Sunday 17 December 2023

A Christmas wish – community heating in Cambridge?



District heating is a potential low carbon option for some homes, though it is hard to say at the moment which homes (if any) will have the opportunity. Compared to switching to a heat pump or getting an electric storage boiler, district heating can be a low hassle option - as villagers in Swaffham Prior have discovered and it seems likely that residents of Grantchester will also get the opportunity too. Compared to air source heat pumps, community heating is quiet, less bulky and you don’t need space for an outside unit; also it is a lot less weighty than an electric storage boiler: a 40kWh Tepeo weighs 375kg. A community heating system means digging in the street and into your home for the pipework. Apart from that you swap your boiler for a heat interface unit that provides you with heat and meters your consumption. Depending on the setup, you may also need hot water storage. There is no need for an annual service, as you should have with a gas boiler.

Monday 9 October 2023

Transition Cambridge at 15

Transition Cambridge is now 15 years old. Here is an extract from our AGM, listing the various activities we have been doing over the past year.

 


Friday 28 July 2023

Hydrogen for domestic heating is not going to happen

Experts have been saying for years that hydrogen is not a sensible solution for home heating on any scale. However gas suppliers and gas suppliers are very keen to convince us of the opposite. This has been going on for a long time and the government has been sitting on the fence. The Heat and Buildings Strategy published in 2021 delayed the decision until at least 2026 – after trials at village and town scale. However, the village trial – at Whitby – has been cancelled after massive opposition from the residents. Now Grant Shapps, the Energy Minister, has indicated that it is ‘less likely’ that hydrogen would ever be piped into people’s home, because of issues on cost, safety, and continuing reliance on fossil fuels.

What are the other options?

Do you have a low carbon heating strategy for your home? Have you been crossing your fingers and hoping for hydrogen? Unfortunately this is looking ever more unlikely. Alternatives include various sorts of heat pump, electric storage boilers and direct electric radiators. For a small proportion of homes, bottled biogas could be a solution but supplies for biogas are limited and they will also be in great demand for industrial uses. (There will be an Open Eco Homes talk on low carbon heating options on 9th October. This should be announced mid August.)

Wednesday 12 April 2023

Culture and Sustainability - Why is change so hard – yet sometimes so easy?

 The climate emergency requires us all to make substantial changes in our lives – and sometimes they are easy but sometimes they are hard. A lot of this is to do with aspects of our culture influencing  how and why we do things. We each belong to several cultures at different levels – our friends, our family culture, our workplace, where we live, the way we are supported and constrained by our finances and the state. The result is that often well-meaning policy changes fail spectacularly while other efforts can succeed dramatically. It’s complicated!  So I am looking forward to hearing directly from an expert, Janet Stephenson, having read (large parts of) her book ‘Culture and Sustainability’. On June 20th she is coming to Cambridge and has agreed to give a talk and answer questions.

Friday 17 February 2023

Climate justice – personal actions

There are huge differences between carbon footprints of people in different countries. Here in the UK we are worse than average but by no means the worst. However there are also huge differences between people within the UK, even in Cambridge. What are each of us doing and how does this vary by income?

How income and wealth affects what we can do

Sometimes when I am on an outreach stall I use an actions survey – you tick the actions you are doing. The answers we get are affected by how well-off people are. Less well-off people tick fewer boxes. This is partly because some of the actions do not apply, and partly to do with cost. 

Well-off people often tick: solar panels, or even low carbon heating; eating vegetarian or vegan, and buying from a local farm shop. They may say they walk or cycle for short trips. Hardly anyone ticks car sharing but they often say they have cut down on air travel.

Less well-off people cannot afford solar panels and their diet choices are constrained by cost (good quality veggie burgers and sausages tend to cost more). Also less well-off people are often time poor which means they use more convenience foods and less farm shops. They may not have a car at all and rarely go on holiday abroad, but if they do they fly because the trains are more expensive.

Saturday 31 December 2022

Good and bad tipping points

It has been a difficult year. Just when we thought we were past the worst with Covid, we get the war in Ukraine with devastating impacts on the supply of fuel, grain and other food goods. 

Climate change does not let up. Last year looks to be the warmest on record for the UK and in July the record for highest temperature in the UK was topped by an alarming 1.6°C [1]. We also had drought with river flows at record lows [2]. Worldwide, 2022 saw catastrophic floods in Pakistan [3], record forest fires across Europe [4], and extraordinarily sudden cold across large parts of North America (a drop of 23°C in one hour in Cheyenne, Wyoming) [5].

It reminds us of the danger of climate tipping points. Tipping points are moments when some part of the climate system changes in such a massive way that there’s no going back. Apparently there are several that may have already happened: melting ice sheets, the death of coral reefs, melting permafrost releasing methane and the loss of sea ice in the Barents Sea [6].

These tipping points are dangerous. However, tipping points can trigger changes for the good too. The war in Ukraine has shown how easy it is to weaponise supply of fossil fuels [7], triggering a rapid increase in investment in renewable energy worldwide. For the same reason we have seen much more action on energy efficiency, here and across Europe [8]. People are turning down thermostats and putting on more clothes to reduce bills [9]. (See also TC members tips). Solar PV installers are struggling to keep up with a spike in orders [10], and demand for heat pumps, which use electricity to heat buildings instead of gas, has also surged [11].

When we are close to a tipping point, little nudges can produce large changes in the way we think, feel and do things.

Sunday 18 December 2022

How is a reindeer's nose like a condensing boiler?

I am sure it has not escaped your notice that the weather recently has been unusually cold for the time of year. How have you been keeping warm? In our house we have turned down the heating a bit, because with the energy shortage due to the war in Ukraine it is very important to reduce our energy consumption as much as possible, to keep the prices down. (Even with the price guarantee, we will pay for it eventually, probably through our taxes.) As always it is worth taking a look at the natural world for tips. Since it is Christmas, reindeer are a good start. How do reindeer keep warm?