You had a duff "solar panel specialist" Philippa. If you generate more than you use, then you sell the excess back to the grid (at a pretty high price, as an incentive to get people to do it) and get a nice cheque back every month
punkdoc - I think that's a fair summary. If you were to put it in terms defined for energy strategies required for Planning Permissions for moderately large developments, you are required to show how you have responded to an energy hierarchy summarised as Lean, Clean and Green to achieve a specified improvement on 'compliance' (i.e. a design which complies with Building Regulations). In London, that improvement on standard practice is substantial.
Lean - insulation, draught-proofing, avoiding solar overheating (to reduce air-conditioning in commercial buildings)
Clean - low energy light bulbs, high efficiency motors on pumps and that sort of thing, better controls, smart meters
Green - use renewables to make up the difference.
The energy performance of new buildings has been advancing very well over the last 5 years.
As Chicky says, there is much to be optimistic about, it's not always the headlines that tell the real story
Last edited: 03 December 2016 22:22:38
Gardening on the edge of Exmoor, in Devon
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
I am a bit of an amateur naturalist and a firm believer in human-accelerated climate change. I have yet to read or see anything that convinces me that warnings are exaggerated. No, I am not a professional scientist, but I am well-read and able to critically evaluate scientific opinion.
When I was a schoolgirl, over 30 years ago, they were talking about solar, wind and wave energy being the future as coal and gas ran out. It's disappointing that decades on, we're seemingly no less dependent on fossil fuels than we were then.
The final episode of the first series of BBC's Planet Earth is worth checking out and there have been examples all through the new series that illustrate the human impact on the natural world - increased desertification with extra plagues of locusts anyone?!
I am deeply, deeply concerned - I would go so far as to say scared - of what four years of Trump / Pence will do to the planet.
I noticed that trump wanted to build a wall to protect his golf course in Ireland from the ravages of the sea. The reason given was climate change - strange that
Posts
Or more coffee Pdoc
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Renewable energy, particularly solar and wind, are starting to increase rapidly, so by the time fusion becomes viable it might not be needed!
You had a duff "solar panel specialist" Philippa. If you generate more than you use, then you sell the excess back to the grid (at a pretty high price, as an incentive to get people to do it) and get a nice cheque back every month
Would anyone disagree, if I said, as a brief summary:
Use power more wisely
Make more use of alternative energy supplies [ solar, wind etc ]
Look for new means of generating power which minimise carbon usage [ whether you believe in global warming or not ] ?
Last edited: 03 December 2016 18:54:53
When you don't even know who's in the team
S.Yorkshire/Derbyshire border
The smart meter installation man came here last year.
He beavered away doing all the preparatory work and then said "I just need to get 2 mobile phone signals and then you'll be up and running ...."
"Good luck" says I .... my husband (6 ft 5 ins) can just about get a signal if he stands on a box in the porch ...
I don't live in the back of beyond .. just in a valley. I suspect there will be lots of other folk with similar problems.
Bee
A single bee creates just one twelfth of a teaspoon of honey in her lifetime
punkdoc - I think that's a fair summary. If you were to put it in terms defined for energy strategies required for Planning Permissions for moderately large developments, you are required to show how you have responded to an energy hierarchy summarised as Lean, Clean and Green to achieve a specified improvement on 'compliance' (i.e. a design which complies with Building Regulations). In London, that improvement on standard practice is substantial.
Lean - insulation, draught-proofing, avoiding solar overheating (to reduce air-conditioning in commercial buildings)
Clean - low energy light bulbs, high efficiency motors on pumps and that sort of thing, better controls, smart meters
Green - use renewables to make up the difference.
The energy performance of new buildings has been advancing very well over the last 5 years.
As Chicky says, there is much to be optimistic about, it's not always the headlines that tell the real story
Last edited: 03 December 2016 22:22:38
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
I am a bit of an amateur naturalist and a firm believer in human-accelerated climate change. I have yet to read or see anything that convinces me that warnings are exaggerated. No, I am not a professional scientist, but I am well-read and able to critically evaluate scientific opinion.
I would argue that the relatively few scientists (97% of climate experts, that's over 31,000 of them, agree that climate change is a cause for concern - https://www.skepticalscience.com/global-warming-scientific-consensus.htm) who deny climate change need to be a lot more transparent about their funding arrangements (http://www.davidsuzuki.org/issues/climate-change/science/climate-change-basics/climate-change-deniers/), as do the rent-a-quotes outside of the science community - http://www.campaigncc.org/climate_change/sceptics/hall_of_shame
When I was a schoolgirl, over 30 years ago, they were talking about solar, wind and wave energy being the future as coal and gas ran out. It's disappointing that decades on, we're seemingly no less dependent on fossil fuels than we were then.
Around the same time, there was a global effort to stop using CFCs. Now we are finally beginning to see the positive results of that ban (widely reported earlier in the year, e.g. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/jun/30/ozone-layer-hole-appears-to-be-healing-scientists-say). I think that this is more evidence that humans do have an impact on our environment, for good or ill.
Sadly, we are already seeing the negative effects of climate change world-wide on human populations, in addition to the effects on the natural world. It tends to hit those who are in poorer regions, which is probably why it doesn't get reported as widely as it should (https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/dec/06/trump-world-climate-change-denial). Christian Aid, to name a non-environmental charity who has recognised it as an urgent problem, is campaigning hard on the issue - http://www.christianaid.org.uk/ActNow/climate-justice/the-science.aspx
The final episode of the first series of BBC's Planet Earth is worth checking out and there have been examples all through the new series that illustrate the human impact on the natural world - increased desertification with extra plagues of locusts anyone?!
I am deeply, deeply concerned - I would go so far as to say scared - of what four years of Trump / Pence will do to the planet.
I noticed that trump wanted to build a wall to protect his golf course in Ireland from the ravages of the sea. The reason given was climate change - strange that