Nothing on the telly tonight? How about a live volcanic eruption

These retrofittable clay ceiling cooling modules are advanced, since they have to cope with a lot of condensation moisture and well, clay is known to be water soluble. Very interesting explanation of the material challenges for #earthbuilding nerds like me: youtu.be/HTfjauFyjzw?...

An excellent heat pump installation. SCOP of >5, 50% reduction in costs compared to mains gas. youtu.be/Tz0W9xCBxS0?...

Govt finally tightening PM2.5 limits from 20→10µg/m³! Huge credit to @mumsforlungs.bsky.social, @clientearth.bsky.social, my old home @asthmaandlung.org.uk and many others for years of pushing. Great to see DEFRA act at last. Next stop, alignment with the WHO! www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Will South's home is in a Conservation Area. So how did that impact his #insulation strategy at the front of the building? Check out my conversation with him here: www.houseplanninghelp.com/387 #Retrofit #Victorian

NEW SPEAKER This Sunday at the Barbican our editor @adriennebuller.bsky.social will chair a conversation between Andreas Malm and Steven Donziger on fossil capital, the state of climate politics and resisting dystopia. www.barbican.org.uk/whats-on/202...

Some of us never put much stock in the adequacy or wisdom of the "breakthrough" approach to addressing global warming, but I imagine that for some folks who sincerely invested their hopes for future generations in it, this is going to feel like a huge rug-pull. In a year full of rug-pulls.

In 2023, I interviewed Ian Sinha, a consultant in Liverpool advocating for patients and forcing landlords to sort out mould in their properties: www.bmj.com/content/380/...

🚨Government ministers are visiting Oxford this morning to announce £120m funding to reopen the Cowley Branch Line to passengers. New stations will be built at Cowley and Littlemore, with a journey time of just 7 minutes into Oxford. Full story: oxfordclarion.uk/cowley-branc...

New study by Falkena et al. shows that most climate models don’t capture the established key mechanism that can destabilize the North Atlantic subpolar gyre. Those models that get it predict abrupt subpolar gyre changes in coming decades 😳. @swinda.bsky.social esd.copernicus.org/articles/16/...

📢 Episode 4 is out now! Last year, Spain was hit by one of the worst disasters in its history It was driven by climate change But it ended up boosting climate deniers... How can the world stop this from happening again? Listen now: overshootpod.com

Incidentally, I've come across Hydro Solar before, they have the most intersting solar PVT setup I've ever seen: hydrosolar.ca/blogs/case-a...

My spider sense were right this time. There isn't a significant penalty when a two stage enhanced vapour injection system is disabled in milder ambient conditions. www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/13... So the results are likely an artifact of differing testing standards and inconsistent manufacturer data.

In 2014, Salman and Hashem Abedi were rescued from Libya by the Royal Navy. Police later said they agreed to be “debriefed”. What did that entail? In 2017 they murdered 22 people at the Manchester Arena. www.declassifieduk.org/the-manchest...

Alarming push for biofuels at COP30.

BREAKING: The US and Saudi Arabia have succeeded getting a majority of countries to postpone the decision to adopt a carbon charge on pollution by one year.

🤔 Did you know that the biggest community-owned solar park is in #Oxfordshire? Generating clean energy and community benefit for local people since 2022, Ray Valley uses bifacial panels to maximise its output. Find out about Ray Valley and its impact 👉 tinyurl.com/22c8ltxf

The Long Heat is finally out from @versobooks.bsky.social today: It deals with inter alia the promise of climate reversal, climate tipping points, the political economy of carbon removal and the very many antinomies of solar geoengineering. www.versobooks.com/products/331...

🔥 Domestic wood burning is becoming a serious public health issue Residential wood burning now contributes 11% of the UK’s PM2.5 emissions - tiny particles that can harm lungs, brain & heart See how your area is affected with this interactive map from UCL: storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/9231...

What I think is needed is more state capacity and expertise to actually support delivery of these schemes. Both in local and national government. We used to have, say, in-house engineers in local government to design and oversee programmes like this. That has largely disappeared

"Well, you shouldn't be complaining anyway as you got it all for free" "Electric shocks from walls, safety features bypassed" "Installation took over a year... we were left for the winter without central heating... We had to seek alternative accommodation for 8 weeks"

Hard to be surprised by anything that involves builders and cladding but what a fiasco: 98% of homes fitted with external wall insulation under govt schemes have major issues requiring remediation www.theguardian.com/environment/...

A reminder.

I just signed a @stopburningtrees.bsky.social petition: Say No to New AI Data Centre Powered By Drax. Sign here: actionnetwork.org/petitions/sa...

Tomorrow's story for The Reengineer is subbed and ready to go in the morning! Here are a few other recent stories, if you're thinking of subscribing: www.thereengineer.pro/p/the-big-co...

"Give us options" they said... Free bus travel and a host of extra services are coming to Oxford, thanks to clearer roads of the Temporary Congestion Charge www.oxfordbus.co.uk/free-bus-tra...

More than half the people of Bristol will either live, work or study in a place kept warm by the city’s District Heat Network. www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol...

Work is starting on a genuinely massive heat network in London. Promises to harness waste industrial heat to warm around 300,000 homes. www.businessgreen.com/news/4519595...

Israel is piling crime on top of crime on top of crime. No wonder it is determined to bring down the entire edifice of international humanitarian law - it's the only hope of protecting itself from consequences. Btw: the allegations are significantly worse than bedbugs.

Tipping points are moments when a gradual change leads to a forceful, surprising shift in a system. They show up in chemical reactions, electronics, cells and — potentially catastrophically — in Earth’s climate. What can they tell us, and what can’t they?

Has anyone tried a localized cooling system such as these AC mattresses toppers? I basically need a fan pointed straight at me all night to not wake up resembling a mop. I can deal with the heat through the day with cold showers and staying hydrated, but the night can be an ordeal. sleep.me

I just signed a @stopburningtrees.bsky.social petition: Say No to New AI Data Centre Powered By Drax. Sign here: actionnetwork.org/petitions/sa...

About that "skills shortage"? "Employers’ annual spending on training for each member of staff has fallen by 28% in real terms since 2005, to £1,530, a level less than half the EU average." www.theguardian.com/business/202...

NEW: A handful of cities around the world are using lake and river water to cool their buildings. It's a fascinating alternative to traditional AC. But some (relatively shallow) bodies of water are warming fast - will they continue to be useful in the future? www.wired.com/story/people...

BREAKING: UK markets regulators have opened an investigation into Drax over the sustainability of its sourcing of wood for biomass pellets from 2022-24 This is potentially a much more serious investigation than ones conducted previously by MPs or by the energy regulator www.ft.com/content/368c...

A Baptist minister has been arrested in Oxford for holding a placard reading ‘I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action’. Rev Grote of New Road Baptist Church said ‘I am doing this because of my faith. I’m doing this because I’m a follower of Jesus Christ, who broke the rules and created peace.’

My house has had an ASHP for 4.25yrs. In that time (with continuous monitoring) it has consumed 10249kWh-elec and delivered 32308kWh-heat. The average COP has been 3.15 and the average daily heat delivered has been 20.8kWh, with approx 18.9kWh/day being space heating and 2.1kWh/day being DHW.

protonsforbreakfast.wordpress.com/2025/08/08/e... Energy Performance Certificates are nonsense! My energy efficient house just got got downgraded from from am 85B to a 73C despite the fact that it only costs around £160 per year to run and has a heating requirement of 48 kWh/m^2/year.

I've just published a LinkedIn post on the design and installation process for my home heat pump 😀 @newarkcylinders.bsky.social @openenergymon.bsky.social www.linkedin.com/pulse/design...

Stratified Thermal Storage Buffer Tank: www.consolar.de/en/stratifie... Very satisfying passive design for a solar thermal buffer tank. DHW can remain at mains pressure whilst the buffer expansion vol can be vented elsewhere.

Looking for examples of people who've done an "AECB Step by Step Retrofit" but struggling to find anything. I know it's somewhat of a new standard and that's likely why. Ideally blog posts or forum posts from homeowners but curious to read anything. cc @aecb.bsky.social and #passivehouse

Not a bad concept! Radiator handrails.

There is more margin for error installing gas systems. Which exposes you to cowboy installers. Crucially, a well installed gas system takes the same amount of care as a well installed heat pump. Cowboy heat pump installers are found out immediately, whereas gas systems take a few years to fail.

Rules of thumb for heat pump retrofits: They need about 2x the surface area of radiators for a given demand - due to having half the average ΔT with room temps than a gas system.

Common myths about heat pumps: They don't work in cold climates. They don't work in old buildings. They are more expensive to run than gas. They require gutting the building to retrofit insulation. They are a new, untested, technology.

Heat Pumps ROI. Urban Plumbers is one of the best channels in the UK for heat pump installations. Ex gas installers convincing other gas installers in having profound impacts on the sector. However, there are still problems with communicating the benefits of switching... youtu.be/nzF9uZx8d_g?...

Drax is an insane greenwashing joke It has to be stopped www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...