Types of Plastics Used in the Home: How to Identify PVC, PET, Polythene and Others

© Eugene Brennan

What Are Plastics?

"Plastic" is a term applied to any material that can be moulded or bent into shape; for instance, soft toffee, modelling clay, or red-hot iron is plastic because it can be reshaped. In general though, when we speak of plastic, we mean polymers or synthetic materials made from petrochemicals.

Battery Storage for the Grid

Battery storage facility for grid. Made with Bing Image Creator.

We could do with more though to act as buffers or reservoirs of energy when the sun doesn't shine or wind doesn't blow. (Think of them as the electrical analog of the flywheel on your lawn mower engine that stores energy between the power strokes). Traditional thermal or hydro power station generation is predictable and the output can be switched into the grid as necessary. Renewable generation because of its unpredictability needs the backup of battery storage to take up the slack. More info in this ESB YouTube video.

Septic Tank Inspections

Schematic of a septic tank. Image courtesy Tilley, E., Ulrich, L., Lüthi, C., Reymond, Ph., Zurbrügg, C., CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

The smell of overflowing septic tanks is something I encounter regularly, cycling the highways and byways of Kildare. Two incidences yesterday in the Suncroft area and one close to Narraghmore Game Reserve. Maybe there are other issues that cause smell though like bad drainage or older systems that don't agitate the contents of the tank? Agitation increases the oxygen content of liquid in a septic tank, improving the rate of aerobic bacterial growth and speeding up the digestion of sewage. This recent article from the Kildare Nationalist by Finian Coghlan fills us in with the details of the inspections.

No Fireplaces?

Complete stupidity and lack of common sense for obvious reasons if there's an extended power loss. According to the SEAI "it's a minimum legal requirement for stoves placed on the market since 1st January 2022 to be Ecodesign compliant." Open fireplaces are no longer allowed by building regulations. How many developments incorporate these stoves into the design of houses though? I don't see any chimneys on the houses at Riverside Manor. Maybe there are stainless steel flues exiting from the rear of the buildings?
Read more in this Irish Times article:

"Santa, meet the new homes with no chimney"