British Homes Have Air Conditioning ?

[Jon LawesParticipant @jonlawes51698]

I used to have air conditioning (bought by my parents when my ex-wife was pregnant with my son during a very humid hot period) but since installing ceiling fans I've not needed it.

A friend of mine laughed at them, claiming I was living in the 1970s. You stay in your "up-to-date" house mate, I'll stay in my comfortable one.

[BazyleParticipant @bazyle]

It's funny how the USA <> UK relationship works. Lots of things are taken for granted as being the same yet we suddenly find great gaps in understanding. Like loads of Californians have their HVAC (Heating, ventilating, air conditioning) but have never even seen coal let alone an open coal fire in the living room. Come to think of it not many Brits nowadays know how to handle a living flame fire. (BBQs don't count)

[J HancockParticipant @jhancock95746]

And the other end of air-conditioning , the jet engines placed around the vineyards to keep the frost at bay.

[Michael HorleyParticipant @michaelhorley72278]

Posted by Ady1 on 20/07/2022 10:34:42:

I doubt much of it because anyone who disagrees gets excommunicated from the money tree

If you are in the scientific community and you want those nice easy free handouts then you have to sing from the government global warming policy hymn sheet

Anyone who expresses any doubts gets the heave-ho

So it's not real science IMO, it's government funded scientific propaganda

I couldn't agree more. Aided and abbetted by the MSM who can't get enough of "Climate Change" Most of us laugh at it all when Winter comes and it is freezing cold!

[duncan webster 1Participant @duncanwebster1]

People who are convinced that global warming is a scam should Google Dunning-Kruger effect.

[John HaineParticipant @johnhaine32865]

I wouldn't bet my grandson's survival on it being a hoax.

[Michael HorleyParticipant @michaelhorley72278]

About 3 years ago after a few days of extra hot weather we decided to look at Air con for our living room. We live in Norfolk. We missed the boat that year but had it installed the next year. I would say that we have used it for no more than 10 days a year but it's been lovely these last few days! Yesterday it was 38c outside and 25c inside. It also heats as well if needed.

[Michael HorleyParticipant @michaelhorley72278]

Posted by duncan webster on 20/07/2022 14:08:59:

People who are convinced that global warming is a scam should Google Dunning-Kruger effect.

I wouldn't say it's a scam, it is the propaganda that we are causing it that I am skepical about. What is undoubtedly true is that many individuals and organisations are making millions from it all.

[Ady1Participant @ady1]

Posted by John Haine on 20/07/2022 14:19:57:

I wouldn't bet my grandson's survival on it being a hoax.

That's the clever thing about it. it was never a hoax.

Everyone and his dog knows the world has been warming up for 30,000 years so far, and the sea level has risen about 400 feet to date

The hoax is a zillion dollars of government handouts to people who confirm that the sky is indeed blue

we can't stop global warming, we never could

The reduction in pollution is a positive thing, but it won't alter climate change

[JAParticipant @ja]

Returning to air conditioning, this is a relatively modern necessity in some climates.

Work sent me to Sao-Paulo, Brazil, and Brindisi, southern Italy, during hot summers. Being a soft Englishman I was given a desk in the only air conditioned office at the Sao-Paulo works. The factory itself was surprisingly cool and I was told that Brizilian architects once knew how to design cool buildings. The Fiat works at Brindisi was a large, airy, pre-war concrete building, without air conditioning, which was very cool even on the hottest day in, I think, 2003. I remember that there was a very hot, very unpleasant, Sirocco blowing at the time.

JA

Edited By JA on 20/07/2022 16:30:19

[NR67Participant @nr67]

I only have AC in my home office and its lovely these last few days. Its also made me do stuff in here that I had put off doing. It was a DIY package, already charged so all that was needed was fit the 2 units, pipe up, bleed some gas and it worked. When I used to spend all day inhere it was a god send. It heats and cools.

[SillyOldDufferModerator @sillyoldduffer]

Posted by Michael Horley on 20/07/2022 14:32:41:

Posted by duncan webster on 20/07/2022 14:08:59:

People who are convinced that global warming is a scam should Google Dunning-Kruger effect.

I wouldn't say it's a scam, it is the propaganda that we are causing it that I am skepical about. What is undoubtedly true is that many individuals and organisations are making millions from it all.

Any millions being made from global warming are tiny compared with tens of trillions made by economies based on fossil fuels!

Many find it hard to accept humans have anything to do with global warming, but nothing else fits the evidence so well.

Unless someone knows different. If it's not human activity, what exactly is causing our living space to heat up?

Dave

[PatJParticipant @patj87806]

Edit:  Just babbling along here, getting ready for the morning work rush, so nothing of importance, but just a few random thoughts this morning.

Those are some interesting comments for sure.

I did not realize the UK was so far north.

I am going to have to pull out my globe and try to get more educated.

I normally use a polar map, since it shows the adjacencies of the continents better, ie: India is on the opposite side of us.

Looking at a polar map, I can clearly see how far north you guys are.

It is unfortunate that students in the US don't get to travel more when in school, and discover and appreciate more of the world.

My wife traveled to Greece and Rome in high school, but unfortunately I never left the country.

My daughter has been to the UK. She said the driving was pretty wild (she did not attempt to drive).

The driving here in the US is getting worse as time passes, with folks getting hyper agressive in their driving style, more like using their auto as a weapon to drive you off the road.

I was driving down the expressway a few months ago, and a large tire from a trailer about 100 yards in front of me came off and rolled a long way down the road before finally rolling off to theside.

I have seen many videos of cars flipping if they hit a rolling tire, so I was glad to miss that one.

I had a deer jump in front of my car about 10 years ago, when I was traveling about 78 mph.

Totaled my car, but I was unhurt. I called my wife at 1:00 A.M. and said "Honey, I am fine, but we are going to need a new car".

I had a perfect imprint of a complete deer in my hood, which was bent up like a snow plow.

I think many folks up north in this country do not have AC in their houses.

I noticed that heating is a bit different in Europe, as best as I can tell from the videos I watch.

Houses built in this country in the last 50 years generally have central air and heat, with a fan coil unit in the attic, a condenser outside, and rigid insulated metal ductwork. Heat in this area is almost always natural gas.

Occasionally you will see electric heat, with no natural gas, but that is an expensive way to heat a house.

Up north, I see a lot of oil-fired heating units, and so it would seem heating oil is more the norm.

In rural areas, folks use a large propane tank, and septic system in the yard.

Sometimes people use wells, but generally every small town has a small water system for potable water.

Urban folks are connected to city water, sewer system, and natural gas system.

In Europe, I see a lot of wood pellet heating units, and I generally have never seen hard-ducted aircondition/heating systems.

I always see radiators, with I guess a boiler in the basement (we don't generally have basements here due to the high groundwater level).

And as I understand it, you don't have combined hot/cold water spigots at the sinks, but almost all sinks here have combo units.  We don't separate hot water from cold water here; it is all the same system.

I think heating lends itself to a boiler/radiator system better than cooling.

The trend these days is ductless systems, but they are still pretty rare in houses.

One trend I see is packaged air condition units that you can install yourself, with pre-charged lines, and no AC technician required to install. The condenser hangs on the wall outside, and the evaporator is also on the wall inside. Very cost effective, but not the best for even air distribution.

I would love to get over to the UK one day and meet the relatives. I have a lot of cousins in Europe, some of whom I have had the pleasure of meeting.

My cousin from Copenhagen said that one has to be much more multicultural in Europe because there are so many countries close together. My cousin said he spoke about 8 languages, and he said without learning the languages of the countries around Denmark, then one cannot effectively travel.

Many houses here are slab-on-grade, but that makes it very difficult if you burst a pipe below the slab.

I have seen photos of the entire insides of houses dug up to replace pipes.

Conventional foundations provide a crawl space, such as my daughter's house, and so they are very easy to re-plumb and re-wire.

The shallow muddy lakes in this area get hot in the summer, and they can be almost too hot to swim.

The spring-fed lakes remain relatively cool year around, and they remain cooler since they are generally clear water.

My Canadian buddy bought a canal boat, and so I discovered the thousands of miles of canals in the UK, which I was totally ignorant of. I follow several canal boat channels on ytube.

We have rivers here, but not many canals. Once can travel for a long distance on rivers here, and I have actually done that.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited By PatJ on 20/07/2022 17:02:14

[pgk pgkParticipant @pgkpgk17461]

Posted by SillyOldDuffer on 20/07/2022 16:43:48:

Any millions being made from global warming are tiny compared with tens of trillions made by economies based on fossil fuels!

Many find it hard to accept humans have anything to do with global warming, but nothing else fits the evidence so well.

Unless someone knows different. If it's not human activity, what exactly is causing our living space to heat up?

Dave

I'm not a climate denier and there is obviously a correlation with CO2 and recent increased rate of climate change. Apparently, we no longer call it warming While CO2 is easily blamed as the cause it might well be worth speculating about the other changes post industrialisation: Radio waves, mining, vehicular vibration, billions of people tramping about and passing wind. Even with pollution free power we must be putting energy into the planet's mantel in all these other ways…

[NR67Participant @nr67]

Its warming up without doubt and sea levels are rising. There are 2 courses of action.

Stop the cause or treat the effect.

To stop the cause the countries with the biggest emissions need to stop making them. In the UK our 1 or 2 percent isnt going to make a huge impact, but we seem to be determined to make ourselves poor my pursuing that nett zero. China, India, Russia the USA are not interested, but they watch with interest as we go crazy over electric cars.

Sea levels will rise and places will become flooded . That and heatwaves are the effect. But as a civil engineer I know its not the end of the world. Engineering solutions are available, sea defences are relatively easy to make. Its water and we know all we need to know about how to stop its flow. Being an island gives us the edge on designing coastal works. Its not new of course Holland did to protect their low lands and the Dutch brought that expertise to the UK around 400 years ago when the king asked Vermuyden to drain the fens.

As much as we in the UK would like to think (or be told by others with a financial interest) driving a Prius, not flying on holiday and eating less meat will not stop the changes that are coming. We should be asking the engineers to prepare for the effects of global warming. They will do that, as I said its actually not difficult stuff.

The big BUT is who is going to pay for all the work needed.

[PatJParticipant @patj87806]

A graph of temperature over time shows that there have always been hot and cold times/events.

There are extreme cold periods where glaciers cover much of the land, such as here in the US, followed by warm periods, where the ocean was all the way up to Tennessee.

We have a piece of land in Tennessee that has been preserved, and it has the most fabulous fossil record of all sorts of ocean creatures, and some land creatures too. I think it dates back to about 65M years.

I have visited the site, which is a few hours from my house, and it is fascinating to look back through time and see what was crawling/swimming around in your backyard 65M years ago.

The sand at this site is extremely fine, and somehow it perfectly preserved the remains without damage.

And I think the big meteor strikes tend to stir up a lot of dust in the atmosphere, and cause cooling periods.

Man is just a tiny blip in time compared to the climate record we have.

Climate has always changed, and always will, regardless of man.

.

[lee websterParticipant @leewebster72680]

Today, 20th July, started cold with a little mizzle in the air. My sister and her husband came to stay for a few days and we were talking about aircon. It turns out that two of my nephews are both aircon enginners, and both have aircon in their homes. Another sister phoned to wish me happy birthday, she was out with a third sister enjoying (?) 40 heat in or around Hemel Hempstead. I don't know what the temp was here in Cornwall, but it was nearly cool enough to put a cardie on. (I didn't). A small silent chep to run aircon does sound nice.

[PatJParticipant @patj87806]

People in this country often build houses in flood zones, gambling that the rare 100 year flood will not happen during their lifetime.

And of course we often have those 100 year floods, which wash all the houses away.

And they say "Who is goning to pay for all this damage", and the answer is "The fools who built their houses in the flood zones", but the goverment generally steps in and pays, and that money comes from the taxes of folks who were wise enough to not build in flood zones.

[PatJParticipant @patj87806]

Earthquake zones are another thing in some places here, as well as tornadoes.

We have a lot of tornadoes in this region, and I live somewhat in a tornado alley.

Most rural folks who live in the two states west of Tennessee have fallout shelters underground.

You can see them next to almost every house.

And we have the New Madrid fault zone around here, which is where the Mississippi River flowed backwards in the 1800's during a big event, and created Reelfoot lake.

Witnesses at the time are said to have saved themselves by jumping on top of fallen trees, so as to not fall into the cracks which opened in the ground.

Most don't realize that the New Madrid fault zone in TN/AR is the worst zone in this country, and has a seismic rating worse than even California.

We do have earthquakes here, but not very often. When we have the big one here, much of my city will experience liquifaction, and slide off into the Mississippi River, which is why I live far from the river.

Seems like Mother Nature is not working in our favor.

.

Edited By PatJ on 20/07/2022 17:24:59

[Bill PhinnParticipant @billphinn90025]

Posted by PatJ on 20/07/2022 17:09:38:

A graph of temperature over time shows that there have always been hot and cold times/events.

Climate has always changed, and always will, regardless of man.

To move away from platitudes for a moment, there is unequivocal evidence that the earth is warming at an unprecedented speed, and human activity is the prinicpal cause.

[PatJParticipant @patj87806]

The studies that I have seen that prove climate change, and climate warming were intentionally rigged, and the data cherrypicked.

The actual data that I have seen shows the earth has had much hotter temperatures than now, and the data shows that humans have a minor impact on the earth's atmosphere.

One set of proof data intentionally stopped at a certain date, because the data from earlier times disproves their narative.

I have heard that sun spots and other natural phenomena are what really drive atmospheric changes.

Obviously opinions vary, and folks will be convinced that their position is the correct one.

I too believed the climate change narrative until I saw the jimmied data.

Nobody should have to rig their proof in order to prove their point.

The climate change "proof" does not hold up to rigid scientific scrutiny, at least the proof I have seen, and I have studied this topic a lot.

The graphs show much hotter periods than we are experiencing now.

.

Edited By PatJ on 21/07/2022 01:43:04

[PatJParticipant @patj87806]

There is a good article that was published recently about the first scientist to raise the alarm about global warming, and he held a symposium out in California, in order to inform the world of the grave danger.

One of the attendees was Al Gore, and Al picked up the global warming torch, and made a huge industry out of it, where he became filthy rich.

Al Gore's carbon footprint in the earth is probably as large as GB's.

From the internet, referring to Al Gore's house (he has more than one, and a multitude of large SUV's too):

This impressive 10,070-square-foot estate near Nashville, Tennessee, was in the news recently as it was reported as having more than 21 times more energy than the average U.S. household. The 20-room mansion in upscale Belle Meade used 230,889 kilowatt hours (kWh) of electricity during the past 12 months. Or roughly 21.4 times more than the 10,812 kWh a year used up by the typical American household. The report also claimed that the 33 solar panels installed on Mr. Gore’s home produced only 5.7 percent of the energy his home consumed in the past year.

Al Gore managed to earn a net worth of $300 Million.

Al Gore runs a global warming racket.

He predicted years ago that all the coastal cities would be 10 feet underwater in 2020.

And the person who originally held the first global warming symposium in California (the one who taught Al Gore) has now come out and said that the hype is overblown, and he is not certain at all that man has an impact on global warming.

There is far from a concensus on this topic, in spite of what you may hear in the media.

.

[Howard LewisParticipant @howardlewis46836]

The earth's climate does appear to move in cycles (As do sunspot with the problems that they cause on terrestial communications)

In the 1700s, the winters were so cold that the Thames froze and fairs were held on the ice.

So, accepting that man's activities do cause warming, may be what we are presently experiencing is the other part of the cycle?

We shall not live long enough tom know, but our great great great grandchildren may find out.

Howard

[Bill PhinnParticipant @billphinn90025]

Posted by PatJ on 21/07/2022 01:52:24:

There is far from a concensus on this topic, in spite of what you may hear in the media.

.

On the contrary, there is overwhelming consensus where consensus matters, i.e. among climate scientists:

**LINK**

[PatJParticipant @patj87806]

Posted by Bill Phinn on 21/07/2022 11:26:29:

Posted by PatJ on 21/07/2022 01:52:24:

There is far from a concensus on this topic, in spite of what you may hear in the media.

.

On the contrary, there is overwhelming consensus where consensus matters, i.e. among climate scientists:

**LINK**

 

 

I guess it boils down to who you trust.

Trust in any goverment entity over here is rather lacking these days.

Usually the opposite of what they exclaim is the truth.

The concensus is among those whose viewpoint is not being censored.

We live in Orwellian times for sure.

They are creating "Ministries of Truth" over here, so that they can tell us the "correct think".

I wish I were making this up.

 

Edited By PatJ on 21/07/2022 11:50:13

[Author]

Posts