The "don't have an extra kid if you can't afford it" brigade get awfully upset when you suggest they don't stay in their £2m house if they can't afford it, don't they?

Just came across this presentation by @glynhudson.bsky.social of heat pump performance monitoring comparing self monitored installs with those on electricification of heat trial - great insight into what makes heat pumps perform well, and how to fix systems that don't www.youtube.com/watch?v=SiHt...

I would have saved myself a lot of grief had I just said this

Do you have a heat pump on HeatPumpMonitor.org? If so, we need your help to compile real-world maximum output test data. Watch the video below for how to contribute. There should be some cold temperatures tonight and tomorrow. Thanks! ❄️ 🤞

Tried to get this published but no luck, so might as well ‘publish’ it here so it’s not a complete waste! ➡️ Stripping rights from refugees today endangers us all tomorrow #asylum #Mahmood #history #humanrights

If you're a National Trust member, it's that time of year again: Midnight tonight is the deadline. It's a shame people have to keep doing this to keep a toehold on historical truth in this country, but here we are. Voting link: www.nationaltrust.org.uk/who-we-are/a...

A reminder that some of the money you spend at Amazon this Christmas will be used to build a tacky ballroom for billionaires.

Recently, we switched out the old wood stove in our house for an electric one. ✅️ Heats room quickly ✅️ Not killing my neighbours ✅️ Still hygge ✅️ No ashes to clean Win, win, win, win 🏆

Some places still available for passivhaus open day at Old Holloway on 8th November Book 👇 www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/old-hollow...

Time for 2025 updates to my annual “opinions about solar” thread. If you like these, you might like the second edition of my book, Solar Power Finance Without The Jargon. A 30% discount code WSQ0437 is valid on publisher website until end of November 2025. www.worldscientific.com/worldscibook...

Still plenty of time to book places for the winter version of Passivhaus open days in November 👇

In Wales, Cornwall, Edinburgh, London and so many places when most 30mph roads were changed to 20mph, people injured or killed by motor vehicles reduced by 20%+. With minimal change to journey times and £2bn saving in insurance costs it's a huge win. bit.ly/4gIBPlJ

NEW: Biofuels globally emit more than the fossil fuels they replace, our latest study shows. The first-of-a-kind study looks at global biofuels production today and the potential impacts of government biofuel targets. 🧵⤵️

Don't threaten us with a good time, Daily Express.

Migrants, and the children of migrants, have been caring for my 92-year-old Mum after a nasty fracture and helping her back to independence, this past 6 weeks. Where we would be as a family without them, God only knows. We thank each and every one of them from the bottom of our hearts ❤️

ummm.. holy shit? tool use in bovids confirmed? holy holy shit?

Via The Independent: Donald Trump’s false claim that London ‘wants to go to Sharia law’ has been described as ‘appalling and bigoted’ by Mayor Sadiq Khan. The Muslim Council of Britain responded: “We pray for Mr Trump's health and wellbeing as his hallucinations seem to be getting worse by the day”

A new study, based on a survey of 1,150 workers suggests that the injection of AI tools into the workplace has not resulted in a magic productivity boom and instead increased the amount of time that workers say they spend fixing low-quality AI-generated “work.” 🔗 www.404media.co/ai-workslop-...

Nazis ban comedians shock.. NYT, 4 Feb 1939

It's not summer any more

Timeline cleanse

waka wake

EXCLUSIVE - ASK NIGEL is back! This week an anonymous Prime Minister asks, 'How can I stop fixating so much on foreigners?' open.substack.com/pub/mrhenrym...

You could make it up, but people would think you were having them on. LOCAL FLAG TWAT FORMER PEOPLE SMUGGLER SHOCKER. manchestermill.co.uk/manchester-f...

As Farage pledges to open up Britain for fracking, hilariously the Reform-led council in Lancashire says “oh, there’ll be no fracking HERE” Self-serving shambolic hypocrisy, borne out of knowing that fracking is deeply unpopular in Lancashire - and everywhere www.bbc.com/news/article...

Today in AI Is Not A Good Source For Learning About The World's Most Misunderstood Body Part, meet this ChatGPT gem. Funnily enough, we're actually going to talk about how most of this is kinda sorta right (for small values of right), as a cautionary tale about generative AI.

🤔How does Passivhaus design help keep buildings cool? Read our summary of Passivhaus summer comfort strategies & sign up for our upcoming webinar: www.passivhaustrust....

As someone living in Germany, I can attest that external shutters & inward opening windows, which also tilt, are amazing for keeping heat out in summer & warmth in in winter. Better for sleeping too, as rooms remain dark and external noise ⬇️. Cleaning outside of windows easy too. No brainer really👍

I’ve documented protests for decades. The asylum hotel protests I’ve photographed have all been very small. When I first turned up at the Newcastle protest, and asked the police where the protesters were, they pointed to one man and said he’s over there.

Cheap ebay carbon seatposts aren't what they were

It’s hot 🥵 in Slovakia, 37C in the shade. So glad my parents’ place is highly insulated and has external shading installed. It’s 48-68C surface temperature on the outside and comfy 22C inside, with no air conditioning

My cartoons for this week’s @theguardian.com books #holiday #vacation #reading

This is such an incredible poster.

Available to pre-order, The Good Building Book has been a labour of love for me and Jon but it would be nice if it sells! www.bloomsbury.com/uk/good-buil...

Companies who pay suppliers late to be fined

Baldwins Farm - a new Passivhaus Plus home (certification pending) based on Old Holloway EcoCocon kit looking great in the Essex sun ☀️ Love the connection between the wheat grown on the farm and straw insulation used in the walls 🌾

‼️ Buildings that Perform. Surely that’s a given! Only if you know what performance is - comfortable, healthy, low carbon, low or no energy buildings - and then how to design, deliver and quality assure them. Is #passivhaus the answer? 👀 We offer training… www.youtube.com/@CoactionTra...

Architects and designers: if you're drawing chimneys for new build homes in 2025, then you need to give your head a wobble

If the headline is a question the answer is no! Firstly report is on solar farm planning refusal, secondly had it been granted the fear was a total of 700 acres of solar in 10 mile radius - that's 314 sq miles, 200,000 acres - so 700 acres is 0.3% of the locality - doesn't sound like much to me

Sorry to wade into the air con wars again, but... I spoke to @jim.londoncentric.media last week about why more homes in London don't have air con. The bottom line is: air con in Britain is almost always a heat pump, and heat pumps are good for the climate www.londoncentric.media/p/why-london...

A really good read - a very thorough, evidenced exploration of the hype surrounding SMRs Vs reality & thoughts on why these extravagant claims are being indulged.

Thought it would be a good day to see if easy to switch our ASHP to cooling - turns out it is! I know radiators aren't going to have enough output at temperatures above dewpoint, so this is just to satisfy curiosity (cycles on/off every 5-10 minutes)

This is such a fantastic initiative! We've been proud to support the pilot by providing @openenergymon.bsky.social monitoring, Speaking from personal experience, installing a heat pump in my own home and living with it through winter while experimenting and optimising has been incredibly valuable 😀

What I want is a TV documentary channel entirely devoted to documentaries with no quick-cut montages of everything about to happen, which don't give a fuck about keeping my attention, presented by extremely knowledgeable people in a terrible mood who have no interest in trying to make me like them.

Time for the annual reminder that in an insulated airtight house the MVHR works to keep heat out in this weather (MVHR app shows extract, ie average indoor temp = 22.5 C, outdoor = 29 C, and bypass 0% which is closed)

So many houses in my street with windows open trying to cool down. But if it’s hotter outside than in this isn’t going to work! Dump heat morning and evening, and then keep everything shut for the rest of the day. Graph shows I wasn’t fast enough off the mark this morning! #EcoBungalow #Passivhaus

I'm all for domestic solar and batteries but in a country with as variable a climate as the UK the services offered by a national grid (access to large scale wind energy and longer duration storage) are going to be needed by most people. Otherwise Off grid winter heating is burning stuff...

A client of mine - a banker - said 3 years after moving into his Passive House with his young family that he didn’t really know how much he paid for his PH, an early build. But also: he didn’t care. The improvement in physical and mental health his family experienced was worth far more than money.