CityCyclingEdinburgh was launched on the 27th of October 2009 as "an experiment".
IT’S TRUE!
CCE is 15years old!
Well done to ALL posters
It soon became useful and entertaining. There are regular posters, people who add useful info occasionally and plenty more who drop by to watch. That's fine. If you want to add news/comments it's easy to register and become a member.
RULES No personal insults. No swearing.
Bit ironic this is about a mining company, but -
“
With “fuel-to-wheel” energy efficiency losses of 70% for both diesel and hydrogen compared to just 20% for electric, converting mining truck fleets to electric is a no-brainer.
But the fuel cost savings are even higher than BHP’s analysis suggests. Wiley’s comparison begins with the hydrogen fuel already created. There are also massive losses involved in creating hydrogen, according to energy expert Saul Griffith.
“
“
I got planning permission for a zero-carbon house in Bolton but didn’t build it in the end. I reinsulated the house that I’m living in, put in triple glazing and made it as energy-efficient as possible. I’ve changed tack a little bit, moving away from new builds. The most sustainable way to live is to refurbish existing buildings.
“
“
Public charging for electric vehicles is more costly than it need be, and the government is expecting transport emissions to be higher than was previously admitted, according to the CCC’s latest annual report, published on Wednesday, entitled Progress in Reducing UK Emissions: 2023 Report to Parliament.
“
“
Climate change: As Keir Starmer parrots fossil fuel industry lines, don't get your hopes up about Labour's green energy plan
Labour’s pledge to end new licences for oil and gas exploration is not as good as it may sound
“
“
“We have Victorian pipework which just hasn’t been able to keep pace with massive population growth and the impacts of climate change. Thames’ debt was intended to accelerate its work correcting the infrastructure gap but no investor would want to cover the cost of the challenges it now faces without a return.
“
“
Foreign Office minister stands down and accuses government of ‘apathy’ over issues relating to climate and environment
“
“
global poverty and the climate crisis were going to get ‘so much worse’ unless the wealthy did more to help the poor
“
“
Bosses say it will also help support the airport’s sustainability efforts, such as the installation of a solar farm at the airfield, and go towards the airport’s community fund, which allocates money to local groups and charities every year.
“
“
Sunak U-turn on wind farms in England draws wrath of green Tories
Prime minister under fire as government backtracks on plan for more onshore turbines to keep voters on side
“
“
Green revolution: how I learned to be an eco warrior, one step at a time
I was in denial about climate action – until I realised that you might just have to despair to care…
“
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2023/jul/02/slug-words
“
Improving trust between climate science and politics
An ongoing attempt to create a scientific advisory body to improve Italian climate policy.
“
“
Are self-sufficient rural communities an idea whose time has come? A few years ago, councils and neighbours tended to write them off as hippies. Now attitudes are changing
“
What people think an eco home looks like --v
(Note: Garage. Located miles from shops and amenities, necessitating high car use. Existing forest cut down)
What an "eco house" actually looks like --v
(Note: Density. Close to amenities, no need to own car. Built on existing city land. A building that already exists and built to last - no additional carbon emitted during construction)
“
I was born in 2050. The year the world was meant to achieve net zero. We know it didn’t. That was the goal world leaders set for themselves some decades before I was born. 2050 was also the tenth anniversary of the Global Ecological Crash. It is difficult to imagine the world before this moment. But 2040 was the year the Siberian tundra released greenhouse gases at a volume the world couldn’t recover from, Arctic ice caps disappeared for much of the year, and the slowdown in the Gulf Stream became catastrophic leaving northern Europe hot, flooded and frozen at different points in the year. America was ablaze. Much of the rest of the world suffered through starvation, disease, floods, fire, mass heat death and much else besides.
“
https://www.thersa.org/blog/2022/01/our-way-through-part-three-voice-from-a-future-generation
What an "eco house" actually looks like
Well.... Assuming it was brought up way past the lowest code required for British housing. Otherwise it'll be a leaky mess almost impossible to keep warm without using fosil fuel boilers of some description or have a massive electric bill!
Most of those tenements only leak into each other though - the surface area exposed to the outside world per property is minimal. And draughty single-glazed windows and loft insulation are easily fixed.
Totally agree, but that is much more expensive than just not bothering. Which seems to be the basic standard for housing code.
“
Hydro has signed letter of intent with Brompton to deliver low-carbon aluminium that will reduce both the weight and carbon footprint in Brompton’s range of folding bicycles.
“
https://bikebiz.com/brompton-to-use-hydros-low-carbon-aluminium/amp/
“
China’s president, Xi Jinping, has called for stronger efforts to protect lives and property from severe flooding, as the country’s scientists warned July will bring more misery from extreme weather.
“
@neddie Those things might be easily fixed, but they're not going to make anything particularly "eco" from any perspective except embodied carbon. I was quoted a ~5-10% reduction in energy use for my Victorian tenement if I did triple glazed window units(which it turned out I couldn't do anyway - thanks Conservation Area), insulated/draught-proofed flat door, and stuffed my own ceiling with vapour-open insulation, which could maybe be pushed to ~15% if I could persuade all my neighbours to do the same and contribute a share towards insulating the tenement roof(Narrator: he couldn't). Considering the costs involved the payoff period would have been on the order of several decades, so even those minimal benefits are unlikely to be achieved by many people.
By contrast a newbuild Passive-standard home or an EnerPHIT refit, with local microgeneration, can be a net contributor to the grid, even to the point that they "pay off" their embodied carbon fairly quickly - although obviously from that perspective the refit option is superior. There's really no middle ground with these old tenements, the building fabric requires respiration and that either comes through the windows by draughts or by opening up(which kills any energy efficiency gains from the better glazing and insulation) or by going hard the opposite way - maximum airtightness with mechanical ventilation.
Of course those aren't being built either in this country as far as I can find out.
“the building fabric requires respiration and that either comes through the windows by draughts or by opening up(which kills any energy efficiency gains from the better glazing and insulation)”
True
But
The unknown (to me) is the amount of ‘natural draught’ tenements and older houses need.
All such houses will have been built with chimneys. Even if they are no longer used they ought to have some sort of vent at the fireplace and the top.
Even hermits open the front door sometimes, so don’t know if opening windows is needed in winter - even assuming windows fit perfectly, all floors are sealed and skirting board gaps are filled.
I’ve lived in various stone tenements and ‘taken an interest’ in draughtproofing, but never found all the draught sources or felt the need to open windows except on hot days.
If you’re doing any draughtproofing, don’t forget to look behind the toilet and under the bath and kitchen sink - often holes in floorboards and walls - sometimes where the mice get in…
Talking of places to live/not live…
You must log in to post.
Cycling in Edinburgh Flickr group
Video embedded using Easy Video Embed plugin
posts