Doug Bamford
@dougbamford
Teach adults - sign up! Political Philosophy, justice and taxation. Author of Rethinking Taxation (2014). Also interested in leisure/work, climate change ethics, energy transition, public policy.
I like it that friends, relatives and neighbours ask my advice about their solar installs, heat pumps and EVs. I've gone through the learning processes. But I also retained an interest and follow developments. I guess that is obvious to everyone!
Who knew that Trump and the Iranians wouldn't be able to get along nicely? Everyone ordered their Solar, EV and batteries yet?
Often products improve through iterations over a long period, which makes them go from niche and expensive applications to mass-adoption. Solar panels have been around for 60 years but have only become a game-changer in the last few years. Lithium batteries 40 years but only just got cheap.
How do we still have climate science deniers in 2026? Blog in which I express my dismay that there are actual humans who still spout obvious nonsense to avoid the necessary climate action. It is basically a nonsense conspiracy theory at this point. dougstaxappeal.blogspot.com/2026/07/how-...
This week is a good example of why we need a lot of solar (3x what we have) and loads of batteries. We could be running on solar rn, though we can't rely on it in December. Solar and wind complement each other pretty well, but the UK certainly can't rely on just one alone.
Put the heat pump on hot water boost so I can sit in front of it and get cooled down. What a relief! Window is open so it is coooling myself and the house down while heating our water up.
If you haven't got/ordered solar panels and an EV yet, what on earth are you doing?
This evening I attended a showing of the UK climate National Emergency Briefing film at my local Sustainability group Sustainable Didcot. I thought it was a very powerful film and recommend everyone to go and watch it. It explains why climate change is such a monumental issue. (1/3)
Here are the climate stripes for Reading, where I grew up and now live about 20 miles away from. Clearly we have been warming the world and are continuing to do so by pumping out CO2 and methane. Find the stripes for your area here... @myzerocarbon.org #netzero showyourstripes.info/s/europe/uni...
I'm always going on about how great solar is, but here is why. Our energy bill from Octopus is minus £43.65. I.e. that is a credit on our account we can use to get through the winter. That includes all our home EV charging as well. #solar
Aldi so confident these days that they are advertising that their price increases aren't as much as everyone else's.
Fossil fuels (gas) is currently only 3.9% of GB electricity. We can do better! #energytransition #netzero
If you know someone with a long commute who is struggling to pay their fuel costs (and has a driveway on which to charge it) this ex-taxi could be a good buy to save them serious money! Battery should be good for another 80k miles at least.
Sheffield Wednesday just need to draw their final three games and they will be at zero! Also not looking good for Leicester and Oxford Utd.
We're getting closer people. More and more wind and solar all the time. #netzero
Saw @anniedressner.bsky.social last night, supported by Sean Duggan, who joined her for some songs. Lovely stuff.
Gas meter removed. Relieved to be off gas now we have a heat pump. Will save £100 a year just to be connected to it. FYI - that service charge will increase the more people abandon gas. #Netzero @myzerocarbon.org
Flying visit to Manchester to see the mighty Forest. (didn't fly though) COYR
Latest energy bill is in. With the #heatpump we are buying more electricity. £33 overall (import + less export). However, our gas bill for the same month last year £70. Essentially our heating costs seem to have halved. Making use of that solar, battery and EV tariff. Pretty happy with that!
Our first January heat pump stats are in and they are impressive. COP of 4.65. That means for every unit of electricity we got 4.65 units of heat. Mostly provided from cheap overnight electric or our own solar energy. Looking to be much cheaper than our gas boiler was.💪
So far today (late November), our heat pump has provided over 5x the heat by taking it from the environment than the amount of electricity we have put into it. Bad news if you are a fossil fuel company
Photo of our #heatpump running for the first time this afternoon. It has been sipping cheap-rate electricity stored in our home battery and borrowing heat from the environment for us. @myzerocarbon.org #netzero