Power

Been without the underfloor heating for 2 days now. The air-source heat pump keeps tripping with a U1 error code, which signifies something to do with the water flow being amiss. Bit of a bugger, but there's a separate immersion heater, which is usually only used to boost the water temperature up to 60 degrees once a week to kill bacteria. It at least gives us domestic hot water until the engineer can come to fix the problem.

We also have the log burner and can filch some logs from Hay's dad. Not the most ecologically sound source of heat, but it was only ever a backup for this type of situation and has been lit just 3 times in 6 years. It was strange getting used to radiant heat from a single source, rather than simply having a warm floor and even, enveloping warmth from the underfloor heating.

The smoke stack is exposed, right through to the top of the house, enabling us to capture the maximum amount of heat from the gasses before they pop out at the top. Keeps both downstairs and upstairs snug.

Talking of power, here's an interesting statistic:

The present human race produces about 5.6*10²⁰ Joules of energy each year. This is, on average, 1.75*10¹³ J/s, or watts. This is a lot of energy; 13,000 times more energy than the solar radiation that hits the Earth's surface every square klom, and 37,000 times more than the average nuclear power plant produces.

I don't really believe climate science deniers actually deny the science. They know anthropological warming is a fact - they'd have to be pretty dense not to believe it - they are merely looking for an excuse to do nothing, relying on the fact that those with a social conscience will do what needs doing and taking any financial hit. They're OK with individuals doing their bit, but hate the prospect of them being taxed to achieve the result faster. Essentially they're selfish shits.

Stop press: discovered this morning that the immersion heater indeed warms heats the underfloor heating tank as well as the domestic supply, hence there was no need for the wood burner after all. It just means we're using an expensive system to heat the water, rather than the air-source system.