history teacher who could explain us a lot of things about foreign languages or Dutch literature . But also about why a diesel motor has no sparking plug. He was kind of homo universalis.
At that time there were already the old folks complaining that the young people had such a low span of interest so to say.
Nowadays still the same but it seems their brains say no to anything that they dont consider essential.
Because of covid i watched some you tube videos about young people watching music and movies from the time we were young.
White rabbit by Jefferson airplane passed by and some '' reviewers '' said what the heck.
Most cultural expressions become more special once you know about the time they were conceived . Stravinsky was not at all considered mainstream in his days. My grandmother used to tell me that when she was young Emile Zola was on a so called index, a list of books you were not allowed to read by the catholic church.
I guess nowadays even in Europe you cannot find to many youngsters who have read Emile Zola ( outside of France).
If you are watching apocalypse now it gives an extra dimension when you know about Joseph Conrad. Pano can you check your staff if they know him?
Greetings, Eduard
See what the HOA has to say about it when you want to put up a water tower up on your property.
City might like it. Give ‘em an excuse to raise your taxes so you can pay them to generate/store your own electricity.
"Buffered" was perhaps a poor word choice. The point is, the thick base allows rapid spikes in heat production (like in the case of a CPU ramping up under load) to be readily absorbed away from the heat source. Just look at any high performance CPU heat sink and you can see that they are designed with this in mind - some of them with thick, heavy cores of copper. High thermal mass. The exception is coolers with heat pipes; since they are far more effective at moving heat (via the pipes) away from the source, they do not require nearly as much mass at the base to absorb rapid spikes of heat.
The resistor analogy is off the mark. The physics isn't comparable, IMO.
Last edited: