Habeck claims anyone could quite easily use 10% less energy

[Krieg 15,110]

45 minutes ago, Fietsrad said:

 

If €bike$ are so great, I think they should be treated as road motor vehicles and not allowed to use cycle lanes. Plenty space available on the roads.

 

E-bikes are limited to 25 km/h which is a very good decision.  Any serious "real" cyclist rides faster than that.  So how can e-bikes be dangerous when they are not fast?

 

Your arguments are all weak sauce.  You seem to be just a hater.  

[mtbiking 1,914]

1 hour ago, Fietsrad said:

I certainly could afford to buy several €bike$, but I have other ways to waste my money😉

 

There’s literally no better way to waste my money than on bikes. Mountain bikes, road bikes, gravel bikes, city bikes it beats the crap out of Pokémon collecting and I still cycle my first MTB from 1995. I cycle with 40C temperatures in summer and with -15C through snow in winter - in the mountains and in the plains- and I do it a lot. Proper cycling you’d call it. I still have no problems with e-bikes besides poking at them a bit - people have fun and go to work with bikes instead of cars, what’s not to like. And it‘s a comforting thought to know I’ll be able to do tours with 80+. I think you’re a bit weird. 

[Fietsrad 433]

1 hour ago, Krieg said:

 

E-bikes are limited to 25 km/h which is a very good decision.  Any serious "real" cyclist rides faster than that.  So how can e-bikes be dangerous when they are not fast?

 

Your arguments are all weak sauce.  You seem to be just a hater.  

I am a "serious real cyclist", I own several cycles, 25 kmh is my top speed. Often that would be too fast so I go slower.

 

€bikes are just another ruse to make money.

 

Come to think of it, you are right: I do HATE speeding €bikers. And speeding unmotorised cyclists. And drivers, of course.

[mtbiking 1,914]

25 minutes ago, Fietsrad said:

I am a "serious real cyclist", I own several cycles, 25 kmh is my top speed. Often that would be too fast so I go slower.

 

at 25 km/h on the road I’m not even breaking a sweat - it’s literally too slow not to be cold sometimes. That’s too slow on an open, flat road for a fit cyclist, even on a mountain bike. Are you 65+ or something? Or are you talking of a daily commute of 5km in the city?

[fraufruit 42,695]

1 hour ago, Fietsrad said:

€bikes are just another ruse to make money.

 

As is every single product that we buy if you want to put it that way. Should they give them away?

[Gambatte 980]

3 hours ago, Fietsrad said:

When I was a kid, cyclists raced UP hills, not down.

 

Dunno if you know it or not, but there actually are downhill bicycle races. And there are bicycles specifically made for downhill. Just saying.

 

My opinion?

I'm happy that I'm still ok riding normal bicycles, but it's only a matter of time before I will be forced to switch. Why not ebike when one is no longer sufficiently fit and young...?

Having said that, I also know teenagers riding ebikes to school, very manageable distances, I find it very sad, but hey I learnt long ago the world is not how I want it.

 

 

 

[optimista 5,934]

At last, a thread that is fun reading ... stay off the ad hominem and it will be like TT back in the day.

 

[kiplette 8,804]

12 hours ago, mtbiking said:

it beats the crap out of Pokémon collecting

 

 

On that - I was doing my almost daily Kelly Kettle water boiling exercise the other day and a car pulled up on the other side of our hedge, so I concentrated a bit in case it was post for us or something, but a second car then pulled up and the conversation, I kid you not, was about catching Pokémon(s?) and the one which I presumably have in the ether right outside my house  - actual adults  - I had to dash inside to laugh  

 

Although again, at least it gets people out and about and is quite a harmless hobby, except of course they'd be better on their e-bikes than in their cars....

[Eric7 555]

12 minutes ago, kiplette said:

 

 

On that - I was doing my almost daily Kelly Kettle water boiling exercise the other day and a car pulled up on the other side of our hedge, so I concentrated a bit in case it was post for us or something, but a second car then pulled up and the conversation, I kid you not, was about catching Pokémon(s?) and the one which I presumably have in the ether right outside my house  - actual adults  - I had to dash inside to laugh  

 

Although again, at least it gets people out and about and is quite a harmless hobby, except of course they'd be better on their e-bikes than in their cars...

 

Maybe not quite so harmless...

http://pokemongodeathtracker.com/

[Dembo 525]

If you're talking about biking as an alternative to cars do you not get sweaty the whole time? Perhaps there an e-bike is a pretty good idea especially if you have some hills to deal with. I love cycling, but never use it to go anywhere - always end up back where I started in fact. In the UK I used to cycle to work sometimes in the summer but there was a shower waiting for me, so it didn't really matter, but when you see people cycling to work in the suit they're going to wear the whole day I kind of think ewww.

 

I

[BethAnnBitt 3,018]

18 minutes ago, Dembo said:

Perhaps there an e-bike is a pretty good idea especially if you have some hills to deal with.

I bought a barely used e-bike, for a song and a dance, from a local bike tour outfit that sells them used twice a year, and I love it.  Still have my regular bike of course, and we live sans 🚗.  I use the e-bike to get to the school I work at 3x a week cuz it’s at the top of a very steep hill, and it’s also great for long day trips where hills are involved.  It got me comfortable doing trips that I was scared to do for fear of overdoing it, and I am a relatively fit 60+.  IMO e-bikes used responsibly are awesome.  My hubby, 70+ and 7 years older than I am, doesn’t have one yet, and I need one to keep up with him on some of our day trips.  😂

[Dembo 525]

On 15/12/2022, 12:32:48, optimista said:

Pros and cons to everything. Have underfloor... it dries the air terribly so you need humidifiers... my wooden furniture and beams cracked, even the soles of your feet suffer by March.

 

At the risk of going on topic:

 

I noticed yesterday morning when it was extremely cold the humidity here was down to 25%. I have a heavy cold and a cough and so I realised this is probably doing me no good at all. I laid off the Stoßlüftung and instead of opening a window after having a shower I opened the bathroom door to let the moisture into the rest of the Wohnung. That helped, but it sank later on so I've been wasting energy boiling water on the stove to try to raise it - managed 40% so far.  

 

But why is underfloor heating worse than regular radiators for drying out the air? 

[emkay 10,345]

On 16/12/2022, 14:42:05, Fietsrad said:

German people are oftentimes very thorough, they keep all their energy bills and analyse them with spreadsheets.😉

 

Any such people on TT?

I don’t go as far as spreadsheets as our bills give usage comparisons to previous years. As we have solar panels only for hot water heating, I do check the gas meter in summer to make sure it doesn’t change. A few years ago, doing this showed that the solar water heating system wasn’t working that meant the water heating defaulted to gas usage. 
 

I do compare prices with other companies to make sure our deal is still good. Best to check local energy companies rather than the comparison websites as the tariffs are much lower. Recently, I’ve found that by phoning the companies, better tariffs are on offer than those on their own websites….unless you really want a free toaster, iPad etc! 

I still don’t fathom how a newish dishwasher set on eco mode that runs for 4 hours is more energy efficient than a one hour setting at the same temperature. 

 

[Krieg 15,110]

35 minutes ago, Dembo said:

 In the UK I used to cycle to work sometimes in the summer but there was a shower waiting for me, so it didn't really matter, but when you see people cycling to work in the suit they're going to wear the whole day I kind of think ewww.

 

That's my situation.   I used to go only once or twice a month with the analog bike to work because I needed a shower when arriving at work.  We had a shower, but it was only one for the whole company, so it was not easy when everyone wanted to use it at the same time.  But came Covid and the shower was closed and it hasn't been opened since.   If I go early enough with the e-Bike, even during summer, I won't sweat that much, sometimes nothing at all, sometimes just a bit.  So no shower needed.   On the way back home I will sweat a lot during summer, but then it does not matter.

[optimista 5,934]

1 hour ago, Dembo said:

 

But why is underfloor heating worse than regular radiators for drying out the air? 

 

Dunno. Surface area ? Different heat convection variance ? I am not a physicist... but the effects are so remarkable, sadly, you cannot ignore them. I do not own a tumble drier. All my washing gets put out to dry on the landing  - we have an open plan lounge with stairs (so out of sight). It dries in a couple of hours while simultaneously humidifying the air. In winter.

[Fietsrad 433]

Underfloor heating seems another of those not so clever ideas, in particular because you can hardly maintain it yourself.

 

Just been out cycling slowly in the cold, I am sitting by my conventional radiator😉

[keith2011 2,706]

3 hours ago, Fietsrad said:

Underfloor heating seems another of those not so clever ideas, in particular because you can hardly maintain it yourself.

Other than bleeding the rads. and changing a faulty radstat, I am not sure what else a non plumber could be expected to maintain on a radiator heating system. Is there some maintenance required on an underfloor heating system that is different from that and requires an expert or special tools?

P.S.

If you put more effort into your cycling (even on an e-bike if you had one) you might find you would not need to sit by a radiator to warm up after a ride.

[Fietsrad 433]

1 hour ago, keith2011 said:

Other than bleeding the rads. and changing a faulty radstat, I am not sure what else a non plumber could be expected to maintain on a radiator heating system. Is there some maintenance required on an underfloor heating system that is different from that and requires an expert or special tools?

P.S.

If you put more effort into your cycling (even on an e-bike if you had one) you might find you would not need to sit by a radiator to warm up after a ride.

If I cycle faster, the cooling "Fahrtwind" is even stronger. I had to wait for a train at the grade crossing today too😕

[Dembo 525]

1 hour ago, keith2011 said:

Other than bleeding the rads. and changing a faulty radstat, I am not sure what else a non plumber could be expected to maintain on a radiator heating system. Is there some maintenance required on an underfloor heating system that is different from that and requires an expert or special tools?

 

 

I bet a lot of people are put off by the idea of having pipes under the floor that would require the floor to be ripped up if they ever leak. But they don't leak. Here at least it can be switched on and off per room so there must be some valves, but perhaps they're in a relatively accessable location. Other than that the bits you need maintaining aren't under the floor.

[keith2011 2,706]

24 minutes ago, Dembo said:

I bet a lot of people are put off by the idea of having pipes under the floor that would require the floor to be ripped up if they ever leak.

Not sure about that given, that to the best of my very limited knowledge of plumbing, new houses in the UK with built in central heating have the pipes to the rads going under the floor, i.e. concreted over on the ground floor, can't say here in Germany never lived in a newbau bet suspect it is the same even if not underfloor heating.