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John Ewbank

Writing on energy, heat pumps, engineering and economics, with the working shown.

How much do ACs increase the urban heat island effect?

Heat pumps

Environment

Air conditioners move heat rather than make it. A back-of-the-envelope energy budget for London shows how small the heat they add is next to the sunlight its roads and roofs absorb.

Interactive SCOP Analysis and Cost Comparison for Heating Systems

Heat pumps

Compare heating systems by their seasonal efficiency (SCOP): running cost, savings, payback and CO2, and what a heat pump saves at each SCOP against the system you have now.

Why won’t my air-to-air heat pump maintain a stable temperature?

Heat pumps

Many air-to-air (A2A) heat pumps struggle to maintain a stable room temperature because the temperature sensor is often found inside the wall-mounted indoor unit. This is usually high on the wall, and is prone to…

Why Nuclear Power Can and Will Get Cheaper

Energy

Building nuclear power stations in the West has become expensive, but the reasons for that expense are not intrinsic to nuclear power. Part of the problem is that the previous generation of reactors lasted so long…

Huel Review, Is It Worth It? + refer a friend code

Reviews

If you are here for the discount, use my referral code: REF-JOHNE636 or you can use REF-VICKYB1464 At the time of writing, this gives new UK customers £20 off their first order of £60 or more. I keep the current terms…

Does Passive Cooling Work?

Heat pumps

Introduction When it comes to overheating homes there seem to be two schools of thought. The first is that we should use passive cooling — preventing heat from getting in. The second is that air conditioning is better…

Robert Welch Radford Bright Cutlery Review + 15% Discount

Reviews

If you are here for the discount then use my referral link The link gives you 15% off orders over £75. A pop-up on the Robert Welch site adds the discount to your basket, so there’s no code to type. The details are on…

What uses more Electricity heating or Cooling?

Heat pumps

It is often assumed that running an air-to-air unit in cooling mode uses more electricity than running it in heating mode. Here in the UK, most air-to-air heat pumps are installed primarily as “air conditioning”, and…

It’s Time to Ban AirCon!

Heat pumps

Environment

Every year, when it gets hot, I think the same thing: it is time to ban single-hose portable air conditioners. (Yes, I’m boring like that.) This isn’t some crusade against air conditioning; quite the opposite. Cooling…

ProCook Professional Ice Cream Maker Review + 15% Discount

Reviews

In short Verdict: Yes, I’d recommend the ProCook Professional Ice Cream Maker, with a few caveats. It makes very good ice cream, is much more convenient than a freezer-bowl machine, and I think it is reasonable value…

A2A Heat Pump Compressor Modulation: Why Size Doesn’t Tell the Whole Story

Heat pumps

I was recently sent some very interesting real-world A2A (air-to-air) monitoring measurements from Daniel Lugosi. He has electricity monitors on a number of different heat pump brands, with his results corroborating…

Should You Get a Ceiling Fan (in the UK)

Heat pumps

Are ceiling fans actually worth it in the UK? Logically they make sense, but should more people install them? Here are my early thoughts on the Philips Olas: what works, what doesn’t, what it cost, and the installation…

Hydrogen Boilers: The NOx Problem Nobody Mentions

Energy

Environment

There’s a push in the UK, by some industries, to replace methane in the gas grid with hydrogen. Proponents claim it is clean, easy to produce, and CO₂ free, with nothing but clean water vapour released. Ignoring, for a…

Is Balcony Solar Worth It?

Energy

The UK government has announced balcony solar will be legal and available in shops soon, so I thought: is it actually worth it? The only way to really answer that is to look at my historical energy usage and how much…

ProCook Elite Tri-Ply Pans Review (2026): 6 Months later + 15% Discount

Reviews

If you are here for the discount then use my referral link or just type J Ewbank into the referred by box In short The discount is for new ProCook customers and needs a £30 minimum spend. It can’t be combined with…

What Stainless Steel Pans should I buy? Which pans I purchased and Why.

Reviews

It’s fair to say that buying anything in the UK now is a mission. Most reviews seem like nonsense, marketing, or spam – and even companies like the BBC are taking revenue from selling products. See “BBC Good Food”…

Why Higher Fan Speeds Improve Air to Air Heat Pump Efficiency

Heat pumps

Higher fan speeds make your air-to-air heat pump more efficient. But why? What is the connection between moving air faster over the indoor coil and the compressor doing less work? Most people know that lower flow…

An Update on Air to Air Monitoring - Refrigerant Temps

Heat pumps

This project is occurring on someone else’s air-to-air heat pump. They very kindly (and very very foolishly) let me take it apart and faff around with it. As I have to travel to it, each visit is a learning process.…

The Business Case for Nothing: Carbon Capture’s Manufactured Value

Environment

Energy

The mental inertia that grips the brains of carbon capture proponents has induced such a potent gravitational force that they risk sucking the rest of society into a black hole of lunacy with them. You wouldn’t pay for…

Underfloor Heating for a Suspended Timber Floor - on a budget

Heat pumps

Recently, a friend of mine asked for some help with an underfloor heating system. He was renovating the property that he was planning on moving into and had received a quote of £15,000 for a system installation…

Three Dimensional Pressure Enthalpy graphs

Heat pumps

Science & tech

Understanding refrigerants is difficult enough without having to look at charts like these It’s not that these charts are inherently bad, they are extremely useful once you know what you are looking at. But getting to…

Making Animations with Manim - My First Try

Science & tech

Like many people, I have long been a fan of 3blue1brown’s videos, so when he put out a ‘how to’ for the Manim animation library he built in mid 2024, I put a placeholder in my mind, with the goal of having a go when I…

Heat Loss Calculations: A Practical Approach

Heat pumps

Heat loss calculations are a bit of a faff. They involve lots of measuring and lots of assumptions. The most notable of which are the U-values of walls and windows. This is because not all walls are created equal and…

Monitoring the Performance of an Air-to-Air Heat Pump System

Heat pumps

Six temperature probes and two power clamps on a Mitsubishi MSZ-LN35 air-to-air heat pump: how I estimated its heat output, and the COP it achieved from 7 February to 4 March 2025.

How to Make Heat-pump Installs Cheaper by Deleting the most Expensive part - The Plumber or F-gas engineer.

Heat pumps

A concept for an outdoor only Air-to-Air Heat-pump Recently, I’ve been thinking about all-in-one heat pumps like the Panasonic RAC Solo and the electriQ iQool. I experienced the latter while on holiday in France. These…

The Joy and Challenges of Insulation

Heat pumps

Insulating a Roof Space: Lessons Learned Recently, I have been involved in a project where I’ve been picking up the pieces of something done in the wrong order. Essentially, a hole in a roof was made and an internal…

Art in the AI Era: The Nature of Artistic Value

Ideas

A belief is an idea with an emotion attached – John Ewbank 2017 Last year, I gave a keynote speech at Art-house-life https://www.art-house-life.com/ewbank-2024 on the Isle of Wight about the nature of AI-generated art.…

Living with an Air-to-Air Heat Pump: Installation and Testing Notes

Heat pumps

I installed an air-to-air heat pump for a friend and lived in their house for 10 days during winter. I wanted to understand its cold weather performance, limitations, and optimal use cases. Here are my findings. First…

Understanding the True Costs of Future Renewable Energy Generation in the UK

Energy

Economics

Are Renewables Cheap or Expensive? The narrative surrounding renewable energy costs has become increasingly important as we transition toward a low-carbon future. Many sources, including respected energy analysts…

What is the cheapest way to heat your home? My £2000 heatpump install.

Heat pumps

Why I Chose an Air-to-Air Heat Pump Earlier this year, a friend asked me to help with their heating problem. Their system was expensive, inefficient, and irritating. They were relying on old electric resistive…

The United Kingdom’s Zero Carbon Economy Target: Unintended Consequences of Coal Power Station Closures

Energy

Economics

Introduction The United Kingdom has set an ambitious target to achieve a zero-carbon economy by 2050, positioning itself at the forefront of global climate action. Central to this strategy is the phased closure of coal…

The Forgotten Water Meadows: How Their Loss Contributes to Increased Flooding in the UK

Environment

The United Kingdom has seen a rise in flooding incidents over recent decades. While climate change and urban development are commonly cited causes, the decline of traditional water management systems, particularly…

Monetary Financing: The Solution to Government Spending Pressures

Economics

Introduction Governments today face immense pressures to fund essential infrastructure and public services. Traditional financing methods like taxation and borrowing have proven inadequate, leading to escalating public…

Rebalancing Society through Asset-Scaled Interest Rates: A Fair Approach to Lending

Economics

Introduction In today’s Britain, economic inequality and housing affordability stand as towering challenges that define our era. The wealth gap has widened dramatically, with the richest 1% owning nearly half of global…

Checklists: Are All You Need

Science & tech

Introduction The emergence of Large Language Models (LLMs) has sparked extensive experimentation with prompt engineering techniques. While traditional methods like declaring expertise or implementing reflection prompts…

A Tool for Analysing Home Heating Systems

Heat pumps

I’ve recently developed a Heating System Analysis Tool to help homeowners make informed decisions about their heating systems. This tool compares different heating options based on cost, energy efficiency, and…

Heat Pump Impact on UK Electricity Grid

Heat pumps

Energy

Introduction and Project Objective As the UK attempts to decarbonise heating, load will shift from the gas grid to the electricity grid. Since the efficiency of heat pumps is dependent on many variables, it is…

Heat Pump Electricity Usage Prediction Model - 10 year

Heat pumps

Energy

Introduction and Project Objective The primary aim of my project was to create a comprehensive heat pump electricity usage dataset for grid modellers. This work is crucial for understanding and predicting energy…

Contracts for Difference Cost Comparison

Energy

What every UK Contract for Difference has cost so far: payments and strike prices for all CfD wind farms, solar parks and biomass plants, from LCCC data, updated October 2026.

Can You Really Run the UK on Renewables?

Energy

Which is cheaper for the UK, nuclear or renewable generation? A study using GRIDSai, a grid model built on 2017 to 2023 weather and demand data, with heat pump and electric vehicle demand added for 2035.

The Truth Behind UK’s High Inflation

Economics

The Illusion of Inflation: A Critical Look at Economic Policy In the UK, everyone prays at the “temple of inflation,” but few truly understand what inflation actually is. The number that people often associate with the…

Emotional Priming and Collective Conditioning: The Power of Group Dynamics in Shaping Reactions and Beliefs

Ideas

The Social Nature of Human Emotions As inherently social beings, people possess a strong inclination to adapt their reactions and behaviours to align with their peer groups, particularly within tightly-knit social…

Shades of Judgment: The Subjectivity of Perception and Evaluation

Ideas

Judging is an inherent part of our lives, almost second nature. Every day, we constantly evaluate our surroundings and make choices: deciding on the most nourishing meal, selecting the optimal time for exercise…

Inherent Paradoxes in Human Morality and Judgment: A Closer Examination

Ideas

We, as humans, have shaped our world, setting the standards of what we deem right and wrong. These moral constructs, however, are often detached from the broader context of the universe. This divergence ushers in a…

The Evolution of Inventions and the Time Consumption Paradox

Ideas

The primary objective of historical inventions was to alleviate human effort and save time. But with the advent of digital technology, this dynamic seems to be reversing. Many contemporary inventions and digital…

The Intriguing Hypothesis of Simulation Theory

Ideas

There is an intriguing discourse suggesting that we might be living in a simulation. The crux of this theory is that if a highly advanced civilization were to exist, it might conduct countless simulations of the…

The Intriguing Psychology of Ownership and Value Attribution

Ideas

Human beings, in all our complex individuality, tend to ascribe greater worth to the objects within our possession compared to those owned by others. This pattern of thought prompts an intriguing question – could the…

How the Regulated Asset Base model works - New Nuclear Power-stations UK

Energy

Economics

Imagine that you had joined a scheme with friends, each of you had decided that you would pay the money to a construction company to build a house. Once the house is completed you might think that you get a share of…

Why the Rich are getting Richer

Economics

How Central Banks and Bureaucrats Destroyed the Global Financial System Why are the rich getting richer? If you are reading this, I’m sure you have your opinions on why the rich are getting richer. You might feel…

What public transport should look like.

Transport

British public transportation faces significant challenges. High-cost trains and slow buses often make cars the preferred mode of transport, offering door-to-door convenience, flexible schedules, and ample luggage…

Does the environment alter which of our genes are expressed?

Science & tech

Is the Internet induced victim mentality altering the youth’s epigenetics? A few decades ago, we also believed that our genes were inalterable. This appears to be true – except via changes caused by mutation and…

Why weather forecasts suck.

Science & tech

“Nothing is independent, the entire world is connected which every event influencing each other. The world is a giant chaotic non-linear system.” I wrote this a few years ago the core of it is correct. However, due to…

The environmental cost of biofuels

Environment

Energy

Our world has a problem. Laws are written by elected officials don’t examine their 2nd and 3rd order consequences. Promoting the use of biofuels is a pristine example of our politician’s inability to think beyond the…

Drax Power Station Burns over 150 Square Miles of Forest Each Year.

Energy

Environment

Each year British taxpayers are paying Drax £321.5 million to burn forests – including those in the Amazon basin. In 2018 Drax received £321.5 million [John1] in subsidies for burning wood to generate electricity. The…

Musing on the future of mass transit.

Transport

Transporation in the 21st century. Size The major problem with adding any new transportation system is cost. Cost is typically driven by size. Therefore, the first step in creating a better transportation system is to…

The Divisiveness of Language.

Ideas

Language is often perceived as definitive, with a word’s definition being its sole meaning. However, this is not always the case. People can interpret the same word differently, just as they can perceive the same event…

The Lost Geniuses

Ideas

I sit staring at a beige sofa, as I glance away its geometrical palm leave pattern imprints a mottle purple haze on my vision. I’m thinking of the hours I’ve wasted. The hours we have all wasted. Time lost drifting…

Who Killed the Hydrogen Car?

Transport

Energy

I wrote this last year. I maintain the opinion that a car using hydrogen fuel cells won’t be mass-produced. However, owing to solid oxide fuel cells and an abundance of excess renewable energy it might be useful as…

Ferroelectrics, Negative Capacitance, and the Future of Transistors

Science & tech

Ferroelectrics, Negative Capacitance and the Future of Transistors The IT industry pumps out 2 percent of global CO 2 emissions, a figure on par with aviation. That equates to around 7 percent of the world’s…

How much electricity EVs in North America will use.

Transport

Energy

How Much Electricity Will EVs Require? Electric vehicles (EVs) are the future of transportation. The UK, France and Netherlands will ban internal combustion engine vehicle (ICEV) sales by 2040; China is likely to…

Tesla Semis: Charging Ahead

Transport

Tesla Semis: Charging Ahead Finally, Tesla has revealed its Semi, but much speculation still surrounds it, primarily about the battery. In this article, I hope to provide some insight into how they can build such a…

The Tipping Point for Electric Vehicle Charging

Transport

Energy

The Tipping Point for Electric Vehicle Charging (Image courtesy of Håkan Dahlström.) Most of us hate wasting time-or, more accurately, feeling like we’re spending it. We get annoyed waiting for web pages to load, for…

A Scarce Site

If you are here, then you have probably seen my published work and wanted to learn more. If you wish to commission me please email john@johnewbank.co.uk