Last summer I launched my campaign against outdated “aim-to-permit” gambling laws. On Hampstead High Street? Not a single betting shop. In lower-income areas? Flooded. Councils are forced to say yes. That’s not fair and it’s damaging our high streets. The fight isn’t over. ✊🏾

February is a great time to talk about… air conditioning. Otherwise known as air to air heat pumps, which can heat as well as cool your home, very efficiently. We have a big new report out today on how suitable air to air heat pumps are for British homes. The answer: quite a lot!

Extreme heat lab: Enduring the climate of the future with @readfearn.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/environment/...

80% of agricultural land is used for livestock (and textiles), yet this huge land use provides only 17% of our calories and 38% of our protein. 16% of the land used for crops provides 83% of our calories and 62% of our protein. It's past time we rethink what we eat.

BREAKING⚡️The High Court has just ruled that the government's draconian ban of Palestine Action was unlawful. This is a massive blow to the Home Office’s authoritarian approach. They need to stop criminalising people protesting a genocide and start ending the UK's complicity

This is a fascinating study into children's exposure to fine particle #AirPollution (PM2.5). Spikes of PM2.5 were "strongly linked to indoor activities, particularly the use of wood-burning stoves." Smoking is also mentioned as a significant source.

Most people don’t know this: Heat pumps REDUCE gas consumption even if running 100% on electricity from a gas fired power plant. More here in my piece for @carbonbrief.org👇 interactive.carbonbrief.org/factcheck/he...

📺Stretford Passivhaus retrofit TV makeover Deep retrofit of a modest Manchester semi-detached home to the Passivhaus retrofit standard features in Guy Martin's 'House without bills', which will air on Monday 9 February 2026 at 9pm on C4. https://passivhaustrust.org.uk/news/detail/?nId=1507

We welcome the idea of #Health warnings on stoves. Did you know that: 👉 A 2025 study by UCL discovered that indoor wood burning is linked to a decline in lung function. 👉 Wood smoke contains hundreds of air pollutants that can cause cancer: formaldehyde & benzene are just two. #WorldCancerDay

District heating offers an efficient way to capture heat that would otherwise be wasted – and is at times the only technology able to do so. Modern networks can capture waste heat from data centres, industry & water treatment to warm homes & businesses 👉 iea.li/4qWC018

Here is a delightful detail on a rubble masonry building. Being on a hilltop, it's exposed to high winds, which, round corners, creates turbulence that forces rain onto the wall. Typically, higher quality masonry is placed here to endure it. On occasion, we get a rounded corner instead.

“I said round about 2011 that I thought that it had serious and worrying implications for the future if millions of adults were queueing up to see Batman movies. Because that kind of infantilisation, that urge towards simpler times, simpler realities – that can very often be a precursor to fascism.”

Do not let AI design your building. The only genius on display here is how creatively bad it is.

Join us and our friends at Compass for the launch of Professor Kate Pickett's new book The Good Society online at 6pm on Wed 4th February. Featuring a truly stacked lineup of Caroline Lucas, Ruth Lister, George Monbiot and of course, Professor Kate Pickett. Sign up now: https://ow.ly/kkpb50Y794O

"because of the upgrade works, he was able to give the house a makeover and renew the property which hadn’t been updated in decades." I like the reverse framing, if refurb can't justify a retrofit, why can't a retrofit be used to justify a refurb?

New article: Air Changes Per Hour Heat Loss in a Retrofit Home Subtitle: Always challenge the values used for air changes in a heat loss survey. It might save you ££ in the long run. Hope this is interesting. I enjoyed pulling this one together. energy-stats.uk/air-changes-...

@chiefgeekad.bsky.social Hey Adam, good to have you more active on here. If you're taking request, can you look into what Adia are doing with their hydrobox/dynamic balancing system. I can't quite get my head around it. Handwaving explanation about machine learning algo is not good enough.

Adia Thermal are developing a smart dynamic balancing system which is attempting to work with any existing system, and then offer upgrade advice for pipework/radiator sizing after installation. I'd be interested to know how they do this. Because it's unclear to me. www.adiathermal.co.uk

What on earth did the Japanese think when they came up with this passive ventilation strategy? asiri-designs.com/resources-1/...

Apols if this is stuff you already know - www.google.co.uk/books/editio...

"Additionally, CATL introduced battery swap-compatible packs in the series, including the #20 battery swap block with 42 kWh capacity, the #25 block with 56 kWh, and the #35 block with 81 kWh." cnevpost.com/2026/01/22/c...

Heat pumps are a great way to deal with the elephant in the room.

Sustainable heat experts in the UK - I hope it's worth taking the time to provide feedback directly to civil servants here, because it's taken me a long while: energygovuk.citizenspace.com/energy-secur...

V. funny interaction between Mark Blyth and Trader types pod bros about deficit hawks and bond market vigilantes. (time stamped) youtu.be/wXn3Qg10DPE?...

In the UK, it is a fact that the left cannot govern, and so must be blocked from power by centre-right politicians, who are incapable of governing, but are wiser than the left, and so imitate the politics of the far-right party, who are also incapable of governing, but will inevitably govern.

Hybrid Foundation Insulation Retrofits: Measure Guideline A retrofitting guide for a vented crawspace void to a conditioned / encapsulated ground floor system. buildingscience.com/sites/defaul...

If you want to know why tech billionaires have a messianic complex, and why they all say they should have studied physics instead, you can't get much better than reading Asimov's “The Last Question” (1956).

Building Science AI/Conversation Tool. It's an effective search tool trained by professionals, which, never 100% right, will be less likely to be wrong, and provides references to articles in a verified database. bscassistant.ai

Smart Ventilation Bricks www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFc8... Ventilated/unconditioned voids under suspended floors have some very counterintuitive dynamics; for example, they get damper in summer, air exchange to dry the void is a minor component of total heat exchange.

This is on Starmer, on Lammy, on Mahmood. Heba's impending death, it seems, is a matter of policy. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

CaptiveAire have produced the most incredible HVAC series I've yet to find on the internet. Everything from the fundamentals of electrical energy generation, thermodynamics, refrigeration cycles, psychrometrics, manufacturing, duct design. youtu.be/4U-XG7cY7bI?...

The Dutch will double intercity bike routes in the next 5 years, from 1100 to 2300km. Every city has local routes: Utrecht, for example, has 420km of separated bike lanes & bike streets. 𝘿𝙤𝙤𝙧𝙛𝙞𝙚𝙩𝙨𝙧𝙤𝙪𝙩𝙚𝙨 allow people to safety go by bike throughout NL. More info: www.fietsersbond.nl/nieuws/doorf...

This appears to be down to: –low forecast wind output, around 3.5 GW until a rapid rise from 4pm as the wind field from the deep low reaches the North Sea wind farms –low solar forecast, less than 1 GW peak –low temperatures; much of the east and north will have an 'ice day' –*a lot* of snow

The Palestine Action hunger strikers close to death – podcast www.theguardian.com/news/audio/2...

In the first 6 days of 2026, FTSE 100 CEOs have made more money than the average UK worker will earn in an entire year - unacceptable inequality as millions of Brits struggle with cost of living. We need to tax wealth & income fairly to invest in a fairer future for everyone.

Comedian @michaelspicer.bsky.social responds to the feature "Reclaiming human care from surveillance capitalism" from our #BMJChristmas Issue. Read the feature by @vmontori.bsky.social here: www.bmj.com/content/391/...

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...