Heat pumps save money, they extract heat from the surroundings and you get about four times as much energy out as you put in.
Maximum of 3 usually less.
Heat pumps save money, they extract heat from the surroundings and you get about four times as much energy out as you put in.
Heat pumps save money, they extract heat from the surroundings and you get about four times as much energy out as you put in.
Heat pumps save money, they extract heat from the surroundings and you get about four times as much energy out as you put in.
I am against nuclear power.
It is dangerous (Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, Fukushima). We don't know how to dispose of the waste products. Solar and wind can supply all our needs with suitable charge storage.Would you like to elaborate?
I am for but with the proviso that we need to get Generation Four asap for efficiency of fuel use and cleaner waste.
It seems to be the only technology to realistically deliver the vast amounts of energy we need.
G4 is more flexible so can work alongside wind and sun plus it can be configured to produce hydrogen and a basis for liquid fuels.
Yes, it has a ridiculous half-life, but then so does the raw nuclear material we get out of the ground (or there'd be none around for us to use, by now). So we can either return it to the ground, or spread it so thinly somewhere that it barely contributes to the background. Or preferably both.
Per unit energy produced, nuclear power is near, if not at, the top in safety. Many more people have died from exploding fossil fuel power stations, mining/drilling accidents, collapsing dams, etc than from nuclear mishaps. And that's not counting excess deaths caused by environmental pollution.It is dangerous (Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, Fukushima). We don't know how to dispose of the waste products. Solar and wind can supply all our needs with suitable charge storage.
Indeed! How many on pfm understand from where these radioactive isotopes came?To the extent that it is dangerous, the risk is somewhat localised compared to the global effects of fossil-fuelled generation, which we're going to need for baseload for at least another generation, if we don't have nuclear. Solar and wind are fine, so far as they go, but there's always the question of intermittency. A truly global solution would mitigate the intermittency thing, but that's at least a generation away, too.
IIRC all the high and intermediate level nuclear waste created by the UK nuclear power industry since Calder Hall would fit in a warehouse the size of your average Tesco superstore. Yes, it has a ridiculous half-life, but then so does the raw nuclear material we get out of the ground (or there'd be none around for us to use, by now). So we can either return it to the ground, or spread it so thinly somewhere that it barely contributes to the background. Or preferably both.
Some of the nasty ones, e.g. plutonium, are created in the reactors.Indeed! How many on pfm understand from where these radioactive isotopes came?
Well, there was a chap on here a few months ago who thought that you could have a battery powered car that would generate electricity from the non driven wheels by means of a dynamo, which would then recharge the battery.I've been working on something that could be the solution. It may seem simplistic, perhaps as though I've missed something essential, but hear me out...
Joe
There's no reason why it should look like that. A ventilated wooden cover would be fine, and they work just as well turned by 90 degrees and parked under the window. Or higher up, above a bay, or indeed in the back garden.strangely just got rid of the bulky water tank in a house .... now i hear its got to go back ah bang goes 30% of the storage cupboards !!
looking forward to this
heatpump by , on Flickr
At least it will be easy to heat.Seems to me that houses are getting smaller and smaller , the house I just repaired a shed at has 2 small bedrooms , a bathroom , tiny kitchen and 2 small cupboards. It never had a immersion heater and there is no room to put one . You can't swing a cat in there !!