Al Gore's Tennesee home:
Posted on 02/22/2015 11:53:50 AM PST by Diana in Wisconsin
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I’ve studied alternative energy for a few years. Some of the real culprits:
Air conditioners, of course
Forced air furnaces (electric motors)
Electric ranges
Dishwashers (long run time, water heating elements because of anti-scald valve regulations)
Electric clothes dryers
Electric coffee makers (warmers)
Having refrigerators next to cooking ranges (stupid design)
It’s not the LEDs, which will provide as much light as equivalent florescent lights for about a third of the wattage.
Some of the newer clothes washers aren’t bad (short duration of use and less wattage, short duration means fewer watt-hours).
Refrigerators and freezers with much more insulation are more efficient but overly expensive and require freight delivery from distant vendors.
Microwaves (not too bad, if only run for short duration cooking and without browning elements, the key being short duration cooking)
Al Gore's Tennesee home:
Fast desktop computers use many watt-hours, if they’re turned on much. I use a computer that consumes very little power.
His car was waiting on the concrete. It was, like all contemporary cars, too low-slung...He climbed down into the car and started the motor with a tremendous sparkle and roar.
...
He climbed down into the car and it whooshed off with much flame and noise.
...
Barlow surveyed it with awe. Swept-back lines, deep-drawn compound curves, kilograms of chrome. He ran his hands futilely over the door—or was it the door?—in a futile search for a handle, and asked respectfully, "How fast does it go?"
The psychist gave him a keen look and said slowly, "Two hundred and fifty. You can tell by the speedometer."
...
He was shut up as the car pulled out from the bay into the road with a great voo-ooo-ooom! A gale roared past Barlow's head, though the windows seemed to be closed; the impression of speed was terrific. He located the speedometer on the dashboard and saw it climb past 90, 100, 150, 200.
...
They seemed to be traveling so slowly, if you ignored the roaring air past your ears and didn't let the speedy lines of the dreamboats fool you. He would have sworn they were really crawling along at twenty-five, with occasional spurts up to thirty.
...
Screamingly sweet blasts of sound surrounded them as they stopped for a red light. "What the hell is going on here?" said Barlow in a shrill, frightened voice, because the braking time was just about zero, he wasn't hurled against the dashboard. "Who's kidding who?"
"Why, what's the matter?" demanded the driver.
The light changed to green and he started the pickup. Barlow stiffened as he realized that the rush of air past his ears began just a brief, unreal split-second before the car was actually moving. He grabbed for the door handle on his side.
I think it was Mark Twain that said, “There are liars, damn liars, and statisticians.”
$1000 Solar Water Heater —Overview
http://www.builditsolar.com/Experimental/PEXColDHW/Overview.htm
That is exactly the passage that has stuck in my mind since reading the first published version.
Thanks again.
Final goal: We are all living in 350 sq ft apts in the city. No thanks. BS is BS.
Well of course, he's "entitled" to it because he loves Gaia. You're just a peon.
Well of course they do. The ruling class is not bound by the limitations they wish to impose on us.
Ironic, isn't it, considering they call themselves PROGRESSives.
I like it.
Reminds me of Johnny Cash: "They're probably drinking coffee and smoking big cigars..."
But no "wasteful, plugged in all the time" coffee makers for the little people, and cigars?
No, that's only for our social betters, like Clinton and Obama.
My own theory is that energy demand is very elastic. Meaning that the cheaper energy is —the more people use it. This author has a variation of that idea based on efficiency. The more efficient energy consumption is —the more it is used...for, say, other purposes.
I don't see any reality to that theory. When gasoline prices drop 40~50%, in several months, gasoline consumption only rises a little.
Over years yes. But sudden price changes have NEVER lead to sudden changes in consumption or supply.
When natural gas or electricity is cheap, people don't greatly change their thermostat settings. They may move it from conservative settings to more comfortable, but they don't make large changes in their consumption. It may help justify the next home to be larger, but it doesn't make a large quick change in their consumption.
Over years yes. But sudden price changes have NEVER lead to sudden changes in consumption or supply.
.............
Agree. Over years yes but not immediately.
imho lower gas prices on the top line act as a tax cut and on the bottom line increase the productivity of workers and the profitability of everyone for whom gas prices are cost of business—which is a good chunk of the economy.
The reason that the US economy is not crashing because of the crash in oil prices is that .... -— while investment and employment in the oil patch is crashing—suddenly consumers and business in the rest of the US economy have more money in their pockets to spend on other stuff.
This over time this will translate into higher demand for oil but not immediately.
That is why it is called an inelastic market. It takes years of price change to see the result of price changes. In the oil market, usually the price changes back before the final result of a price change can be seen.
It is not like a spike in beef prices where many would just by chicken or pork that week. It takes significant time for consumers to significantly change the amount of fuel they use.
This is a good basic article to describe and compare elastic and inelastic markets.
http://www.economicshelp.org/blog/7019/economics/examples-of-elasticity/
The economic term “inelastic” does not mean it never moves, but demand/supply is slow to move relative to price changes.
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