Mailwatch(ed) Forum

A good overview of architectural and planning deficiencies in combatting extreme heat. The report isn’t anti aircon but the wasteful inefficient technology available on the mass market. I have a spray bottle that cost me a pound and if things get really hot I might turn on a fan while I spray cold water on myself.

Inevitably, an area with the potential for emissions to rise fast will get a lot of attention. But A/C shouldn't be a long term problem, because it's purely a matter of electricity supply, unlike some highly polluting industrial processes (where carbon capture will probably be necessary). And it should be fairly straightforward to balance A/C use with high solar energy production. So I don't quite the concern with A/C.

A friend of mine points out that AC is just air source heat pump running backwards. I'm not sure how you would get one unit to do both, mind.

Killer Whale wrote: ↑Sun Jul 13, 2025 2:12 pm A friend of mine points out that AC is just air source heat pump running backwards. I'm not sure how you would get one unit to do both, mind.

Indeed it is, and I can't believe it's beyond the wit of man to come up with an essentially bi-directional unit?

What's causing the A/C panic? It's like they want A/C to become another part of the culture war or something.

I don't know, I was listening to an episode of the Abundance Agenda, which had a feature on the British hatred of a/c on this.

Aircon isn’t popular across Europe. Partly climate but even Spain, white houses with thick walls and passive ventilation design keeps internal temperatures down. The traditional round African mud hut is a by word for primitive but apparently extremely good at combating temperature build ups.

Unfortunately, I can't see people here wanting to live in mud huts. Well, maybe George Monbiot. If we're happy to embrace heat pumps, then we can embrace a/c.

I'm trying to make the point that architectual methods designed to keep buildings cool are not new or complex concepts. I at no point suggested living in a mud hut.
Also there is no 'we' concensus about using heat pumps as they're expensive, noisy and not always effective.

Youngian wrote: ↑Mon Jul 14, 2025 7:15 am Also there is no 'we' concensus about using heat pumps as they're expensive, noisy and not always effective.

One of the issues is that we're habitually retro-fitting them into systems as direct replacements for oil or gas boilers. This is never going to work effectively.

Don't worry, Simon Jenkins is here to defend Brontë country against the scourge of the wind turbine!!

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... ate-crisis

A few recent comments:

A lot of heritage railways are no longer running steam because of the risk of lineside fires. I don't know if the Keighley and Worth Valley is one of them - which runs between Haworth and Oxenhope.

At what cost?

Maybe the reason why we need it needs to be here, it’s quite a big thing. There won’t be any view worth looking at if the global temperature continues to rise.

Top thinking here from George Monbiot.

Monbiot might be joking there.

Here's some nonsense they've written about sympathetically more than once. Woman in Buckinghamshire won't pay council tax because the council has fossil fuel investments and uses Barclays Bank. She wants to be allowed to pay the equivalent sum to charity. This is a very old argument people used to make about their taxes funding nuclear weapons. It was a terrible principle that no government or LA could concede then and it remains terrible.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... osing-home

I wonder what the response would be if Bezos claimed the reason he doesn't pay tax is because he doesn't want to fund a bunch of layabouts kicking their heels on the dole.

Provided he funds charity instead, who could possibly object?

Tubby Isaacs wrote: ↑Tue Jul 15, 2025 1:23 pm Monbiot might be joking there.

Here's some nonsense they've written about sympathetically more than once. Woman in Buckinghamshire won't pay council tax because the council has fossil fuel investments and uses Barclays Bank. She wants to be allowed to pay the equivalent sum to charity. This is a very old argument people used to make about their taxes funding nuclear weapons. It was a terrible principle that no government or LA could concede then and it remains terrible.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... osing-home

I came across this yesterday; it's yet another example of how libertarian the left is becoming.