EssaysConcern

YouTube video by Good Morning America Remembering legendary conservationist Jane Goodall

Jane Goodall 😢
youtu.be/mpi6zAg_OII?...

Heat pumps unlocked

Ooo, look what’s arrived!

#Energysky #Heatpumps

Remember, climate action delay is the new climate science denial. The Conservative Party and GMB Union are both in denial.

Also, Elon Musk is completely opposed to institutions that champion evidence that holds those in power to account. His Grok AI gives undue weight to climate‑denial or fringe skeptical views under the guise of free speech. This is not his political views but his enabling of science disinformation.

Thanks Nate.

from presentation by Richard Erskine

from presentation by Richard Erskine

Another slide that came to me, for an upcoming talk. Now I could show the refrigeration cycle or I could relate it everyday experiences!

We need to draw people in (mostly non geeks), not scare them off.

#Energysky

Ryder cup sky sports

Is the behaviour of the US crowd at the Ryder Cup and their team a metaphor for Trump’s America: loud, loutish, disrespectful … losers!

"right back" 😅

My wife gave me good feedback - so here's an improved version …

Near the end of my talk on heat pumps I want to step write back. Looking back in fact from, say, 2500 CE with this graphic I just made ...
#Energysky #Climatesky

Catapult concluded:
"Despite the high level of variation overall, house
type and age did not have a statistically significant
impact upon the heat pump performance results."

Which my experience rather underlines. 2/2

Heating a listed Cotswold stone building with an air-source heat pump: our journey Update a: A survey by Nesta UK of Heat Pump users published 23 May 2023 finds high levels of satisfaction with heat pumps, see Note [7] Update b: Following requests from some readers for more infor…

Just reposting this piece on my personal experience with installation of an Air-Source Heat Pump into an 1805 Grade 2 Listed Georgian house (I have added an update note not on the project but on Catapult Dec '24 study findings)
essaysconcerning.com/2023/03/29/h... 1/2

#Energysky #Heatpump

Good to raise town gas. My understanding was that it was mainly used for cooking and water heating (not space heating) until the 1960s when it played a significant role (a quarter or so of homes), but as it was derived from coal I’m not sure I need to change figure, but will add commentary. Thanks.

I think it’s hard to argue that demand was not also strongly (majorly in my view) influenced by women wanting relief from the drudgery of washing.

And Ecotricity make their case using optimistic assumptions on the end to end efficiencies of biogas, and laughably pessimistic assumptions about heat pumps (not to mention silly ‘don’t rip out boilers’ scare tactics). Biogas is not judged as significant player in heating by CCC.

As David Mackay said 15 years ago, if you have any gas to pipe anywhere why would you pipe it to burn in a house when it can be burned in a generator and the electricity used to drive a heat pump and more than tripling the energy supply (by harvesting ambient heat)? 1/2

Wood pellet fuelled boilers represent well under 1% of uk domestic heating so not sure the graphic needs to show them. As to the future, I’m pretty convinced they are not it, except in niche settings.

Later in talk I will provide a different timeline on electrification and heat pumps from about 1800 including original heat pumps used in refridgeration; Lord Kelvin's suggestion of heating buildings with them (1852); VRV/VRF in 1982; etc.

Suggestions welcome on this timeline too.

2/2

I am working on a talk ('Everything you wanted to know about heat pumps but was afraid to ask') for a local climate group. I though I'd step back early in talk to give a perspective on heating in England since its birth. What do you think?

1/2

#Energysky #Heatpumps

Bravo, and thank you for your tenacity and dedication

Nick Watts having a bit of a mare on BBC Newsnight, being schooled twice on things he’s miss said.

Late to it (it's a busy "Welcome Week" at @qmul.bsky.social) but, as per, our honorary degree holder @stephenkb.bsky.social absolutely nails it. (Source www.ft.com/content/fbbd...)

Stalin, put his trust in the charlatan Lysenko rather than the experts who understood the genetic basis of plant science, leading to many millions of deaths in Russia and China (who adopted the same junk science). Trump is putting his trust in his own band of charlatans, on health and climate. 2/2

Para 4 from essay 'On the value of scepticism' by Bertrand Russell (1928)

Betrand Russell, in his 1928 essay 'On the value of scepticism' recognised the value of challenging received wisdom, but only when there was good reason to do so, not as a free ticket to speculate in a way divorced from evidence; which is what RFK Jr is doing. 1/

Para 4. of his essay attached

The deniers are using the same tactic with climate change and extreme weather events. What is so revolutionary about attribution science is that we can now put a number of each event, with huge legal implications. 2/2

Indeed. I often deploy the smoking analogy - I wanted to simplify things using dice in this essay. Interestingly the tobacco industry often avoided legal consequences by say that this particular cancer might have been just chance, unrelated to patients smoking. 1/

Agreed, but I felt it worth a try; to empower those who are concerned, rather than for those ‘dismissives’ (the 9%) obdurately beyond reason.

A progressively loaded dice compared to a fair dice

I was asked the perennial question 'How can we predict the climate in 25 years when we can't even predict the weather reliably in 4 weeks time?', answered by climate scientists many times. Here is my attempt for a lay audience using loaded dice as an analogy essaysconcerning.com/2025/09/04/l...

The renewables and the electrification of energy end-use is an inevitable trend because of the efficiencies, economics, flexibility and energy security it brings, whether to Europe, Africa or elsewhere.

Trump may be able to throw a spanner in the works, but ultimately, he cannot stop it.
4/4

Secondly, investment in renewables is charging ahead as in the recent approved projects in the UK for example
www.ft.com/content/926a...
3/