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Two new gadgets are proving very useful. The Cent-a-meter which we bought from Electrisave is a way to monitor our total electricity use in real time. The sensor clips onto a cable in the meter box and a read-out in a nearby room shows how much current is being used at any moment. The display […]
A very interesting meeting organisaed by COIN in Oxford Town Hall on April 4th. I particularly liked the emergent way the meeting was organised with themes and leadership emerging from the participants. I learned a lot about the importance of commitments being made by many local councils. Many have signed the Nottingham Declaration. Woking has […]
It’s become clear from monitoring electricity use over the 3 months that the heat pump has been running that it is using far too much current. Today Dave Greenwood, who first introduced me to the idea of heat pumps, came out to find out what was wrong with the set-up. The main issues turned out […]
A really graphic chart of the comparative figures on CO2 emissions from the different UK sources from the National Atmospheric Emissions Inventory. It doesn’t include air transport, but does show the huge effect of road transport, as well as the fact that domestic has declined much less than industrial combustion since 1980 and is now […]
Saturday 3rd December 2005 saw the biggest demos yet around the world on climate change. In London around 8,000 people marched to the US Embassy in Grosvenor Square under the shadow of the American Eagle. Here’s how it looked on my mobile phone. Click to play this clip and all the extracts from speeches: https://youtube.com/watch?v=N8T7DLlnbQY […]
On Thursday evening invited by Polly and Boo to go to an Oxford meeting on the Green House organised by COIN (Climate Outreach and Information Network). So many people turned up that they had to take over a second hall and rotate the speakers. COIN have an interesting carbon calculator. It doesn’t do the maths […]
Dean from ICE Energy arrived this morning for the commissioning of the heat pump system. The sequence was: Check all the plumbing and electrics and then add glycol to both the ground loops. The mix has to be exactly right to avoid freezing without making the flow sluggish. Dean checks this constantly with his refractometer […]
A very helpful reality check on my original figures comes from a comment on the blog questioning the original figure of 20,700 kWhs per year. He couldn’t believe that we could be using four times the national average for domestic electricity use. This sounds right. The figure was based on electricity bills that were themselves […]
Harry the plumber is just finishing off the pretty complicated plumbing in of the heat pump – hopefully in time for the commissioning (yes, that’s what they call it) of the whole system tomorrow. Because these are quite rare systems, both Harry and Peter the electrician have to do the work by reference to a […]
A good symbolic moment as we throw out our oil boiler. Our biggest single contribution to reducing our carbon emissions. So now we’re looking forward to a cold few days until the new heat pump is commissioned next Tuesday.
I was impressed to see the solar water heating system that Franny has put in. The most impressive aspect was the cost: £2,700 total, or £800 net of the grants from Clear Skies and Camden Council. It was partly so reasonable because she’d already put in exactly the right model of boiler to work with […]
The heat pump has been delivered, but immediately presents another problem. It’s too high to be brought straight into the house on its pallet. And the otherwise helpful two delivery men say it will take 4 people to lift it. So it has stayed outside under cover until today when John, Pete and I struggled […]
Insulation has got to be the most boring part of the greening process. This is particularly so with double glazing, since it is expensive and involves destroying perfectly good old glass. We’ll know the overall cost of doing the main windows next week. But I have to agree that it’s important. The best figures I […]
The garden may look like a first world war zone, but after two weeks all the ground work is finished. Yesterday the four trenches running out from the house were all finished, with both pipes laid and covered with sand. Richard did an excellent job in measuring the trenches to ensure that the two pipe […]
The first trench loop is completed in the morning and the third and fourth trenches started from the point where the pipes will fan out. Better success in avoiding the mains water pipe (circled). By the end of the day the bottom of the trench has been smoothed (by hand) to receive the sand and […]