Enery saving

baggythecrust From your previous postings it is clear that you know far more about this subject than I do and that your reading on the subject is extensive. I just get a bit fed up with people who seem to think that Blackpool will turn into the Costa Brava and life will be just one holiday if global warming becomes more severe. I get equally fed up with people talking about saving the planet which has managed perfectly well without the human race before and will manage perfectly well without it again – an inevitable eventual outcome regardless of global warming or not global warming. And yes, I know, that the Gulf Stream hurtling off into the South Atlantic or whatever is by no means a certainty, even if lots of variables are removed from the equation. I think I was just feeling bolshie as this is a subject where people can be very patronising and harrying.

Hello again baggythecrust. I know two very cold winters do not a pattern make.... but it was the first time in my lifetime that we have had a week of touching minus 10. That is 10 whole centrigrade degrees below, not miserable little Farenheit ones. The VAST majority of scientists do agree that global warming is a fact and that we have no idea what the climatic effects will be in individual areas. Hotter, colder, wetter, drier - all of these will apply somewhere on the planet. Just not sure how fast climate change will happen that is what most of the scientific dispute is about.
Carboncareful I dont think your critical tone is going to enthuse us really.

We spend the money we save on paying for our photovoltaic panels. I am pleased to report we have had over £1000 back for electricity generated in less than a year plus a big reduction in electricity bills.
Or you could say i spend it on going to see my kids in the southern hemisphere. So what am I suppose to do? Never see them again?

I no longer use an electric kettle but use one on my (gas) hob. A lot of our electricity is made from gas at about 40% efficiency so by using the gas directly for water heating I am, relatively speaking, saving a lot of gas

Appreciate not everyone can use gas, but if you can it is worth considering.

Hi, absent. I'm smiling at your last. I hope I didn't seem patronising or anything like that in my last? Sometimes it's hard to pick up the 'tone' of a written post, but I was very much aware of your 'IF' in your post about the Gulf Stream . I feel the same way as you, I think. I used to be full-on save the earth we've got to change the way we live everything's a disaster but then I came across books and papers published by scientists who had different views from the warmist alarmists and I began to wonder. In particular, opposing and sceptical views showed that the science is not settled and we still have an awful lot to learn. My position now is that we have been misled by an ignorant media and that a lot of the scaremongering is quite simply that and has no basis in solid science. Michael Mann of the "hockey stick" temperature graph fame has still not released his original data (the graph was published in 1998). Good scientists publish everything and are not ashamed of any mistakes. If Mann and others like him have nothing to hide all they have to do is publish their data. There are court cases going on in the States at the moment to make them do this, all of which reflects badly on science. That is a shame for the good guys. And meanwhile people like you and me get fed up of listening to the hype. I think there are plenty more people like us too. I just wonder when the politicians will catch up.

Hi again, jess. Back in the early 1980s I lived in Edinburgh. Overnight winter temperatures got down to -10°C quite a few times. The coldest night we had was -17°C. Records indicate that 1963 was an very cold winter too. I was a child then living in Hull. In the winter of 1978-79 I was in Sheffield and the snow prevented me from cycling to work several times, or even getting a bus. Our bathroom froze up for over a week. We ad to keep a night light under the loo cistern all the time in order to be able to use the loo. We had to wash in the kitchen because the bath and sink drains were frozen. I don't know where you live or have lived but I guess we're of similar vintage. The last two winters have certainly not been the coldest in my lifetime by a long way!

I promise I'll put a sock in it after this! My main concern now is not what the climate does. If we adapt to climate changes we'll be fine and we've proved ourselves pretty adaptable up to now. What concerns me now is the phenomenal HUBRIS that some people have — to think that we could control the climate of a planet! Yeesh!

The winter of 62-63 was indeed the worst I have ever known. I was doing the post grad education qualification in Edinburgh and travelling in and out by train every day. There were icicles the thickness of organ pipes along the railway line and the local loch was frozen over for six weeks. They were able to have curling matches on it. Edinburgh is a cold city at the best of times and these were not the best of times!

I was trying to think of ways to use less energy around the house. Ah - just learn to make tea in the microwave. In this way you only heat the exact amount of water you need. Hard to do that in a kettle, and they are less efficient than microwaves.Thought is was getting the hang of this until i microwaved a tea bag without any water. Clouds of incredibly pungent smoke filled the kitchen. The smoke detectors went off. Fling open the doors and let all the centrally heated air rush out....
I went out to get away from the smell and when i returned several hours later the cupboards were still full of the smell of burning teabag.

Sorry, jess, I have to laugh! 'Course, there's never any harm in trying to save energy. Hope the microwave was allright.

Energy saving, does that mean putting my feet up on the couch and letting Mrs. P bring me tea and biscuits ?

Now Pompa! I think you're doing a little stirring (and I don't mean your cuppa)!

There's always a downside to a bright idea, JessM. I don't think I could make tea in the microwave very easily because I mostly use leaf tea. I do have a kettle that will boil very small amounts, though.

Valyrie. so why do all the other countries have wind turbines? Germany, Spain etc.

Re electric cars: the whole point is to use stored electricity from things like wind turbines, solar etc.

OK absentgran, I confess, I'm a mole placed here by the government to support their funding of wind turbines and all things green. But that can't be right - most of them are climate change deniers, well the MEPs at least. They think the economy is more important that ruining the planet.......
As a mole I find all this very confusing - just don't know which hole to pop up in next.

carboncareful Sorry – I was in rather ratbag mode and seem to have been ruder than I intended. However, people do wander off into all sorts of subjects that are only peripherally connected to any thread and there is a note of hectoring in your posts sometimes. I would guess that most people are spending any financial saving they make on using less energy on paying higher energy bills or other household bills because the costs keep increasing at a much faster rate than their incomes. I'm not sure what you were getting at in your original post – was it just a way of saying that you don't think people ought to fly away on holiday anywhere, should not fly for any purpose whatsoever, should only fly short distances, not go to Florida (I endorse that one – it's a hateful place)? What do you think we should be spending these hypothetical savings on? By the way, I really like moles (don't have a lawn) – pop up wherever you like.

I thought electricity couldn't be stored and that's why wind turbines sometimes have to be turned off (at great expense) when they produce too much at once.

Whilst I agree that we should be using everything wisely which will mean we are also looking after our pennies and therefore looking after our planet I don't think we can do much beyond that.

The people who are making money out of us all are those involved in the Global Warming Scam otherwise known as that jolly good wheeze for raising lots of taxes and increasing prices. We all need power nowadays so it is just a form of indirect taxation and since most of us haven't twigged who the culprits are we all shout about it to the wrong people!

I make a large pot of tea in the morning -remove tea bags or strain into a jug and reheat via the microwave as needs be-and I love tea. I get so upset when I see people use ONE tea bag for a mug then bin it when I know it will make at least three cups when allowed to brew for 3-5 minutes as per tea council. And years ago in China I saw bus drivers bringing out coffee jars of clearish liquid to drink-white tea they called it-ie hot water no tea leaves too poor-made me appreciate the humble tea bag

I agree with you the dip and drink is not the way tea needs time to brew and then taste brilliant. I must admit i don't like tea which has visited the microwave so tend to binge on the pot all at once.

BtC you are correct, AC electricity cannot be stored. The nearest we come to it is a hydro electric system in Wales where they use off peak power to pump water back up into the reservoir.

Electricity can be stored. You use it to split water into hydrogen and oxygen. The oxygen just goes into the air and the hydrogen can be stored used when required. Hydrogen fuelled cars etc. A lot more research is needed - better to spend money on this than on nuclear...

CC I agree with you in the long term, but atm, we cannot store AC electricity, and if we continue to increase our power consumption nuclear fission is our best option. I'm sure into the future many improvements will be made. Nuclear fusion offers the best clean option in the very long term, in the medium term, wind, solar, wave, tide, hydrogen etc. are all being developed and will help provide some of our power, but I cannot see these ever supplying all our needs.

We had our Ruby wedding last year. I know for certain that forty years ago scientists were saying that fusion was 20 year away. They've been saying the same thing ever since. We can't offord to wait another 20 years. We have to spend the money, do the research, NOW into renewable energy and also energy conservation.
I'm really sorry if it sounds like I'm telling people off. To be honest I've not much hope for the future of humans on this planet but I just feel, especially now I'm a grandmother, that I have to do everything I can, whilst I can, to help get the message across about climate change and how urgent it is that we act now to try an limit the effect - and not at some vague time in the future.... It is so difficult getting the points across without sounding like I'm lecturing people but I wouldn't want anyone to feel they were personally being got at. Everyone has to do as much as they are able or feel comfortable about. I do have a real problem with climate change deniers though.