Anyone felt the pinch yet?

Notice a good proportion of my hotels are quiet this week. But with the jubilee round the corner and pride the week after maybe folk are simply saving their trips for that.

Cant help but feel the media are driving a lot of it. They seem hell bent on us heading into a recession. Making people panic and stop spending.

They should be telling everyone its all gravy.

Only area Ive felt it is diesel. £154 to fill my van the other day. That's taking the piss.

1 hour ago, Spider said:

Ironically, the one of the answers lies beneath our feet but deeper than a bit of gas.

Geothermal energy is vast and endless (well, until the earth explodes or is consumed by the sun). Drilling is awkward and expensive but worthwhile.

Air source and solar technologies is moving at a very fast pace now the governments around the world are on board. You can and (from 2025) must build a new house with no fossil fuel based supply. Electric only.

The UK is way behind the rest of Europe with this but in a way that means the technology we now have access to is tried and tested. Swedish and German companies are desperate to access the UK market but (sorry to say) Brexit has held that back. And before anyone argues I have sat in a meeting near Copenhagen and had baffled swedes and Dane’s tearing their hair out over it.

Currently only 2 UK companies make heat pumps here and one of them is owned by Germans.

We don’t need to frack. What we need are for the oil companies to stop having such massive influence.

We’ll get there.

Good post… been a long time coming. 🤣

1 hour ago, Sweep said:

Harnessing tidal will be key moveing forward, the brother of my Brother-In-Law works for a company working on it, he said it's still several decades away, as it's far more complex than people think. He has said that it will happen though.

Whilst we're waiting the 30/40/50 years for that to happen, we need to be building more solar farms, lobbing up more wind turbines and getting some nuclear power plants built

And, as you say, acquiring a means to store it, as we're sadly lacking on that front at present

There was a company in Hull that tried tidal power

Apparently the Humber has the highest difference between high and low tide, second only to the Amazon, so you would think tidal power would work 

It failed 

Either the company were shite or it's not that straight forward 

53 minutes ago, Tonge moor green jacket said:

Well of folk with a diesel would most likely have a modern, compliant one anyway.

I guess, as I say I've not really looked into it.

I think its more of an ideological point for some.

1 hour ago, Spider said:

Ironically, the one of the answers lies beneath our feet but deeper than a bit of gas.

Geothermal energy is vast and endless (well, until the earth explodes or is consumed by the sun). Drilling is awkward and expensive but worthwhile.

Air source and solar technologies is moving at a very fast pace now the governments around the world are on board. You can and (from 2025) must build a new house with no fossil fuel based supply. Electric only.

The UK is way behind the rest of Europe with this but in a way that means the technology we now have access to is tried and tested. Swedish and German companies are desperate to access the UK market but (sorry to say) Brexit has held that back. And before anyone argues I have sat in a meeting near Copenhagen and had baffled swedes and Dane’s tearing their hair out over it.

Currently only 2 UK companies make heat pumps here and one of them is owned by Germans.

We don’t need to frack. What we need are for the oil companies to stop having such massive influence.

We’ll get there.

Good, positive, informative 

Keep it up!

1 hour ago, Not in Crawley said:

 

Oh and my Dad, who thinks Kahn should be strung up from Tower Bridge. I did point out that I'm not sure this will effect him in Smithills, and its doesn't effect me, but that didn't seem to change his position on the matter.

 

Is your dad @miamiwhite? 

36 minutes ago, DirtySanchez said:

There was a company in Hull that tried tidal power

Apparently the Humber has the highest difference between high and low tide, second only to the Amazon, so you would think tidal power would work 

It failed 

Either the company were shite or it's not that straight forward 

It's not easy, and has its own environmental pitfalls- as indeed do windfarms. Also very expensive. 

I've read about new technologies that use tidal surges to turn turbines (simplified) for example and new forms of wind turbine allowing much "denser energy capture" from a given area all being developed.

A continuing advancement that will see renewables becoming more efficient and cheaper.

Someone has even developed a chemical process for "digesting" the fibre-glass type component that previously made recycling turbine blades nigh on impossible. 

Definitely moving in the right direction: it's just a pity that they're reported on so little, and the public is still lacking in a balanced feed of information, which leads to reticence. 

 

 

Oh and geothermal energy: I have a concern that no-one has ever spoken about and that is the slight increase in cooling rate of the earth's molten core that must be an effect of extracting heat this way. Once it solidifies, we lose our magnetic field and do a Mars.

Boo.

6 hours ago, Jol_BWFC said:

I’m with Virgin - 17.3% increase.

The Mrs was with Virgin last year too - it was an 11.7% increase 12 month ago.

Just changed my internet from BT to Vodafone. We’ve had fibre installed, free for the first year and £27 a year after that 

1 hour ago, Sweep said:

Is your dad @miamiwhite? 

Could be.

2 hours ago, Tonge moor green jacket said:

Oh and geothermal energy: I have a concern that no-one has ever spoken about and that is the slight increase in cooling rate of the earth's molten core that must be an effect of extracting heat this way. Once it solidifies, we lose our magnetic field and do a Mars.

Boo

Unless you drill down a few km the heat from the earth is actually from the sun. One option is to refill the heat you remove with solar energy you don't use in summer. Like a big battery. 

Hope that addresses your valid concern. 🙂

10 hours ago, DirtySanchez said:

There was a company in Hull that tried tidal power

Apparently the Humber has the highest difference between high and low tide, second only to the Amazon, so you would think tidal power would work 

It failed 

Either the company were shite or it's not that straight forward 

Hmmm, plenty of research going on for tidal and wave motion energy down here but the former has to be done on a vast scale like that suggested for South Wales and latter is sticking a perpetually moving machine in salt water environment which doesn’t bode well.

The quickest solution from Maritime technology would be the small scale Nuclear Power that Rolls Royce are pitching taking proven technology out of the A boats and hooking up to grid next to existing gas fired power stations,

At the moment seems they are only talking about having them near existing nuclear sites for security else think Plymouth would be first in line as not squeamish about nuclear on the doorstep 

10 hours ago, royal white said:

Just changed my internet from BT to Vodafone. We’ve had fibre installed, free for the first year and £27 a year after that 

£27 a year Or each month? 

12 hours ago, Nowack said:

Unless you drill down a few km the heat from the earth is actually from the sun. One option is to refill the heat you remove with solar energy you don't use in summer. Like a big battery. 

Hope that addresses your valid concern. 🙂

Get your point, but heat from the earth's centre does have effect quite close in places. The Icelanders utilise it readily for example. Bastards draining the planet of it's heart beat.. 😁

2 hours ago, Mounts Kipper said:

£27 a year Or each month? 

I wondered that!

1 hour ago, Tonge moor green jacket said:

I wondered that!

My bad 🤦🏻 a month! 

Sky think they are upping my broadband to over £50 a month, good luck with that.

On 21/02/2023 at 14:47, Sweep said:

I'd have thought that's very likely to happen, but this lot won't announce it yet, they'd rather people worry about it for a while first. Labour will no doubt announce that they would be extending it (if they were in power) in the next week or so, and then the Conservstive Party will follow suit at the end of March

Budget Day s 15th March. JSL

Theres time for another before the end of march with this shower

They have theft tags on turnips now in Tesco .

Sounds like the energy price cap is being extended. As predicted.

56 minutes ago, globaldiver said:

Sounds like the energy price cap is being extended. As predicted.

Got an £800 gas bill today.

Good job I’ve stopped boozing

11 minutes ago, Spider said:

Got an £800 gas bill today.

Good job I’ve stopped boozing

For a month? By eck!

11 minutes ago, globaldiver said:

For a month? By eck!

No it’s about 8 weeks, weird how they’ve worked it out.

Either way, I hope you’re warm because I’m clearly providing heating for the entire fckin parish

34 minutes ago, Spider said:

No it’s about 8 weeks, weird how they’ve worked it out.

Either way, I hope you’re warm because I’m clearly providing heating for the entire fckin parish

This is how mad its become. Its cheaper for us to run an office on St Martins Lane in Central London (off trafalgar square) than stay home and pay our heating bills.

7 minutes ago, Not in Crawley said:

This is how mad its become. Its cheaper for us to run an office on St Martins Lane in Central London (off trafalgar square) than stay home and pay our heating bills.

That makes no sense. Do you not heat the office? Are you getting the office rent free?