Posted on 02/08/2017 4:58:55 AM PST by naturalman1975
It was 104F and sinking. Sure it’s hot but people have survived that for millennia. Last year, I did a combo 65 mike backpack, cycling and kayaking trek over 4 days in 100F temps. I’m an old guy and survived just fine.
When we rely on mechanical means for our entire comfort, our bodies forget how resilient we are.
I agree that the utility and the government are stupid for relying on the church of alternative energy, but on the flip side, people need to learn to deal with what comes up.
-PJ
Yep ... The coal operations in NSW are enormous ... I should look up numbers. I expect them to be on a par with Wyoming. They export a lot of it from Newcastle.
Two important notes.
First, alternative energy will *never* replace fossil fuels, because it simply cannot produce enough energy to do so. But this being said, its *best* application is *marginal* energy provision, at which it is very cost effective.
For example, look at a home that has an attic in a hot climate. The air in the attic can get blistering hot, which radically increases the load on the air conditioner. But if you put a simple, solar powered fan in the attic, to blow out the hot air, it may reduce the attic temperature by 20-30 degrees (it will still be hot up there). But in doing so, it will substantially reduce the load on the air conditioner cooling the rooms beneath the attic.
Bingo, solar power saves a ton of energy, and money, by making a *marginal* change.
Second, by far the best way to conserve energy is by not *needing* to expend it. In the last decade, we have been waiting patiently for industrial scale production of flexible, thin sheet aerogel insulation. Aerogel is a ridiculously efficient *insulator*, with just three millimeters equivalent to several feet of fiberglass insulation.
Everybody wants aerogel, but very large scale industrial production is taking way too long to get underway, so is one of those things that actually needs government incentives to get the ball rolling.
Aerogel needs to be sealed in some kind of protective plastic sheet, but that is a small matter. Once in full production, it can be used to insulate homes, refrigerators and freezers, ovens and even water tanks to keep what is hot and what is cold from normalizing.
And the energy savings would be profound. Importantly, the less fossil energy you actually *need*, the more alternative energy, still a marginal source, becomes efficient.
There is a difference between Base and Peak energy. Hard to spool up those Base load plants when they are off.
I’ve read up on powered attic exhaust fans. Building science specialists all report that a powered fan has no benefit over proper attic ventilation with input from soffit vents and the right amount of roof vents.
Keeping the attic cool is important but it can be done with passive venting.
“Green” energy mainly means taxpayer and rate payer “green” ($$$) is transferred out of their wallets into the wallets of green advocates and their ilk. Theft.
Once again Liberalism does not survive First Contact with reality.
Growing up in Kansas in the 1950's, all we could afford was a swamp cooler set into one window, badly named since they are very ineffective in high humidity. 90 degrees, at 90% humidity, was fairly standard in the summer. The local movie theater had actual air conditioning, so it became a haven on those days, even when only the cheesiest of movies were playing.
Agreed.We travel to Florida regularly...just about every year.But it's always in January.However,we once went in October and I,for one,was blown over by the heat and,even more so,the *humidity*.I don't know how people could live there from April to November without A/C.
And then there's Texas...Nevada...Arizona.
OK. Same with a mister and a battery fan. I’ll buy that. I won’t buy that a household solar system is the answer by spending $30,000 to fix a 45 minute problem.
when government subsidies are eliminated, solar fails every single time. It’s not cost effective nor is it efficient enough. Battery power is not enough to power an entire building for a long period.
Solar energy is not enough in most parts of the country to waste the time. Check out this map.
In MD, where I live, thousands of true believers are getting subsidized solar on their roofs. The payoff is longer than the cells last. The map shows midrange solar efficiency. Some of these people are putting panels facing north. The solar people don’t tell them that for peak efficiency, they need to clean their panels every couple weeks.
You think surviving for an hour in 100 degree temps is dangerous. Climb on the roof and wash windows.
The solar efficiency map in Adelaide, Aus shows that area to be very poor for solar efficiency.
In the house where I grew up (built in the 50’s by my dad) we had a 4’ x 4’ louvered thing in the ceiling with a huge fan. On hot days they would turn it on and the louvers would open and the fan would suck the hot air up into the attic. As a child it was pretty neat.
I think it was the 70’s and we re-roofed the house and I think it was then that my dad put in some motorized vents along with a bunch of passive ones. Although that might have been the same time that he installed central air.
Yeah. in winter it was so cold that to prevent permanent damage to the off shore wind generators that were fed electricity from the mainland.
also
Wind farms produced 'practically no electricity' during Britain's cold snap Wind farms produced "practically no electricity" during the cold snap which manufacturers' groups say could lead to severe winter energy shortages
The cold weather has been accompanied by high pressure and a lack of wind, which meant that only 0.2pc of a possible 5pc of the UK's energy was generated by wind turbines over the last few days. He said the shortfall in power generated by wind during cold snaps seriously undermined the Government's pledge on Friday to build nine major new wind "super farms" by 2020.
"If we had this 30 gigawatts of wind power, it wouldn't have contributed anything of any significance this winter," he said. "The current cold snap is a warning that our power generation and gas supplies are under strain and it is getting worse."
Coal stations are currently used as back-up generation when there is a surge in demand for gas and the wind does not blow – which both tend to happen during cold weather.
And this gem:
However, increased dependence on wind farms will coincide with a European Union directive shutting down Britain's dirtiest coal and oil fired power stations.
The UK has committed to switching off these stations by 2015, leaving it uniquely vulnerable to gas shortages and the intermittency of wind farms.
The EIUG, which represents the major steel, chemicals, paper, cement, glass, ceramics and aluminium companies, said many of its members were worried about the prospect of future gas rationing.
We have one in our house too. It’s handy, especially in the evening to draw cooler air into the house.
Just for kicks, I once closed all the windows except one in the basement and turned on the whole house fan. The draw was so great it was pulling small items from the shelves in the basement.
Pretty cool.
We don’t have AC in our house in Seattle, so the few days that get hot I have tried a variation on that. Open the attic stairs and put a box fan up there, along with a fan downstairs pointing up. It might help, but better to just close the door and stay downstairs!
We don’t have AC in our house in Seattle, so the few days that get hot I have tried a variation on that. Open the attic stairs and put a box fan up there, along with a fan downstairs pointing up. It might help, but better to just close the door and stay downstairs!
At 40C, people want their air conditioners, not their lights. Your home solar system sized to run your AC will be a huge investment. The regulators should revert back to the now-antiquated notion that utilities have an obligation to meet the public’s needs.
At 40C, people want their air conditioners, not their lights. Your home solar system sized to run your AC will be a huge investment. The regulators should revert back to the now-antiquated notion that utilities have an obligation to meet the public’s needs.
And by “go solar”, yeah, I mean the “expensive” way.
Never thought of ‘Green’ energy in those terms, but you are right!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.