3 pointsby mooreds4 hours ago2 comments

hydra22974 hours ago
Interesting read. The infrastructure gap seems to be the bigger issue — most cities weren't built for sustained heat above 30°C. Green roofing and better urban planning could help long-term.
sscaryterry4 hours ago
If this is going to be the new normal, we really should be driving for more heat-pumps (not the cheap ones that can only heat) way more aggressively.
- manarth3 hours ago
  I'm not sure many UK homes have the appropriate "skeleton" for cold-air ducting – you can use a heat-pump to cool things down, but getting the cool air to the rooms it needs to be in is likely to be a very expensive refit.
  Would piping cold water to a wall-mounted radiator help? I'm not sure it would take much heat out of the room, but I suppose it's possible
  - sscaryterry3 hours ago
    The existing radiators wouldn't be sufficient. I was more thinking around new homes. There is no point in building them with heating only.
    manarth2 hours ago
    Ah, totally agree. Retro-fitting is expensive and disruptive, and new homes should be built for the environment we have coming (not just bidirectional heat-pumps, but also solar, passive cooling, better insulation, etc).
    It'd probably need legislation though, as house-builders aren't known to spend money on thoughtfully future-proofing homes.