Alan Clarke

@alanclarke.bsky.social

1.7K followers 310 following 560 posts

Energy & buildings engineer, Passivhaus, mountain biker, veg gardener/rewilder

Videos

Political science 27%

Sociology 24%

Posts Replies Media Videos

Alan Clarke @alanclarke.bsky.social · 8h

Radio, for sure
Loudspeaker down below TV

Alan Clarke @alanclarke.bsky.social · 8h

Quite - also, selfishly, it's safer and nicer to live somewhere where other people can afford a similar life, and shops and businesses all make a decent living too

Reposted by Jonathan Portes, Alan Clarke, Michael H. Whitworth

Zoë Grünewald @zoegrunewald.bsky.social · 12h

The "don't have an extra kid if you can't afford it" brigade get awfully upset when you suggest they don't stay in their £2m house if they can't afford it, don't they?

Alan Clarke @alanclarke.bsky.social · 15h

Just came across this presentation by @glynhudson.bsky.social of heat pump performance monitoring comparing self monitored installs with those on electricification of heat trial - great insight into what makes heat pumps perform well, and how to fix systems that don't
www.youtube.com/watch?v=SiHt...

Optimising Heat Pump Performance: Insights from HeatPumpMonitor Data

YouTube video by OpenEnergyMonitor

www.youtube.com

Alan Clarke @alanclarke.bsky.social · 21h

Quite - straight off the bat with two different sob stories in one post!

Alan Clarke @alanclarke.bsky.social · 1d

Oops better read it now!

Alan Clarke @alanclarke.bsky.social · 1d

Well I hope they aren't relying on those votes as I think they're mainly going to the green party

Alan Clarke @alanclarke.bsky.social · 2d

A friend of mine did this - worked well - and the cat liked to sit in it watching what was going on outside

Reposted by Alan Clarke

Sean Hood @snhd.co · 2d

They can, but need to be correctly sized (others have already mentioned that). However, I think the gist of the article is: Fabric measures provide comfort; heat pumps provide heat; there's way more to comfort than just heat.

Alan Clarke @alanclarke.bsky.social · 5d

That's good. We had similar switching from gas. Heat pump COP is often worse than expected so I fitted a heat meter to monitor this - turns out it was fine.

However I also found the gas boiler had probably been at least 10% less efficient than claimed

Reposted by Alan Clarke

OpenEnergyMonitor @openenergymon.bsky.social · 8d

Do you have a heat pump on HeatPumpMonitor.org? If so, we need your help to compile real-world maximum output test data. Watch the video below for how to contribute. There should be some cold temperatures tonight and tomorrow. Thanks! ❄️ 🤞

Reposted by Steve Peers, Alison Phipps, Alan Clarke , and 1 more Steve Peers, Alison Phipps, Alan Clarke, James Connelly

Tanja Bueltmann @tanjabueltmann.net · 9d

Tried to get this published but no luck, so might as well ‘publish’ it here so it’s not a complete waste!

➡️ Stripping rights from refugees today endangers us all tomorrow

#asylum #Mahmood #history #humanrights

Stripping rights from refugees today endangers us all tomorrow

When I was 13, I visited a Nazi concentration camp for the first time, confronting my country’s dark history always—and rightly—a bedrock in my growing up.

One image from that visit has stayed with me ever since: a display of prisoners’ personal possessions.

It revealed a world in which those imprisoned were stripped not only of their freedom but of the last tangible traces of their humanity. That systematic erasure was the most important precondition for murdering millions.

Now, as a historian, I know that history does not flow into the present in a straight line, and direct comparisons are rarely appropriate. They certainly are not here.

But history is the one compass humanity has. Too often we choose to ignore it.

The Home Secretary’s proposals for changes to the UK’s asylum system represent such a moment of failure.

Yet the most troubling aspect of Labour’s frantic efforts to appear tough on immigration is not even the historical echoes that taking refugees’ possessions invokes. It is that cost recovery is not the real purpose of the rationale behind it.

The true aim is to appeal to a particular audience—those who take satisfaction in seeing people seeking refuge deprived of what little they have.

It is hard to imagine a more troubling approach to policymaking, and that becomes even clearer when we consider the Home Secretary’s proposals in context.

As of June 2025, there were 42.5 million refugees globally. Over 70% are hosted by low- and middle-income countries. The UK hosts 548,000 refugees; that is 0.78% of the UK population. Around 110,000 people are in receipt of asylum support; that is 0.15% of the UK population.

It is unconscionable that such a small and vulnerable population can be targeted with deliberate cruelty and weaponised for assumed political gain.

And that is all this will ever be. The core miscalculation is believing that adopting these positions will neutralise Reform.

Both historical knowledge and current research show the opposite. Mainstreaming extremist policies legitimises them further and aids only the original. Each step towards Reform’s territory simply gives Reform more power.

But our political discourse has been so degraded over the last decade that many no longer even recognise policies—or the language that frames them—as extreme.

That is how the Home Secretary can speak so casually of desperate people seeking sanctuary as recipients of a ‘golden ticket’ as though the context is Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory rather than countries torn apart by war and starved by famine.

Speak of her ‘moral mission’ to withdraw support, alleging that ‘illegal migration is tearing our country apart.’ And warn of ‘dark forces stirring up anger,’ oblivious to her own role: from the use of blurry, dehumanising images of refugees to spread falsehoods about their impact on communities, to the equally false description of refugee movements as illegal migration.

I suggest the Home Secretary find a mirror if she is keen to understand who is helping turn anger into hate.

Because it is the mainstreaming of far-right talking points that the Home Secretary’s proposals represent that is really tearing our country apart.

For when a policy looks like the far right, speaks to the far right and is hailed by the far right as being far right, it is far right. There is a reason Stephen Yaxley-Lennon is jubilant and speaks of ‘the Overton window having been obliterated.’

This makes a mockery of the Prime Minister’s recent comments on the urgent need to tackle racism. But it also raises alarming questions about the impact this will have on communities around the country, many of which are already deeply divided.

The proposed policies will do nothing for these struggling communities, because their problems simply do not stem from people seeking sanctuary with us. In fact: for as long as politicians focus on immigrants and refugees as the cause of our problems, they will fail to deliver for the British people.

But it is important to grasp the impact of the Home Secretary’s proposals as they carry broader consequences for all of us.

Suggestions for changes to how the European Convention on Human Rights is applied are particularly concerning. Requiring judges to prioritise ‘public safety’—falsely implying refugees pose a threat—would qualify human rights for a specific group.

And once one accepts that human rights can be qualified for one group, one creates tools that can be used against anyone.

So what these proposals really mean goes far beyond asylum policy. This is about the kind of country we will have in the future. If human rights are no longer universal, they become a means for exclusion and control.

That is why stripping rights from refugees today can only enable a system that endangers all our rights tomorrow.

And that is why our historical compass matters and why we have to use it now. Because that compass tells us without doubt that when first they come for one group that is never where it ends.

Alan Clarke @alanclarke.bsky.social · 9d

my nature-friendly gardening technique uncovered!

Alan Clarke @alanclarke.bsky.social · 11d

Typical Audi driver - just park in middle of road

Alan Clarke @alanclarke.bsky.social · 13d

When people still have a £10k+ bill to replace a boiler with a heat pump it doesnt feel like you're getting a free handout - cos you're not

The money is really going to building installer businesses, the grant level has been tweaked to the amount at which this adds up for businesses

Alan Clarke @alanclarke.bsky.social · 14d

Tapering makes sense to me

I was struck by Reeve's statement that BUS was a subsidy to the homeowner, when really it goes to installer - it's not cheap training technicians, learning new regs and calculation methods, buying new kit etc - not exactly a mature market yet

Alan Clarke @alanclarke.bsky.social · 15d

It's quite likely a lot more than 5% dont agree with govt policy as not far or fast enough, but most understand how to answer pollster questions

Alan Clarke @alanclarke.bsky.social · 18d

If that's a similar % of your cost/mile then it's not equivalent since the ICE needs around 4x as much energy/mile

- the ICE AC is powered by a petrol generator and the EV one is direct electric

Also I guess there's compromise fixing AC compressor to engine revs vs responding directly to AC load

Alan Clarke @alanclarke.bsky.social · 21d

So I don't know what really matters to other people, but minimising upfront cost maybe isn't such a bad approach

Alan Clarke @alanclarke.bsky.social · 21d

Sure - and more incentives for people who can't charge on own elec connection.

I just roughly checked my EV costs per mile over 2 yrs and they are depreciation: 40p, install charger: 2p (cost over 10 years), off peak elec: 2p, some long trip fast charging: 2p, servicing 3p

Alan Clarke @alanclarke.bsky.social · 21d

It seems not hard: charge all cars the same rate - wouldn't need to be so high now but could increase over time

Alan Clarke @alanclarke.bsky.social · 24d

"deathtrap" - wishful thinking?

Reposted by Lesley A. Hall, Alan Clarke

Stephen Collins @stephencollins.bsky.social · 27d

If you're a National Trust member, it's that time of year again: Midnight tonight is the deadline. It's a shame people have to keep doing this to keep a toehold on historical truth in this country, but here we are. Voting link: www.nationaltrust.org.uk/who-we-are/a...

[Scene is the entrance cabin to a NATIONAL TRUST PROPERTY AND GARDENS]

1
NATIONAL TRUST EMPLOYEE [inside cabin]:

Hello there

2
[A young family - two parents two kids - have arrived at the front desk].

DAD:

Hi - do you have an activity trail, for the kids?

3
NT EMPLOYEE:

Of course – you’re just in time for the Autumn Gammon Trail!

4
MUM:
That sounds fun, doesn’t it kids?

5
NT EMPLOYEE [handing an activity sheet and pencils to the kids]:

Every autumn, the Reform Trust gammons flock back to the National Trust for the AGM. Just follow the trail round the grounds, and see how many you can spot!

6
NT EMPLOYEE [hearing something in the gardens]:

Listen - that's their call

[Calls emanating from the landscape]:

tut-tut
woke-woke

7
NT EMPLOYEE [showing the family an apparently empty fenced enclosure with some bushes in]:

They are extremely sensitive and fragile...
But you can bring them out of hiding if you put a little sign down mentioning slavery.

8
KIDS [pointing]:
There they are!

[Some little red faced PEOPLE wearing Barbour jackets and gilets emerge cautiously from the bushes. They are creeping towards a TINY SIGN in the middle of the enclosure].

[Little people noises]:
woke-woke
tut-tut
woke-woke

9
[Close-up of the TINY SIGN - we can read that it says]:

Slavery had a bit to do with building this massive house.

[Noises from the little people again as they inspect the tiny sign]:

tut-tut
woke-woke

10
MUM [pointing]:
What's that one doing there?

NT EMPLOYEE:
Oh, that's so sweet…

11
[We see that one of the people is sat on a rock, with a little laptop open on a tree stump, and they are furiously typing away].

NT EMPLOYEE:
I think he's writing a column for the Daily Telegraph…

12
[We see close up to the little person’s screen, it is a word document reading]:

Are National Trust scones secretly WOKE?

[ends]

Reposted by Anna O. Law, Rebecca Solnit, Jonathan A. Eisen , and 23 more Anna O. Law, Rebecca Solnit, Jonathan A. Eisen, Erich Fromm, Euan G. Ritchie, Peter Murphy, Scott L. Greer, Steven French, Leigh Sparks, Cathy N. Davidson, Alan Clarke, David S. Cohen, Alan Richardson, R. M. Wilson, Laura Huenneke, Gerald Friedman, Robert B. Reich, Kate A. Ratliff, Els Torreele, Michael H. Whitworth, Anne Norton, Henry Jones, Sue Timmis, Nathan P. Kalmoe, Colin Woodard, Peter Bergman

Bookshop.org @bookshop.org · 28d

Amazon is helping fund a $300 million build of a ballroom for the White House.

Independent bookstores are donating to food banks and organizations that help with food insecurity.

They are not the same.

Alan Clarke @alanclarke.bsky.social · Oct 28

This is making heat pumps a harder sell: additional renewables infrastructure costs added to electricity bill which have effect of reducing the gas price more than elec!

Alan Clarke @alanclarke.bsky.social · Oct 23

I live in a rural area & most folk have no problem using EVs. In nearest town would be harder for some in older houses with onstreet parking but we now have at least a dozen 230v chargers in carparks

Alan Clarke @alanclarke.bsky.social · Oct 23

My bladder has about a third of the range of my EV

Alan Clarke @alanclarke.bsky.social · Oct 23

Has anyone got a ballpark figure of how much of our elec bill goes to crown estate for offshore windfarm rental?

Reposted by Alan Clarke

Dr. Aaron Thierry @thierryaaron.bsky.social · Oct 23

Recently, we switched out the old wood stove in our house for an electric one.

✅️ Heats room quickly
✅️ Not killing my neighbours
✅️ Still hygge
✅️ No ashes to clean

Win, win, win, win 🏆

Alan Clarke @alanclarke.bsky.social · Oct 22

Is it because thats how long it takes to talk mcsweeny round from wanting to make it labour policy asap?

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