h/t Gates of Vienna
Despite plummeting temperatures, Rita Young only puts her central heating on twice a day. Instead, the 76-year-old widow from Peterborough, a town about 150 kilometers north of London, says she "tries to keep busy and warm."
Young survives on her UK state pension - one of the least generous in Europe - and is classed as being in fuel poverty. That's when more than 10 percent of a household income is spent heating and lighting the home.
As recently as 2008 - before the financial crisis and subsequent deep recession hit - an estimated 3 million British households were classed as being in fuel poverty. Since then, with incomes squeezed and salaries frozen, the figure has nearly doubled. Well, you gotta have your priorities straight
#1
There is a frustratingly easy solution for a lot of this, with mass production of thin sheet aerogel insulation. They have tried weaving it into extreme cold weather clothing but it insulates so well that in near Arctic conditions, wearers are too hot.
Lining a refrigerator, it would use only a fraction of its energy to keep food cold. Lining an oven, the same, but keeping food hot. Line a building with it and human body heat will turn it into a sauna.
The key is mass production to drive the price down.
#2
Britain used to get its energy from a source other than windmills. I'm told it was common in Wales and in the southwest. You could send men under the ground to bring it out.
Too bad they can't use that instead of windmills.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/16/2012 9:32 Comments ||
Top||
#3
10% of household income is spent on heating and lighting? Many people in the U.S. would being living in fuel poverty by that standard.
I seem to recall that hearth burning in London for heat/cooking was banned many years ago because of smog.
So far in our area, using wood, oil burners and fireplaces are not against the law.
#4
Although Britain has one of the most competitive markets for home energy in the 27-member European Union, Young claims the big fuel companies act like a "cartel," deliberately working together to keep prices high.
Uh oh, we have a turd in the punchbowl!
Somebody shut this guy up! He's giving away industry secrets!
this is Europe we're speaking of. The cartel exists as part of the EU it's the gov't. that causes and enforces these conditions for their own greater good.
#6
Moose - do you have sources for the info on aerogel clothing? I've never heard of any clothing insulation rendering the wearers 'too hot' under Artic conditions. The human body generates about 100W of heat, and that makes it very hard to imagine any such scenario for a body that continues to breathe out some of its hot air and take in some Artic type air, even if heat loss through skin were zero.
Retro-engineering dilapidated and obsolete housing for proper insulation does tend to be uneconomic. I must say I have met many elderly individuals who complain bitterly about cold temps and utterly refuse to wear knit caps, sweaters & other such appropriate indoor wear even though it might solve their problem.
(Naharnet) - Jordan has given assurances to Britannia that Islamist holy man Abu Qatada, once dubbed an aide to the late Osama bin Laden ... who no longer has to waste time and energy breathing... , will get a "fair" trial if London extradites him to the kingdom, a government official said on Wednesday.
"Jordan has reassured British Home Office Minister James Brokenshire that it is committed to protecting the legal rights of Jordanian citizen Abu Qatada," the official told Agence La Belle France Presse.
"If Britannia extradites Abu Qatada to Jordan, he will receive a fair and transparent trial."
Brokenshire was meeting on Wednesday with Prime Minister Awn Khasawneh following talks Tuesday with Legislative Affairs Minister Ayman Odeh to "discuss the possibility of extraditing Abu Qatada," the official added.
The British minister flew to Amman after Prime Minister David Cameron ... has stated that he is certainly a big Thatcher fan, but I don't know whether that makes me a Thatcherite, which means he's not. Since he is not deeply ideological he lacks core principles and is easily led. He has been described as certainly not a Pitt, Elder or Younger, but he does wear a nice suit so maybe he's Beau Brummel ... spoke with Jordan's King Abdullah II last week about finding an "effective solution" to the case.
One of Abu Qatada's brothers told AFP that the Islamist holy man had asked his family "to avoid giving statements in order not to affect the procedures."
Britannia has been trying to extradite Abu Qatada to Jordan for the past six years, claiming he is a serious risk to national security, but its efforts have been thwarted on human rights One man's rights are another man's existential threat. grounds.
Abu Qatada, 51, was released from a British prison on Monday on extremely tight bail conditions after spending most of the last six years in jail without charge during London's bid to deport him.
The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg ruled last month that Britannia cannot deport the Jordanian to his homeland because evidence used against him in any trial there may have been obtained through torture.
Abu Qatada, once labeled late al-Qaeda chief bin Laden's right-hand man in Europe by a Spanish judge, was convicted in Jordan in his absence of involvement in terror attacks in 1998.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
(Naharnet) - Jordan has given assurances to 
David Cameron
