The book “Sustainable Energy – Without the Hot Air” by David MacKay is available as a free PDF download from the website http://www.withouthotair.com/.
This is a really useful book for anyone interested in renewable energy. Happy reading.
Eco homes map is a new website that I’m setting up.
Eco homes map aims to provide a useful resource for people thinking about making their homes more environmentally friendly.
There are many options available for improving the energy efficiency of your home and for generating renewable energy. However, it’s difficult to know what would be best for your particular home. Would a wind turbine really be a good idea? Which type of solar panels should I get?
One of the best ways to answer these questions is to ask the people who have already taken the plunge. Preferably, someone nearby. Hence, this site.
Do you have an eco home?
If you have attempted to make your house a more environmentally friendly home, then I’d like to hear about it.
Go to eco homes map (www.ecohomesmap.org.uk) and fill in the eco homes form with as many details as you wish, including any pictures and where you are, and your eco home will appear on our eco homes map. If you are happy for people to contact you, either directly or through eco homes map, then please say so.
Ben Goldacre, on his Bad Science blog, discusses some research into the effect of corrections on formerly held beliefs. The worrying outcome of this research is that for some people a correction, rather than changing their mind, actually makes them firmer in their belief. For instance:
conservatives who received a correction telling them that Iraq did not have WMD were more likely to believe that Iraq had WMD than people who were given no correction at all. Where you might have expected people simply to dismiss a correction that was incongruous with their pre-existing view, or regard it as having no credibility, it seems that in fact, such information actively reinforced their false beliefs.
The new feed-in tariff was introduced by the government on 1st April 2010. You can now earn a fixed income for every kilowatt hour of electricity you generate and use in your property. You earn an additional fixed income for every kilowatt hour of electricity you generate and sell back to the grid.
For the average household using 4,500kWh of electricity a year, the Feed-In Tariffs will provide the following benefits if about 2.5 kW of solar PV panels were installed:
With planes over most of northern Europe grounded due to the Icelandic volcano sending ash into the sky, this may be a good time to reassess our relationship with flying. With predictions of up to a week of no planes, people are having to find alternative ways of travelling within our borders and beyond. The question is, once the flight ban is lifted, will people return to flying in the same numbers or will the experience of other modes of transport, particularly the train, lead to less flights? Read the rest of this entry »
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