Michael de Podesta

Thank you. I did not realise this was going ahead. I assumed the death of the Great British Battery Company (or whatever it was called) had killed off all UK battery manufacturing.

Thanks

Great graphic. Very clear message.

Thank you. I think that is some broadly positive news. I'll stop scrolling now.

"No such thing as over-tight building (no one says cars are over-tight)."

We don't live in cars.

Many older buildings are just fine in terms of rates of air change - without first sealing them and re-engineering air change mechanisms.

Variation in Room Temperature with Height Friends, I have recently been going on (and on …) about different modes of temperature control for heat pumps. And I have emphasised the utility of a thermostat – the most basic tempera…

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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

...possibly.. or perhaps just have a thermostat?

Weather Compensation and its alternatives Friends, when switching from a gas boiler to heating with a heat pump, householders are commonly obliged to get used to the idea of weather compensation (WC). Instead of the familiar act of setting…

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.

Singing about Climate Change Friends, last Sunday I had the chance to sing three songs in a ‘floor spot’ at the local folk club (TwickFolk). And inevitably, I sang some songs about Climate Change. A floor spot at a…

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!

Sadly, not tonight. :-(

Yes, Elmhurst does need to acknowledge its own part in the poor use of EPCs. Basically EPCs as deployed now are not very accurate - because the basic task is not very simple.

Elmhurst are obsessed with process, but the process itself has problems that Elmhurst need to address. M

Spectra Friends, this week I been mainly pointing the spectrometer I bought at various sources of light and taking a look at their spectra. Please join me on a romp through my results. Warning. I love this…

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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!

I used chromatography a couple of times while I worked at NPL, and what I learned is that being even semi-quantitative is quite hard.

I've got a few more spectrometer experiments to try first, and then maybe I'll think about something more complicated!

All the best

Michael

The spectrometer is incredible. There is so much physics to do - and so little time!

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Friends, I made spectrophotometer that sort of works.

YouTube video by Inside China Business Ice Silk Road opens up vast Arctic to China and Russia. Western companies aren't interested.

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

YouTube video by ShanghaiEye魔都眼 First container ship arrives in UK via Arctic Route, a faster and cheaper China-Europe alternative

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.

YouTube video by Inside China Business Top Venture Capitalists tour China, declare Western energy firms "uninvestable"

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.

YouTube video by Al Jazeera English Inside the planet’s most urgent climate warning | Global Warning E1 | Featured Documentary

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"

Why you should care about Net Zero. Friends, in an unprecedented media blitz, this article is being co-published with newspaper publishing giant, The Maidenhead Advertiser. =============================== Who am I to talk about Net Z…

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.

I looked at that document but I need to read it again. The condensation efficiency specification makes sense, but I could not understand the energy efficiency specification at all.

It didn't seem to mention the latent heat of water anywhere? That's nuts!

I will read it again this morning

Yes. In Experiment#2 the clothes weighed 7 grams less at the end than at the beginning. I am pretty sure that was due to entrained moisture - or different levels of dryness.

That's interesting too! I may need to develop my measurement protocol!

@wiilp.bsky.social Oh! Thanks for this information. I will attempt to process it all and get back to you!

Tumble Dryer Efficiency Friends, recently I have been continuing to avoid thinking about EPCs. I have instead been thinking about washing my dirty laundry in public. Or more precisely, drying my laundry in public. Unless …

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".

Wherever you go... there you are.

“Boiling” an egg Friends, when my now wife and I first moved in together, we bought a cook book as a symbol of our domestic focus. It was a book by Delia Smith and we were attracted by the fact that the cover showe…

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!

YouTube video by Bloomberg Originals The Looming Disaster Under America’s Biggest Oil Field

youtu.be/IgSN8mM6IJM

Can you imagine if renewable technologies generated earthquakes or toxic wastewater?

How does oil and gas get away with it?

EPCs: An Open Letter to Stuart Fairlie Friends, at one point on my recent EPC (Energy Performance Certificate) adventure, I was a speaker on Radio 4’s You and Yours along with Stuart Fairlie, the Group CEO of Elmhurst Energy. Elmh…

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.

soundcloud.com/dylanesque19...

You are right. Here's a song I imagined singing in a few years time, but it already makes sense now.

"I long for the long rainy summers
I used to know in my youth
Long cold rainy summers
I wish you could know them too."

Now correctly rendered.