Posts by James Green
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Thanks for the pannier suggestions everyone. When I get back later in the year I will definitely check those. I picked a pannier that doubles as a satchel that seemed like a great design, but turned out to be a turkey. Basically the attachment mechanism was removal (for satchel use), but it turned out that it was the attachment's attachment that failed, typically with a decent bump. The other thing I was considering was a rear basket, because I wondered if I should just strap my backpack into that. I haven't gone wholesale pannier, because I'm a mixed mode commuter, and would prefer not to have to switch bags on days that I walk.
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My commute to work is 3.8km. Being Dunedin, getting to work is largely down hill. I wear my work clothes. I have not worn a full suit, but frequently wear a suit jacket, shirt etc. In winter, I add gloves and a ground effect jacket for windproofing. Takes me about 9min, and although about half the route is on the flat, I aim not to break a sweat.
Going home is an entirely different endeavour. It's a 100m+ vertical climb, and I take a slightly longer route (~4.2km), which is a bit gentler grade, and the roads are a bit quieter. I have 'normal' shorts and a ground effect top to get home. Takes 18-22 min depending, and pretty damn hot by the end of it. Have experimented with panniers, but have struggled to find any that stay on well enough for me to be confident for my laptop.
Also, if you are taking the normal clothes route, I can't recommend enough investing in some old style trouser clips. Conveniently, quilters apparently love them, and I got mine from a quilting supplier on trade me!
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Hard News: Done like a dinner, in reply to Hebe,
The Christchurch City council did this thermal mapping of the city that enable you to assess roughly how well your property holds the heat. Though it’s difficult to tell if it is a cold house or a very well insulated house; still it is a start.
That is very cool. I'm particularly interested in a more micro version of that. For example, in our house, I'm pretty sure our living room loses most of its heat through a particular area where an extension is attached. I'm not sure exactly which part of it is the problem (or if it all is), and given that each bit would be expensive to refit in an insulated way, I'd like to know which bits are the problem. And I feel like for a lot of people with older houses this would be useful for trying to spot heat leaks. If you have a ceiling with downlights and no crawl space above, but also a large area of glazing, being able to determine whether which order in which you should attack possible solutions (e.g. remove downlights, re-line ceiling, heavy curtains, double glaze etc.) would seem really useful.
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Hard News: Done like a dinner, in reply to BenWilson,
I’d not heard of heat exchangers for water until this thread, that sounds like it’s worth looking at.
When I wrote that post (disclaimer!), I had to look pretty hard to find independent sources (most of which were Canadian). However, as you say, it does seem like low-hanging fruit, and I'm at a bit of a loss as to why there is not more support or discussion of it in New Zealand. Especially as it is quite an easy retrofit in an old house (assuming you have some space under the floorboards). As someone who has spent a bit of time investigating options, the lack of good independent advice is frustrating, and often the people who know the most are the reseller of a specific product, which then means they know only their product, and don't know much about anything else.
I did, however, eventually discover why infrared imaging is not more used to assess houses, which is something that has bugged me for a long time. You need to do it either about 5am (after all the previous day's solar energy has dissipated), or still at night, but in the middle of winter. And you need to get the inside of your house warmed up as well :S
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Hebe - my understanding is that hot water heat pumps are not great for underfloor heating, as they don't get the water hot enough. Or you have to double the amount of piping in the floor.
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Hard News: Done like a dinner, in reply to Lucy Telfar Barnard,
Bob Lloyd is on record pretty regularly suggesting hot water heat pumps are a better bet than solar (eg). This might be the more science-y version, but it isn't opening for me at the moment so I can't check.
However, for many people, a $700 heat exchanger under their shower would be about as effective as solar hot water.
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Also, NBR estimates Snapper's float to be about $9.3m in Wellington at any one time. In addition to the benefits for end users, that should net Auckland Transport some extra income!
On rheumatic fever: While the strategy is not necessarily addressing the underlying causes, there are some really good initiatives. I've heard the people behind Say Ahh present, and if they can reduce the number of cases in Flaxmere over a year from 8 to 0 then it may be possible. It tends to occur in quite geographically targettable catchments, and there are only 140-180 cases per year, and if you can remove that many reasonably simply and cheaply from a small place like Flaxmere, it has to seem possible. There are a lot of good minds and initiatives on this, so it would be great to think that this could be achievable. On the other hand, May 2012 was not a good month!
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Southerly: Village People, in reply to BenWilson,
That's a looong hangover. I think the mythology of escape from overcrowding has persisted, though.
I don't entirely disagree with thinking about attachment to the land, but how do you explain the strongly held (at least in district plans) attachment to entirely detached dwellings, even at the point that this frequently means a pointless an unusable strip of land between houses that is home to a fence and not much more?
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I had no idea that parts of Canberra were like that. Although my quick googling suggests these areas were centrally designed, and around the same era as Twizel. I'd just compare it to other suburban development in New Zealand, with the same type of density, but where it's impossible to get anywhere quickly by bike or walking.
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Southerly: Village People, in reply to Russell Brown,
But imagine how Christchurch might have used the men and machines from our great public works projects.
Every Christmas, before they knocked off, MoW staff used to line all their machines up in a massed display of strength. My parents have a photograph of it somewhere, and it is a truly impressive sight! Oooh, I found a picture online, only that isn't very many compared to the shot my parents have.
I know I've said this at length elsewhere, but there really is a lot to commend in terms of the layout of Twizel. A town deliberately engineered so that walking or biking was enormously more direct than travelling by car. This was principally achieved by having all the roads in shallow wide loops, with interconnecting greenspace and walkways linking the loops. It's pretty evident in google maps.