protonsforbreakfast.wordpress.com/2026/01/06/v... In my home, "room temperature" varies considerably with height. It might be so in your home too. In which case, take care where you place your thermostat. Best wishes Michael

protonsforbreakfast.wordpress.com/2025/12/30/w... Getting a heat pump often requires users to get to grips with so-called weather compensation. In this article I explain why Weather Compensation is possibly the worst temperature control system imaginable.

protonsforbreakfast.wordpress.com/2025/11/18/s... I've been singing about Climate Change at my local folk club. If it's your sort of thing, please do share the songs and enjoy!

protonsforbreakfast.wordpress.com/2025/11/10/s... I have just a few days pointing my spectrometer at various lights sources around my home: The Sky; the Moon; a Candle; ... and many more and recording their spectra. Enjoy!

protonsforbreakfast.wordpress.com/2025/11/03/i... Friends, I made spectrophotometer that sort of works.

youtu.be/TysTr-G1k1A Kevin Walmsley talks about the growth of Arctic Sea Routes. The "Arctic Economy" appears to be a new geopolitical reality.

youtu.be/7ka5OFDvO7w First container ship arrives in UK via Arctic Route, a faster and cheaper China-Europe alternative. I don't feel like celebrating.

youtu.be/PCUnlPJRGY4 I cannot recommend Kevin Walmsley's INSIDE CHINA BUSINESS strongly enough. I have learned more about modern China from these videos than any other source.

youtu.be/F8vI5_gN90g Interesting slow-paced documentary from @AJEnglish . Good consideration of risks of high-impact scenarios. "All the small countries that think that their contribution I insignificant add up to a third of global emissions"

protonsforbreakfast.wordpress.com/2025/10/10/w... Why you should care about Net Zero. My attempt to sum it up in 450 words for the good people of Maidenhead.

protonsforbreakfast.wordpress.com/2025/10/05/t... I made some measurements on the efficiency of my condenser tumble dryer. I found it was surprisingly efficient, with the most powerful energy saving feature being the "wetness: sensor that prevents "over drying".

protonsforbreakfast.wordpress.com/2025/09/29/b... Have you ever wondered how those automatic egg boilers work? I carried out some eggsperiments, recording: the mass of water remaining versus time; the time to switch off; and the internal temperature of an egg versus time. Enjoy!

youtu.be/IgSN8mM6IJM Can you imagine if renewable technologies generated earthquakes or toxic wastewater? How does oil and gas get away with it?

protonsforbreakfast.wordpress.com/2025/09/19/e... Elmhurst Energy trained the assessor and approved an #EPC on my home which was in error by 21 points (73C vs 94D). Errors like this are probably rare, but smaller errors of ~10 points are probably common. Here's 4 suggestions to improve matters.

protonsforbreakfast.wordpress.com/2025/08/31/o... When discussing domestic energy matters such as heating or lighting, we think of a kilowatt hour as a small amount of energy. But in human terms, one kilowatt hour is a *massive* amount of energy.

youtu.be/EqupcBoH3hQ The future of Green Shipping is still very unclear. In this video Rosie Barnes (the Rosie in 'Engineering with Rosie) goes through the possibilities with her usual acumen. It's a tough one...

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.

protonsforbreakfast.wordpress.com/2025/07/22/i... I got a chance to visit a new UK manufacturer of domestic heat pumps, ICAX. And it is possible to do things differently.

protonsforbreakfast.wordpress.com/2025/07/20/t... A couple of reflections on the "State of the UK Climate Report 2024". Most essentially, I am so sad that the Climate in which I grew up is already gone.

youtu.be/E0YjXrfKgpU In this video Rosie Barnes (aka Engineering with Rosie) shows how a real company is producing green steel NOW.

protonsforbreakfast.wordpress.com/2025/07/15/w... When a tree falls in a garden... all the carbon dioxide it absorbed over its lifetime is re-emitted into the atmosphere.

protonsforbreakfast.wordpress.com/2025/07/01/m... Going off-grid in summer never gets old. Here's a summary of the first 6 months of 2025 - heat pump and solar pV systems are working well.

protonsforbreakfast.wordpress.com/2025/06/28/t... Reflections on the third un-conference on the topic of "Towards the first one million heat pumps" - in the UK. Lots of progress, lots of innovation, lots to do...

@edhawkins.org #showyourstripes. protonsforbreakfast.wordpress.com/2025/06/20/c... I posted my climate stripes on the poster board in the front garden - together with a challenge.

protonsforbreakfast.wordpress.com/2025/06/17/h... Assessing whether a particular temperature measurement is "hot" is really a question about context: regional, seasonal, and time of day. @edhawkins.org has a new web site that presents current temperature measurements in a meaningful context.

How does the heat transfer from a radiator vary with flow rate? If you have ever puzzled over this question, then this article may conceivably be of interest. protonsforbreakfast.wordpress.com/2025/06/15/t...

protonsforbreakfast.wordpress.com/2025/05/29/m... Looking for something lighter? I've just spent several days measuring the frequencies with which different styles of wine glass vibrate as they are filled. The results are honestly fascinating...

protonsforbreakfast.wordpress.com/2025/05/16/t... This is a gullible idiot's perspective on the @Climeworks scam. I am learning...

youtu.be/4qND0yDo7jA In these grim times, small 'good news' stories such as this one really lift my spirits.

#scam I paid @Climeworks £1,650 to remove 2 tons of CO2 from the atmosphere. Was I a gullible idiot? Yes. Icelandic newspaper @heimildinhas shown that they not only haven’t captured my 2 tons, they don’t even capture their own emissions heimildin.is/FGY3 via @heimildin

youtu.be/EJfYhOlCYeE @engwithrosie takes a look at tidal power. I had always wondered why tidal power had not grown more rapidly. Rosie explains it all.

protonsforbreakfast.wordpress.com/2025/05/11/s... Both my children are now in gainful employment, so I thought I would look back at whether student loans make any more sense now than they did when children went off to university. My conclusion is that it still seems bonkers and unsustainable.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEMQ... Fascinating historical perspective by @chrisjardineenergy.bsky.social of the growth of solar PV in the UK. Really interesting to the see the interplay of price, subsidies, installer base and the change in the economics of domestic installations.

protonsforbreakfast.wordpress.com/2025/04/14/t... I used a model by @daanwalt3r.bsky.social (Daan Walters) to investigate how the cost of 1 GW of firm electricity varies in a plant with various combinations of gas, solar PV and batteries. Adding Solar PV makes electricity cheaper!

protonsforbreakfast.wordpress.com/2025/04/01/s... March 2025 was super sunny - and so running costs (including heating) for my 162 m^2 home were reduced from around £1.30/day last year to just £0.55 this year.

youtu.be/skYCOlcdSlg Information packed video from @engwithrosie about the significance of China's dominant position in the energy transition. It's packed with insights placing the China data in context - a strongly recommended 15 minutes.

youtu.be/VlDChSmyf-0 How to build a green mega project - and how not to.

protonsforbreakfast.wordpress.com/2025/03/02/d... Is Direct Air Capture of One Billion Tonnes of Carbon Dioxide per year conceivable? Just barely. 1 billion tonnes is 1/37th of current emissions.

protonsforbreakfast.wordpress.com/2025/02/20/u... Just letting you know about some forthcoming talks about Retrofit and heat pumps in the Richmond and Hampton area.

protonsforbreakfast.wordpress.com/2025/02/16/t... I've just received what is probably going to be the largest electricity bill this year. In this article I take a look at how the heat pump performed, and compare costs with alternative heating technologies.

protonsforbreakfast.wordpress.com/2025/02/11/r... This article details the retrofit journeys of 5 households in the Richmond and Kingston area. Nobody's journey has been entirely straightforward, but in the end it worked out fine for all these households. Please share!

I went along for a tea-tasting session at the Chinese Tea Company. the-chinese-tea-company.com It was absolutely fascinating - I learnt so much while chatting over tea. Strongly recommended.

Going out last night I noticed the sound of my neighbour's noisy gas boiler.

youtu.be/YIjOXv_nsnQ Times are tough in the wind generation industry, but here's a non-hyperbolic video on possible developments in wind turbine technology from @dwnews Planet A.

protonsforbreakfast.wordpress.com/2025/01/24/i... I measured the effectiveness of some insulating blinds. They are surprisingly good, with a U-value of about 1.6 W/°C/m^2. The article contains more details than most people want to know.

protonsforbreakfast.wordpress.com/2025/01/23/a... A detailed look at 12 days operation of a heat pump in winter. It's a long boring article that will only be of interest - marginally - to heat pump aficionados.

protonsforbreakfast.wordpress.com/2025/01/10/p... After 4 winters, the capacity of my Tesla Powerwall 2 is falling by around 0.4 kWh per year i.e. about 3% of its nominal 13.5 kWh capacity. Round Trip Efficiency approaches 90% in winter, but falls to 80% in summer. Do you have any similar data?

youtu.be/ycNqII5HYMI A précis of the state of the Hinkley Point C Nuclear Reactor Project in the UK. It ends with the lines: "...but whether it will be seen as a good or a bad choice in years to come remains to be seen."