iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Michael de Podesta @protons4b.bsky.social · 23/01/2026

Thank you. I did not realise this was going ahead. I assumed the death of the Great British Battery Company (or whatever it was called) had killed off all UK battery manufacturing. Thanks

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Michael de Podesta @protons4b.bsky.social · 18/01/2026

Great graphic. Very clear message.

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Michael de Podesta @protons4b.bsky.social · 14/01/2026

Thank you. I think that is some broadly positive news. I'll stop scrolling now.

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Michael de Podesta @protons4b.bsky.social · 12/01/2026

"No such thing as over-tight building (no one says cars are over-tight)." We don't live in cars. Many older buildings are just fine in terms of rates of air change - without first sealing them and re-engineering air change mechanisms.

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Michael de Podesta @protons4b.bsky.social · 06/01/2026

protonsforbreakfast.wordpress.com/2026/01/06/v... In my home, "room temperature" varies considerably with height. It might be so in your home too. In which case, take care where you place your thermostat. Best wishes Michael

protonsforbreakfast.wordpress.com

Variation in Room Temperature with Height

Friends, I have recently been going on (and on …) about different modes of temperature control for heat pumps. And I have emphasised the utility of a thermostat – the most basic tempera…

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Michael de Podesta @protons4b.bsky.social · 30/12/2025

...possibly.. or perhaps just have a thermostat?

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Michael de Podesta @protons4b.bsky.social · 30/12/2025

protonsforbreakfast.wordpress.com/2025/12/30/w... Getting a heat pump often requires users to get to grips with so-called weather compensation. In this article I explain why Weather Compensation is possibly the worst temperature control system imaginable.

protonsforbreakfast.wordpress.com

Weather Compensation and its alternatives

Friends, when switching from a gas boiler to heating with a heat pump, householders are commonly obliged to get used to the idea of weather compensation (WC). Instead of the familiar act of setting…

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Michael de Podesta @protons4b.bsky.social · 10/11/2025

Yes, Elmhurst does need to acknowledge its own part in the poor use of EPCs. Basically EPCs as deployed now are not very accurate - because the basic task is not very simple. Elmhurst are obsessed with process, but the process itself has problems that Elmhurst need to address. M

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Michael de Podesta @protons4b.bsky.social · 10/11/2025

protonsforbreakfast.wordpress.com/2025/11/10/s... I have just a few days pointing my spectrometer at various lights sources around my home: The Sky; the Moon; a Candle; ... and many more and recording their spectra. Enjoy!

protonsforbreakfast.wordpress.com

Spectra

Friends, this week I been mainly pointing the spectrometer I bought at various sources of light and taking a look at their spectra. Please join me on a romp through my results. Warning. I love this…

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Michael de Podesta @protons4b.bsky.social · 06/11/2025

I used chromatography a couple of times while I worked at NPL, and what I learned is that being even semi-quantitative is quite hard. I've got a few more spectrometer experiments to try first, and then maybe I'll think about something more complicated! All the best Michael

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Michael de Podesta @protons4b.bsky.social · 05/11/2025

The spectrometer is incredible. There is so much physics to do - and so little time!

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Michael de Podesta @protons4b.bsky.social · 03/11/2025

protonsforbreakfast.wordpress.com/2025/11/03/i... Friends, I made spectrophotometer that sort of works.

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Michael de Podesta @protons4b.bsky.social · 22/10/2025

youtu.be/TysTr-G1k1A Kevin Walmsley talks about the growth of Arctic Sea Routes. The "Arctic Economy" appears to be a new geopolitical reality.

youtu.be

Ice Silk Road opens up vast Arctic to China and Russia. Western companies aren't interested.

YouTube video by Inside China Business

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Michael de Podesta @protons4b.bsky.social · 16/10/2025

youtu.be/7ka5OFDvO7w First container ship arrives in UK via Arctic Route, a faster and cheaper China-Europe alternative. I don't feel like celebrating.

youtu.be

First container ship arrives in UK via Arctic Route, a faster and cheaper China-Europe alternative

YouTube video by ShanghaiEye魔都眼

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Michael de Podesta @protons4b.bsky.social · 15/10/2025

youtu.be/PCUnlPJRGY4 I cannot recommend Kevin Walmsley's INSIDE CHINA BUSINESS strongly enough. I have learned more about modern China from these videos than any other source.

youtu.be

Top Venture Capitalists tour China, declare Western energy firms "uninvestable"

YouTube video by Inside China Business

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Michael de Podesta @protons4b.bsky.social · 13/10/2025

youtu.be/F8vI5_gN90g Interesting slow-paced documentary from @AJEnglish . Good consideration of risks of high-impact scenarios. "All the small countries that think that their contribution I insignificant add up to a third of global emissions"

youtu.be

Inside the planet’s most urgent climate warning | Global Warning E1 | Featured Documentary

YouTube video by Al Jazeera English

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Michael de Podesta @protons4b.bsky.social · 06/10/2025

I looked at that document but I need to read it again. The condensation efficiency specification makes sense, but I could not understand the energy efficiency specification at all. It didn't seem to mention the latent heat of water anywhere? That's nuts! I will read it again this morning

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Michael de Podesta @protons4b.bsky.social · 06/10/2025

Yes. In Experiment#2 the clothes weighed 7 grams less at the end than at the beginning. I am pretty sure that was due to entrained moisture - or different levels of dryness.

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Michael de Podesta @protons4b.bsky.social · 05/10/2025

That's interesting too! I may need to develop my measurement protocol!

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Michael de Podesta @protons4b.bsky.social · 05/10/2025

@wiilp.bsky.social Oh! Thanks for this information. I will attempt to process it all and get back to you!

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Michael de Podesta @protons4b.bsky.social · 05/10/2025

protonsforbreakfast.wordpress.com/2025/10/05/t... I made some measurements on the efficiency of my condenser tumble dryer. I found it was surprisingly efficient, with the most powerful energy saving feature being the "wetness: sensor that prevents "over drying".

protonsforbreakfast.wordpress.com

Tumble Dryer Efficiency

Friends, recently I have been continuing to avoid thinking about EPCs. I have instead been thinking about washing my dirty laundry in public. Or more precisely, drying my laundry in public. Unless …

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Michael de Podesta @protons4b.bsky.social · 05/10/2025

Wherever you go... there you are.

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Michael de Podesta @protons4b.bsky.social · 29/09/2025

protonsforbreakfast.wordpress.com/2025/09/29/b... Have you ever wondered how those automatic egg boilers work? I carried out some eggsperiments, recording: the mass of water remaining versus time; the time to switch off; and the internal temperature of an egg versus time. Enjoy!

protonsforbreakfast.wordpress.com

“Boiling” an egg

Friends, when my now wife and I first moved in together, we bought a cook book as a symbol of our domestic focus. It was a book by Delia Smith and we were attracted by the fact that the cover showe…

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Michael de Podesta @protons4b.bsky.social · 23/09/2025

youtu.be/IgSN8mM6IJM Can you imagine if renewable technologies generated earthquakes or toxic wastewater? How does oil and gas get away with it?

youtu.be

The Looming Disaster Under America’s Biggest Oil Field

YouTube video by Bloomberg Originals

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Michael de Podesta @protons4b.bsky.social · 19/09/2025

protonsforbreakfast.wordpress.com/2025/09/19/e... Elmhurst Energy trained the assessor and approved an #EPC on my home which was in error by 21 points (73C vs 94D). Errors like this are probably rare, but smaller errors of ~10 points are probably common. Here's 4 suggestions to improve matters.

protonsforbreakfast.wordpress.com

EPCs: An Open Letter to Stuart Fairlie

Friends, at one point on my recent EPC (Energy Performance Certificate) adventure, I was a speaker on Radio 4’s You and Yours along with Stuart Fairlie, the Group CEO of Elmhurst Energy. Elmh…

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Michael de Podesta @protons4b.bsky.social · 19/09/2025

soundcloud.com/dylanesque19... You are right. Here's a song I imagined singing in a few years time, but it already makes sense now. "I long for the long rainy summers I used to know in my youth Long cold rainy summers I wish you could know them too."

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Michael de Podesta @protons4b.bsky.social · 14/09/2025

Here's my month by month costs for the last 4 years and the annual carbon dioxide emissions. The yellow shows the avoided emissions from exported electricity.

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Michael de Podesta @protons4b.bsky.social · 12/09/2025

Typo: "Monopiles": very confusing!

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Michael de Podesta @protons4b.bsky.social · 04/09/2025

So at higher temperatures one would need to vacuum insulate using multiple reflector layers. Best wishes Michael

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Michael de Podesta @protons4b.bsky.social · 04/09/2025

If I recall, I just used standard thermal conductivity figures - probably looked up from The Engineering Toolbox. Thinking back to my working days 500 °C radiation is not that much of a problem in terms of radiative losses. But as one approaches 1000 °C materials like alumina become translucent.

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Michael de Podesta @protons4b.bsky.social · 04/09/2025

Yes. At the time this was touted as inter seasonal storage, but 100 MWh is not a great deal of heat considered in comparison with annual household heating demand of somewhere between 8 MWh and 16 MWh: it 6 to 12 dwellings.

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Michael de Podesta @protons4b.bsky.social · 04/09/2025

Sandy, Good Morning. Indeed. Here is perhaps the most extreme example of that principle, also in Finland. This uses water stored underground. The pressure 50 m underground is sufficient to suppress boiling and allow storage at 140 °C (IIRC). www.vantaanenergia.fi/en/about-us/...

vantaanenergia.fi

Varanto - The Cavern Thermal Energy Storage - Vantaan Energia

The World's Largest Cavern Thermal Energy Storage

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Michael de Podesta @protons4b.bsky.social · 01/09/2025

See also this astonishing underground thermal storage project in Finland using water. www.vantaanenergia.fi/en/about-us/...

vantaanenergia.fi

Varanto - The Cavern Thermal Energy Storage - Vantaan Energia

The World's Largest Cavern Thermal Energy Storage

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Michael de Podesta @protons4b.bsky.social · 01/09/2025

protonsforbreakfast.wordpress.com/2022/07/21/a... It's interesting to see how this project has developed. I wrote this article 3 years ago when it was being described as inter seasonal storage. In the article I look at the pros and cons of using water or sand for thermal storage.

protonsforbreakfast.wordpress.com

A Sand Battery: Not obviously a great idea.

Friends, a few weeks ago I was asked by several people whether I had heard about the latest ‘sand battery’? I had never heard of any such thing. Most people asking me had come across th…

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Michael de Podesta @protons4b.bsky.social · 31/08/2025

protonsforbreakfast.wordpress.com/2025/08/31/o... When discussing domestic energy matters such as heating or lighting, we think of a kilowatt hour as a small amount of energy. But in human terms, one kilowatt hour is a *massive* amount of energy.

protonsforbreakfast.wordpress.com

One kilowatt hour (kWh)

Friends, the unit of energy used for most domestic energy purposes is the kilowatt hour (kWh): it’s the unit in which we are billed for energy use, and in terms of domestic energy consumption…

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Michael de Podesta @protons4b.bsky.social · 11/08/2025

youtu.be/EqupcBoH3hQ The future of Green Shipping is still very unclear. In this video Rosie Barnes (the Rosie in 'Engineering with Rosie) goes through the possibilities with her usual acumen. It's a tough one...

youtu.be

The Green Shipping Fuel Everyone’s Betting On (But Might Regret)

YouTube video by Engineering with Rosie

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Michael de Podesta @protons4b.bsky.social · 09/08/2025

Will: Thanks for these comments. They are very helpful.

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Michael de Podesta @protons4b.bsky.social · 08/08/2025

I will confess to being a bit disappointed!

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Michael de Podesta @protons4b.bsky.social · 08/08/2025

Anyone who has to navigate this as part of their business has my sympathy. It seems to have - in practice - a very large element of randomness!

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Michael de Podesta @protons4b.bsky.social · 08/08/2025

protonsforbreakfast.wordpress.com/2025/08/08/e... Energy Performance Certificates are nonsense! My energy efficient house just got got downgraded from from am 85B to a 73C despite the fact that it only costs around £160 per year to run and has a heating requirement of 48 kWh/m^2/year.

protonsforbreakfast.wordpress.com

EPC fun

Friends, as you may know, my house has very low running costs. In 2024, total costs amounted to just £161 including standing charges and this year the cumulative charges up to the end of July are n…

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Michael de Podesta @protons4b.bsky.social · 07/08/2025

"The career I’ve had..." Allow me to add "... so far". I think it is not over yet!

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Michael de Podesta @protons4b.bsky.social · 27/07/2025

The problem is that the nature of most central heating circuits is unknown to a heat pump installer. Installing a low-loss header ensures that a heat pump will be compatible with just about any circuit. It allows installers to install with confidence in a wider range of older properties.

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