Lewis Bowick @l-bow.bsky.social · 19/06/2025What I notice in heatwaves is we'd be able to keep cool if we weren't so restricted with ventilation. Security overnight, road noise, curtains to block 5am sunrise (also blocking cool air) and outdoor temps above indoor between midday and 9pm. Precious little opportunity for passive cooling! 230
Lewis Bowick @l-bow.bsky.social · 10/05/2025I pay £7/mo for 12GB mobile data. Graciously my provider let me use that data for no extra charge in Spain and France. Dipped into the Spanish speaking principality of Andorra for some hiking and all of a sudden they're charging me £9830 per GB!!! 120
Lewis Bowick @l-bow.bsky.social · 30/04/2025Consultation launched today on including air-to-air heat pumps in the Boiler Upgrade Scheme! The proposal is for a grant of £1000-2000, which would allow hot water to be provided separately, but would exclude fossil fuel hybrid setupsassets.publishing.service.gov.uk 040
Lewis Bowick @l-bow.bsky.social · 07/04/2025Never have I seen a duck curve actually look like a duck quite so much as today 021
Lewis Bowick @l-bow.bsky.social · 30/03/2025Is the link not effectively broken already? Renewables built since about 2017 are on CfDs which pay a fixed price, irrespective of wholesale. When the CfD price is lower than wholesale, they pay back to consumer bills. 120
Lewis Bowick @l-bow.bsky.social · 02/03/2025How should we estimate running costs for homes switching to heat pumps if they use their current heating intermittently? Intermittent heating seems to be common practice, so if we’re going to persuade households to shift to continuous, we’ll need to assure them this won’t lead to much higher bills. 10181
Lewis Bowick @l-bow.bsky.social · 28/02/2025The most cost-effective thing landlords of homes with electric heating could do to boost efficiency is surely installing air-to-air heat pumps. With SCOPs around 4, they could reduce heating bills 75%. Try getting anywhere near that with a few £k of insulation! But EPCs assume they run at SCOP 1.7!! 120
Lewis Bowick @l-bow.bsky.social · 30/01/2025People with home batteries: are you expecting a payback from it? 210
Lewis Bowick @l-bow.bsky.social · 17/01/2025If you're a homeowner in a flat with electric heating, you could have an air-to-air heat pump installed completely free of charge for a research project by Energy Systems Catapult. Should be good for reducing bills. Please share! paidresearch.further-afield.com/p/147/4281ca...paidresearch.further-afield.com4281CAT-LLB CATLINKEDIN 032
Lewis Bowick @l-bow.bsky.social · 15/01/2025"Other" has been way too critical during our times of need lately for it to continue to remain anonymous 000
Lewis Bowick @l-bow.bsky.social · 12/01/2025I see stuff like this all the time; it's really common. "Our house is freezing, we keep the heating totally shut down most of the day and we're all out of ideas. Must be something wrong with the building fabric." It's going to take some effort to unlearn this national habit! 100
Lewis Bowick @l-bow.bsky.social · 12/01/2025The entire green sceptic media ecosystem who think heat pumps struggle in the UK's -2C winters need be sent on an educational trip to Canada. And no, they don't all live in airtight Passivhauser 181
Lewis Bowick @l-bow.bsky.social · 13/12/2024Cylinder sizing: is 45 litres per person based on 60°C stored temperature? If so, should we allow more like 60 litres at 48°C? Both would give an 8 min shower at 10 l/min, 39°C shower, 12°C cold, which feels reasonable 010
Lewis Bowick @l-bow.bsky.social · 03/12/2024Why does the Octopus Cosy tariff go to full price between 00:00-04:00? That's just not what energy prices do. Why not pass through the full off-peak night period? It would then work well for EVs too, and we wouldn't need separate, single tech tariffs. 020
Lewis Bowick @l-bow.bsky.social · 22/11/2024It would be great if Vaillant's "eco" DHW mode capped heat output rather than compressor speed, so it could be a better all-season setting. I find it a bit too slow in freezing conditions 110
Reposted by Lewis BowickAndrew Sissons @acjsissons.bsky.social · 21/11/2024Big news on heat pumps from the UK govt this morning: the 1 metre planning rule is to be abolished! Big credit to my colleagues @katyking2.bsky.social and @codrinacretu.bsky.social who did so much work on this www.gov.uk/government/n...gov.ukHelp to save households money and deliver cleaner heat to homesUp to 300,000 homes to benefit from upgrades next year, as government continues rollout of the Warm Homes Plan. 1618569
Lewis Bowick @l-bow.bsky.social · 15/11/2024Energy market noob question: why did prices go bananas during the low winds at the start of November when we were only using ~23 GW out of our CCGT fleet capacity of ~30GW? I get that low utilisation plant has to recover cost over fewer run hours, but aren't the CCGTs low capex & already paid off? 140
Lewis Bowick @l-bow.bsky.social · 15/11/2024This platform seems decent but how is everyone managing to remember whether carbon dioxide is plant food without a refresher in each thread? 010
Lewis Bowick @l-bow.bsky.social · 13/11/2024Ok fiiine I'll make a new account. This looks like one of those blatant Aldi versions of a popular brand of crisps. Are we going to have to do this for the United States Government as well? 050