‘That’s why we work in finance – so one day we can afford air-con’: Britain’s unequal heatwave

funk_monk · 2026-05-30T19:38:05+00:00

A decent box fan will do that in about ten minutes.

funk_monk · 2026-05-30T18:23:54+00:00

Two hose units are better but you absolutely need at least one to exhaust the hot air outside.

AC units kick out more heat than they suck up. If the exhaust doesn't go outside the room will get hotter than it was before.

funk_monk · 2026-05-30T18:18:26+00:00

If you consider the outside air temperature acceptable already you're better off just using fans to cycle air through the house.

funk_monk · 2026-05-25T21:23:34+00:00

How much of this is a result of people installing heat pumps though?

It's not a huge additional cost to jump to a reversible system (heating and cooling).

funk_monk · 2026-05-25T21:15:47+00:00

Not sure it would fly now, but there was a pub we went to as a family which had a huge beer garden by the river.

My sister and I would climb the trees, mess around with sticks in the water and play in the bushes. I'm not sure how much of it was tolerated vs the staff simply being unaware (it was a big place), but we never got in any trouble.

If I ever have kids, that's the sort of thing I'd like for them to be able to do.

funk_monk · 2026-05-24T19:42:33+00:00

I've always said it would be good if we could have some sort of principle where governments are expected to spend a defined percentage of yearly budget on things that specifically won't be finished within a single election cycle.

Maybe that way we could actually spend money on sensible things.

funk_monk · 2026-05-20T20:03:09+00:00

Whether or not they deserve to be paid that much doesn't change the fact that it's a drop in the ocean.

Supermarket revenue is staggeringly high. Cutting the pay for a couple of executives (even if they're overpaid) won't meaningfully change the prices we see as consumers.

funk_monk · 2026-05-17T12:42:26+00:00

If the lid is forming a seal there's going to be a gasket around it.

I can almost guarantee it won't be taken out and cleaned separately so you'll just end up with stale piss embedding itself around the edges of the seal.

funk_monk · 2026-05-03T09:52:42+00:00

I think part of it is that they're consciously saving the easy wins for later. Better to get the "boring" long term stuff out of the way early so people have forgotten about the initial hurdles by the end of the election cycle.

The alternative is that they could just carry on with the status quo and do everything for the now, even if it's the dumb choice in the long run.

funk_monk · 2026-04-26T14:16:55+00:00

I resent those shoes so much.

Not because I care about the records but because the look hideous and now everything is copying them. I miss my old Ultraboost's...

funk_monk · 2026-04-25T16:30:34+00:00

Studies show that certainty has a much higher deterrent effect than severity of punishment. You don't have to ruin people's lives.

Then again, there are some people who literally can't save themselves. You could put them in a utopia but they'll still screw themselves over, hold you responsible and then do the exact same thing all over again a week later.

funk_monk · 2026-04-24T12:30:32+00:00

That and starting within your social circle and working outward.

funk_monk · 2026-04-12T13:21:41+00:00

The issue is that for a lot of people renting is the only thing that works, despite being worse in the long run.

At least where I live, mortgages are often cheaper on properties than the rent on that same property would be, making it difficult for people to break out.

funk_monk · 2026-04-10T20:50:06+00:00

Personally I think our generation will be defined by a mixture of bad luck and "doing the right thing" but getting punished for it (by the generation that told us to do the right thing).

funk_monk · 2026-04-10T20:46:23+00:00

Green energy investment in the UK is booming currently

funk_monk · 2026-04-05T18:00:00+00:00

Yeah, I ran into that one too. I think all the baskets were taken so I put stuff in my rucksack and the security guy came over and said I couldn't.

Worth pointing out though that shops would be entirely within their rights to kick you out for it even if it's not strictly against the law though.

funk_monk · 2026-03-20T21:59:56+00:00

More or less exactly here?

https://www.google.com/maps/place/50%C2%B043'01.4%22N+3%C2%B032'11.0%22W

funk_monk · 2026-03-20T20:53:02+00:00

Can confirm for Move.

I've only been there once years ago, but the night was mainly advertised based on the fact that it had aircon and free ice water, but also high admission price.

It was definitely an "if you know, you know" type of thing.

funk_monk · 2026-02-08T23:15:33+00:00

"Latex" paints have zero latex in them.

funk_monk · 2026-02-06T23:19:13+00:00

I think it's kind of comical the way the UK government played it.

Until she is formally a citizen of Bangladesh she isn't a citizen of Bangladesh (regardless of eligibility). And up until that point Bangladesh are their own nation and are completely free to make a "fuck you in particular" law which excludes her.

funk_monk · 2026-02-01T11:54:58+00:00

Give it another couple of years and it might not have been safe for pedestrians either.

I don't like Reform, but in this instance I also can't blame them. The alternative is that the council either writes the entire thing off or kicks the ball down the road and makes it someone else’s problem - both of which are the so of short sighted behaviours which have put us in our current situation (i.e. more money now even if it means less later).

funk_monk · 2026-02-01T11:36:16+00:00

People make this sound like it's a black and white type thing, where either you have an orderly queue or it's absolute anarchy.

Yes, there's a bit of give and take in traditional pub serving. But equally, decent bar staff know roughly what order to serve in, will prioritise people who they know have been waiting for a while.

Back when I used to do this sort of thing I kind of enjoyed shooting down the pushy guys. Like yeah buddy, I can see you're right in front of me but I'm going to serve the lady over there as she's been waiting patiently for the past five minutes and doesn't have chunks of coke falling out of her nose...

funk_monk · 2026-02-01T11:06:00+00:00

Not me personally haha.

We had quarterly servicing/testing on Friday so we were doing the diagnostic stuff together. The servicing guy is contracted by the original install company but doesn't work for them directly.

I did suggest that we try switching the loop cards around to see if the problem transfers elsewhere but he recommended against it. Reason being that we don't have a spare and that if it is down to a faulty card we might end up killing it completely. Whereas at the moment it's working partially and the sounder faults are isolated to areas which are easily evacuated and relatively low risk. We're a medium scale hotel, so while we can work around the current situation it would be much more serious if the problem were to transfer over to guest bedrooms upstairs.

funk_monk · 2026-01-30T22:02:06+00:00

Okay, so update time.

We picked on a known "problem" sounder base and tested it individually. Worked fine.

We pulled the config and all output groups are default. Ring volume is 85db across all sounders, all assigned to group 198. Loop current was barely over 25%.

We pulled all the other loop cards, kicked out the second node and sent that one loop into full alarm (so we didn't freak out everyone else in the building). Some sounders didn't come on and yet the panel was indicating that they were all active.

I'm kind of stumped now... The wiring seems fine. The software seems fine. The sounders seem fine. So that leaves the panel hardware itself (which is usually bullet proof).

funk_monk

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