Earth Notes

UK based
#energyMastodon #renewables #domestic #heat #storage
#OperationTuneup
#RepairCafe
#activeTransport

See also [@DamonHD](https://mastodon.social/@DamonHD )
Was @EarthOrgUK@twitter.com

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Earth Notes (off-grid solar powered): https://www.earth.org.uk/about-us.html
16WW Energy Series (kWh): https://www.earth.org.uk/energy-series-dataset.html
Snackable podcast: https://www.earth.org.uk/SECTION_podcast.html

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Published at

2026-10-31T21:06:24Z

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Last Notes

2026-10-18 03:23:03 UTC

Octopus Heat-pump Journey - Via quote and survey and negotiation to keeping us warm fossil-free #heatPump #DHW #spaceHeat #defossilisation - https://www.earth.org.uk/Octopus-heat-pump-journey.html

2026-10-18 03:11:08 UTC

75gCO2/kWh National Grid CO2 intensity is HIGH wrt last 24h so don't run anything that can wait! https://www.earth.org.uk/GBGI #CO2

2026-08-10 08:58:52 UTC

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Have you checked that there's no ice this time? B^>

2026-06-21 17:47:22 UTC

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It's going to be only a few degrees short of that around me in London, so I shall be staying home and trying to get stuff done in the early morning...

2026-06-09 09:55:01 UTC

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I recently saw marginally less spectacular damage to PV on a school roof from what I take to be pointy stuff dropped by birds and/or flung by small children. Not much after well over a decade though!

2026-04-19 09:51:03 UTC

On the SIKP 2000 A1 Portable Induction Hob: Review (2010) - See how easy this one-pan portable induction hob is to use! How does it compare with a built-in induction hob? #cleanAir #induction #cutCarbon - https://www.earth.org.uk/note-on-SilverCrest-Portable-Induction-Hob-SIKP-2000-A1-REVIEW.html

2026-04-12 07:50:12 UTC

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Transmission rather than distribution in the main, I think.
This shows it very nicely in real time with the "Curtailment Filter" on:
https://renewables-map.robinhawkes.com/

2026-04-08 14:32:44 UTC

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2026-04-08 14:32:27 UTC

I am considering using more accurate (ie non-0) kgCO2e/kWh (lifetime amortised) #emissionsFactors for some #GB #FUELINST low-carbon #electricity #generation sources, eg #NPSHYD (hydro), #NUCLEAR, #WIND, in the EOU live #carbonIntensity calculator.
Is there a definitive source, or would (say) WIND=0.01, HYDRO=0.02 NUCLEAR=0.01 be a reasonable start?

2026-04-03 18:23:24 UTC

Question for anyone who uses the associated earth.org.uk site: do the "Share on Mastodon" buttons at the foot of each (desktop) page work for you?

2026-03-28 19:19:47 UTC

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Can any current (or about to come online) production reactors for grid-scale electricity generation avoid pauses for refuelling? And indeed do they? I'm probably way behind on the tech.

2026-03-22 10:28:22 UTC

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Our (London, UK) space heating is already off, and I'm doing my level best to have our house significantly carbon negative again this year... A drop in the ocean, I know, but...

2026-03-21 14:31:46 UTC

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It seems that indeed there wasn't enough intertia, partly because the TSO didn't book enough, partly because the thermal plants failed to deliver what they had been booked to, and also because there wasn't enough non-thermal plant inertia required by regulation from other participants as I understand it. Voltage regulation seems to have been the key issue though. In any case that wasn't particularly renewables' fault, but overall poor grid code and management on the day.

2026-02-26 10:49:45 UTC

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Un-correlated (including always-on) low-carbon electricity sources are good. Demand-callable / load-following is better, but there are far fewer of those (no GB nukes for example).
(This is 3MW out of ~40GW yesterday's GB peak demand, and there seems to be scope for ~2 more of these cf *20,000* needed to cover *current* peak winter demand in the UK.)

2026-02-13 18:10:09 UTC

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Oooh, but they really want that energy back when their nukes are having a bad time. Historically GB coal has propped up the FR grid significantly at least twice while I've been watching flows!
(Which proposed interconnector is this, please, I'm clearly missing a trick?)

2026-02-08 22:21:08 UTC

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Is "supported by subsidies" interchangeable with "guaranteed a fixed price per MWh"? And clearly with older tech that might be higher than newer CfD prices.
Disclosure/personal: I have been and stood on the beach and watched the Scrobie Sands turbines as some of the first utility scale stuff I saw. (I later walked and saw some onshore 2MW turbines relatively close by, run by other operators. I have videos!

2026-02-07 19:51:04 UTC

Octopus Heat-pump Journey - Via quote and survey and negotiation to keeping us warm fossil-free #heatPump #DHW #spaceHeat #defossilisation - https://www.earth.org.uk/Octopus-heat-pump-journey.html

2026-01-23 08:12:57 UTC

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Sow it, seam it, sorted!
(Or maybe: "Seam it, Sow it, Sorted!" works better...)

2026-01-03 19:51:02 UTC

On Website Technicals - Read nitty-gritty tech updates and daily learnings that keep the Earth Notes site up and running; site stats also. - https://m.earth.org.uk/note-on-site-technicals.html

2025-12-28 14:55:06 UTC

Domestic Hot Water (#DHW) periodic #pasteurisation of storage to prevent #Legionnaires' disease is hard to do with a heat pump (getting up to ~60C), so I do something a bit differerent:
https://www.earth.org.uk/eddi-diverter-dataset.html
When there is sufficient sunshine the system is set up to automagically do it a bit less than weekly by direct diversion from PV; in winter once or twice a month from the #grid when #carbonIntensity is low...

2025-12-03 07:38:33 UTC

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"no national CO2 tax"? Is that a typo for "new"? I don't understand this part!

2025-11-02 12:19:28 UTC

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We slipped back into net importing this month (5.2kWp & 6kWh, all electric heat, London UK):
https://www.earth.org.uk/energy-series-dataset.html#V-net

2025-10-28 17:46:06 UTC

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Then I am old! Thanks for the update...

2025-10-28 17:35:28 UTC

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That is hard gamma. I prefer to receive my kernels as precompiled binaries if possible!

2025-10-28 17:28:05 UTC

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Mention Linux more and your followers here will experience criticality!

2025-09-04 07:37:45 UTC

@npub1pnw…qhcz What's your view on this?
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2495031-why-solar-power-is-the-only-viable-power-source-in-the-long-run/

2025-08-18 14:52:10 UTC

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I'd select both the first two, ie solar, wind, batteries and nukes (and tide and geothermal etc etc)...

2025-07-22 10:33:34 UTC

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I know Michael somewhat, and I really don't think that he is anti-nuke.

2025-07-03 20:42:01 UTC

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Oh dear, I mean you can't assume anything about even a plain USB-C cable! ... So sorry for your loss. %-P

2025-06-30 20:49:27 UTC

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Transmission and distribution infrastructure causes upset, mining continues to displace lots of people and poison land and has other externalities; solar is helping save EDF's bacon in France with nukes wavering in hot weather which waa what I assume what appeared to be ~6GW of exports from GB yesterday night (though I was only looking at NDF vs TSDF, so could be wrong).

2025-06-30 20:14:30 UTC

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My home is going to be forcibly purchased soonish and bulldozed. Nothing to do with renewables (except that mine will have to go). Significant infrastructure changes sometimes has this entrained.

2025-06-20 13:14:59 UTC

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So the "all intermittent sources need back-up" claim is a bit of a trope: no source has 100% capacity factor nor 100% reliablity, so we have reserves and timed outages matched by a mixture of other sources.

2025-06-20 13:11:20 UTC

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Not to pick an argument at this point, but (a) the GB nuke fleet capacity factor has in fairly recent times been not so far above offshore wind, and (b) the last two major GB grid outages over the last ~20Y (500k+ users load shed) were wholly or partly from thermal plant trips which is a very unpleasant form of intermittency! (All from memory, I may be in error!)

2025-06-19 07:47:52 UTC

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Purge overnight / early to let the house get as cool as possible, then keep light and hot air out. Minimise running appliances to avoid heating the house during the day with incidental gains.
https://www.earth.org.uk/manage-the-heat-Maltese-style.html
Good insulation and air tightness are your friends, and give you control.

2025-06-13 08:43:10 UTC

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I'm used to the taste now, and on the other side dentists seem to have a slightly wider taste range for their mouth washes these days, so I can drink root beer and not gag and indeed enjoy it... <twitch>

2025-06-13 08:41:35 UTC

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When I first went to the US as a teen, my hosts took me to a Dairy Queen drive-in and proudly presented me with, amongst other things, a pint of root beer.
My face must have been a picture as I took a hefty swig.
The taste was ... what every single denstist's mouthwash through my childhood had been. That was NOT a good mental connection.

2025-05-06 19:51:02 UTC

Low Carbon Investments @Home (2018) - How I cut carbon with negawatts, ISAs, SIPPs and start-ups. How best to put time and effort into a greener low-carbon future? - https://www.earth.org.uk/low-carbon-investing.html

2025-04-28 11:45:43 UTC

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There was a lot of trouble around the France/Spain border and split of the network a couple of years ago?

2025-03-19 22:23:55 UTC

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I think that this sort of thing has made a very smart PhD student colleague of mine NOT consider working or researching in the US, even though he just presented his work in California for example.

2025-02-16 19:59:10 UTC

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That and the sheer chaos on its way is why I moved most of my pension (etc) investments away from the US for now. I suspect that it is the lightest I have been on the US side since I started working in the City with traders ~30Y ago...

2024-12-31 07:49:54 UTC

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Does https://www.seat61.com/ help?

2024-10-18 17:46:35 UTC

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Remember that it is at least as much as social good as a technical/environmental one, and I say that as a firm techie!

2024-09-24 15:58:48 UTC

I have put in a paper for this:
1st International Workshop on Low Carbon Computing
a hybrid event hosted in Glasgow, Scotland, UK
https://www.sicsa.ac.uk/loco/loco2024/

2024-08-31 16:51:06 UTC

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I'd like to try that ultra-accessible version! My eyesight is OK, but the contrast on the main RHS sliderbar for me is so bad (non-advanced mode) that it sometimes makes the whole thing unusable. Stand near me and you'll hear me tutting and cussing!