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Topic of Energy use from Thread about Australian Bush Fires
Liz provoked thoughts concerning the general rising ambient air temperatures around our Planet.
As there is potential for a broad discussion, I hope the various contributors agree with a new thread being started.
As there is potential for a broad discussion, I hope the various contributors agree with a new thread being started.
Comments
[quote=Nena]a lot of Australians do power their air conditioners with solar power.
here in WA, you can power your house with solar power AND feed any extra back into the general power grid for discounts to your bill[/quote]
Use of alternative energy sources continue to be subject of experiment in the U.K. Government legislation is forcing introduction of energy efficient practice in all new building projects. Approved Document L of the current Building Regulations dictates minimum standards to be achieved.
Proposals have been mooted to banish supply of gas into new development in the next couple of years. The energy companies are being encouraged to expand arrangements for their compensation payments, when individual property owners contribute eletricity supply back into the National Grid.
A target of 2020 was suggested as date to achieve complete carbon energy indepedence but reality suggests a much longer period before such ambition will be attained.
Attitude and approach of the general population requires educating before the knowledge can be understood but it is corporate organsiations which should be leading new developments.
[quote=Mrs Bear]The 19thC settlers in Australia built houses on stilts
English settlers had to learn to loosen their stays[/quote]
Similarly, innovative building designs have been built, through the last thirty years, as experiment in balancing healthy and comfortable environments in which to live and work. Inception and development of Milton Keynes may be remembered. Such strategy has now been expanded to most areas of new development in the U.K.
Therein rests the dilemma. Majority of modern homes do not have sufficient garden space to accommodate the amount of technical hardware required for independent efficiency.
[quote=Liz]it cost a fair buit to get done but just imagine, no heating bills forever.[/quote]
Unfortunately, such schemes are still in their infancy incurring many thousands of pounds for a complete installation. It is not a single expense because annual maintenance is required and life expectancy is forecast to be approximately twenty five years.
[quote=Liz]The only thing they have to watch out for is Legionnaire's disease, the whole system has to be heated up once a month with a conventional boiler to get up to the temperature needed to kill bacteria.[/quote]
Another example of the obstacles encountered that need resolving.
The Energy Saving Trust produce Energy Efficiency Guidance Levels with which any house builder is expected to conform.
Anyone recently involved with a property purchase will be familiar with the Energy Performance Certificate. This Government requirement rates a buildings energy efficiency in similar manner refridgerator, washing machine and other white goods possess an 'A' to 'G' rate.
All these factors must be incorporated into developers' costings when they construct new properties. It will be observed how future purchases will be increased.
If you are building completely from scratch then making a home energy efficient so it takes advantage of natural solutions, is do-able.
But older homes were built with the materials and climate of the time, which is why so many are suffering now our seasons have gone awry. And a lot of us live in older homes.
Our heating comes from a log burner, but also we punched through to next door and installed two big radiators run off the boiler there (oil, sadly, and we can't afford to replace it). At least the one boiler does two houses.The first winter we were here we had no central heating and 8" of snow. I've never been so cold in my entire life.
Given the money we'd go with geothermal heating, and anything else green we could get. Every new housing scheme should be built with the ability to generate its own power, whether by PV cells or wind turbines or whatever else renewable is possible.Stop draining the traditional resources, and start giving back.
(Copied from bushfires thread)
It's very difficult to imagine how life will be for people even two generations ahead, and most people really cannot do things now to obviate the problems that are ahead, either because they have no imagination, or because they prefer not to think about it, or because they don't have the money, or because they believe the climate-change deniers, or because they don't give a toss.
Our governments can only think about populations in the here and now and do what they want or do what they have to to get in next time. Forward thinking is no longer in the scheme of human thinking.
But the amount of CO2 already in the atmosphere is acidifying our oceans to the point in about 10 years they will give up their supplies of methane, locked in the oceans at the minute. Then our climate will change alright.
I find it hard to understand why climate change deniers cannot at least see (most of them aren't denying the changes, but the cause of them) that even if it isn't our own action that is causing the climate problems, we can help slow the changes by action now and possibly in the time that we have left find ways of coping. We won't evolve in time.
What I am worried about is war. There will be countries who will fare better from the planet changes. Some will be unliveable. There will be large numbers of refugees in the future, whole countries of people, who need to move. Can you see other countries welcoming them?
This came as a surprise to me as my recollection is that we were being warned about an impending new ice age up until at least the mid 1980s, so I did some research (via Google). Turns out we were both right. The first recorded use of the phrase "global warming" that I can find is from 1975, but it only became mainstream in 1988; most scientists still believing in the "new ice age" until 1987. The biggest surprise to me was that many scientists (especially in Sweden) still believe that global warming is false and that we are heading for an ice age. I am not qualified to comment on the credentials of the scientists concerned, so I won't.
Another interesting fact I found is that the global temperature is unchanged since 1997 - 16 years. Given that we're told we have to look at 30-year cycles I wonder how long the temperature has to be stable before they conclude that the world isn't actually warming? We're over half way through that cycle now.
If all the aeroplanes stopped flying now around the globe, the temperature would rise so much our climate would be unrecognisable.
Global dimming is the result of all the pollution in the atmosphere - the particles throw back heat into the atmosphere and actually protect is. They are a bad thing - but also, they are protection.
It's a conundrum.
When the plane were grounded around NY for 3 days, the temperatures in that area were being recorded already by fluke by scientists along with the weather conditions, which were very stable. The temperature rose by 1 degree in that 3 days entirely due to the lack of pollution for planes. That doesn't sound like much, but it's massive.
My daughter works for Schumacher and is among people who talk about such things all the time - this is taken from something she was saying:
"...severe winters can be a sign of climate change - that's why they stopped calling it global warming because it's not an accurate portrayal of what will happen. We live in a global system - one change somewhere, means another change elsewhere and it won't always be warming that happens. The Jet stream is a good example of this - melting arctic ice changes it and we end up with more extreme winter - http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/sep/14/arctic-sea-ice-harsh-winter-europe
My stance on it is that we are pumping crap into our atmosphere and that can't be healthy for anyone, and then we have resource depletion, sea acidification, pollution etc to worry about as well so there is no point standing around arguing about it all... But unfortunately many don't see it that way!"
I do see it that way (even though I may have given the impression I don't!). But I don't like people talking in absolutes. If the scientists said "the climate seems to be changing and we should take precautions in case it's man made", count me in! I'm all for precautions based on probabilities. My objections are when they change the criteria as outlined in my original post: if the data support global warming, one year's data is enough. If the data go against global warming, we have to look at 30 year cycles.
And one degree in three days does sound like a lot! The difference in global temperature between now and the last ice age is 5 C.
The point is there's no point in arguing semantics - there IS a problem, that is now evident and virtually all scientists agree, the earth is warming.
So we need to do something about it.
Sadly what needs to be done is BIG. And almost impossible.
A different way of looking at things, a different way of life for us all.
I still think there is trouble ahead. Most people are still too selfish, too hedonistic, too in love with technology and THINGS to be able to countenance a completely different way of life.
Even me.
We all need to do Transcendental Meditation and get our happiness from inside ourselves, lose the need to make money and gather stuff, lose interest in drugs and drink and material things...
Says she who has this evening refused a red wine as she doesn't want it at all (this has never happened since time began) and OH who shocked the canteen this morning at the BBc by having a herbal tea because he couldn't face coffee...
[quote=Onlinegenie]I'm all for precautions based on probabilities.[/quote]
[quote=Liz]virtually all scientists agree, the earth is warming. [/quote]
A reminder arrived that an offer for the Renewable Heat Premium Payment of £1,250 expires 31st March 2013.
Folk may find useful information here
http://kensaengineering.newsweaver.com/7s2k3f2k4gj17lp2ch23cz?email=true&a=11&p=31035305