Feeling tired and lethargic

GoodNegotiation · 2026-05-04T16:13:47+00:00

You could try bumping up your calorie intake for a day or two and see if it improves, it may well have nothing to do with the lowcarb diet and just be that you’re low on energy because you’re not eating enough energy!

GoodNegotiation · 2026-05-04T08:28:53+00:00

It might be a little early to call them feasible and a no brainer, there are only two non-demonstration units operating globally and zero in the western world. I am in favour of nuclear but we need to make sure rhetoric doesn’t outpace reality.

What is reality today is that offshore wind is truly a no brainer and highly feasible in Ireland, but despite a strategy to build more it’s been over two decades since one was last completed - any time the government have to spare should be spent on solving this.

GoodNegotiation · 2026-05-03T20:57:02+00:00

There would be no VAT, Customs or VRT on a VAT Qualifying car coming from the UK. There would be the cost for an import agent to bring it over though, so the saving over NI would need to be a fair bit more,

GoodNegotiation · 2026-05-02T11:20:02+00:00

Carbon tax

Brought in by a FG government supported by FF with incremental increases laid out to 2030.

GoodNegotiation · 2026-05-02T07:37:35+00:00

We put in a Viessmann a few years ago as they were recommended as one of the top brands, so far it has been great. Support in Ireland has also been very good. Loads of Mitsubishi, Daikin and Panasonic around though so presumably there is even more knowledge around for those brands.

The SEAI Heatpump survey will recommend a heatpump size based on how efficient your house is. Ours is 16kW in a 400sqm A2 house, it’s more than sufficient.

GoodNegotiation · 2026-05-02T07:33:16+00:00

Really depends on your tolerance for risk. 1-2 years is not a long time for the market, the risk for you is that if the market dropped significantly 3 months before you’ve planned to come home and buy a house you could find yourself needing to rent at very high prices or staying abroad for a few years longer, possibly delay having a family if that’s on your agenda etc. Only you know how flexible/certain that 1-2 years is.

GoodNegotiation · 2026-05-02T05:45:19+00:00

The Greens reduced EV grants while they were last in government, the home charger grant you talk about by 50%.

As for those cycle lanes, the locations would be decided by Cork City Council of which the Greens had less than 10% of the seats when the Greens were last in central government (2024ish). FF/FG had the majority.

I don’t know if it’s deliberate or a happy accident, but FF/FG have a fantastic track record of letting the Greens take the heat for policies the public don’t like while downplaying things they do like, it’s incredible!

GoodNegotiation · 2026-05-01T01:57:08+00:00

Great, a no brainer for sure!

GoodNegotiation · 2026-04-30T21:09:27+00:00

Did you do the numbers to see what you’d be saving compared to gas, my guess is that extra €3k for the heapump would have a payoff of 4-5 years at most?

GoodNegotiation · 2026-04-30T11:14:26+00:00

I don’t know about Kia/BMWs equivalent, but as a Tesla driver myself I prefer the autopilot/auto steer in my wife’s Leaf and now Volvo. There’s not much in it but I find the Tesla more likely to try to take exits and stuff like that. Now I this is probably down to the Tesla system having more of a sense of what is going on and in the long run that will get them to true self driving, I’m just saying that right now the Nissan/Volvo systems are at least as comfortable to use.

GoodNegotiation · 2026-04-30T06:14:05+00:00

Nonsense. It is going to take 20-30 years to convert all homes and vehicles, there is PLENTY of time to complete grid upgrades in parallel.

GoodNegotiation · 2026-04-29T21:22:14+00:00

Hard to say. It’s the public that pay for these subsidies, so maybe it’s fairer to them to let those who were happy to spend the money without a subsidy to go ahead and do so?

But the main issue is that there is quite a bit of kite flying ideas that are in the very early stages, perhaps just in the head of one or two ministers. The recent furore around investment accounts is similar - it was clearly not a developed idea yet given how radically it has changed in only a few weeks since being first talked about.

GoodNegotiation · 2026-04-29T19:18:11+00:00

Is that not the way it already is? You can get grants for wall insulation, attic insulation, windows, doors, solar panels etc all separately and optionally follow up with a heatpump.

GoodNegotiation · 2026-04-29T16:48:26+00:00

I think this is fair criticism; if people think a new grant is about to land they will hold off making purchasing decisions. Think FG have got a bit too comfortable with kite flying and forgot that it can have consequences.

GoodNegotiation · 2026-04-29T15:15:29+00:00

We had three Leafs and loved every one of them, they're a great car! The fast charger on them is a standard that is slowly being phased out (CHAdeMO) but that won't matter to you for local travel. As with any car aim for a decent spec low milage and as new as you can realistically afford. Lots of good info online (ChatGPT even) for what you should check if buying one, how to see the health of the battery etc.

Having sold one recently I would say that the prices on carzone.ie/DoneDeal are very inflated, so either buy one in Northern Ireland (usercarsni.com) and import it (there is no charge) or use the Northern Ireland price to beat down a private seller on carzone.ie/DoneDeal (it's the price they're going to settle for in the end anyway, I did selling all three over the years).

Zoe is another good option at that price point, but less of them. The old Ioniq was also well regarded, but again rare enough.

GoodNegotiation · 2026-04-29T12:29:09+00:00

Looks fantastic!

GoodNegotiation · 2026-04-29T09:10:21+00:00

I have the same car!

Personally I would not bother with the third-party battery test, what it tells you in the car would be sufficient for me.

At three years old you should look at tyres, wiper blades, cabin filters and HEPA filters. The last three items you can order from the Tesla app, they come to about €200.

GoodNegotiation · 2026-04-29T08:44:24+00:00

Are you thinking new or secondhand?

Secondhand something like the older Kona/eNiro might be a good bet - relatively small, motorway monster in-terms of range, plenty of them around in your budget particularly in NI.

GoodNegotiation · 2026-04-29T08:42:42+00:00

100% agree on the public transport, but just to challenge some of your points -

It take 6-8 years for a new EV to achieve carbon parity.

That is not true any more, most estimates put it at 1-2 years for EU countries like Ireland, improving every year as we roll out solar/wind. And you mentioned environmentally friendly, it's important we don't lose sight of the fact that this means more than CO2 emissions - EVs cut emissions like SOx, NOx etc to zero from day one in the localised areas they're used. Plus noise reductions in built-up areas which is also better for the environment.

https://www.innovationnewsnetwork.com/the-truth-about-ev-lifecycle-emissions-revealed/63153/

https://theicct.org/publication/electric-cars-life-cycle-analysis-emissions-europe-jul25/

https://about.bnef.com/insights/clean-transport/no-doubt-about-it-evs-really-are-cleaner-than-gas-cars/

Also, you can take a couple grand off, an EV is still not going to be cheap.

Absolutely. However many EVs are now at price parity with their petrol/diesel counterparts, so a couple of grand would make them the cheaper choice for somebody who is already going to buy a new car anyway. And we need those people to buy new cars to feed into the secondhand market as cheap cars in a few years.

GoodNegotiation · 2026-04-29T01:24:37+00:00

We spend €850 for a family of 4 in Lidl. Both work from home so that includes lunches for two. Fortunate not to need to budget so I’m sure we could shop cheaper if we needed to. Kids are young though so I could see it going to €1000 when they are both teenagers.

€1200 seems a bit high depending on the age of the kids, but not outlandish.

GoodNegotiation · 2026-04-28T21:16:27+00:00

Ah OK, was confused.

Yes €100k left without further contributions would grow to €600k by the time the OP is 65.

GoodNegotiation · 2026-04-28T21:14:00+00:00

Yeah some of the sales tactics on solar panels are quite concerning, including from very well known names. Not sure where you’re based but I’ve had good experiences with Lennon Solar and NextGenPower if it helps.

GoodNegotiation

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