Interesting article. However, there's one aspect that I find a bit puzzling. I currently live in Germany and Adams' summary of tips how to build a greener house is pretty much a description of how houses have been built here for ages. I mean - the regular houses, not the ones considered particularly green. The general topic seems to be very big in this country, and apparently caters to a huge market. Almost everybody building a new house these days, not only the Earth savers, is trying to implement as many energy efficient measures as possible - that's because Germany, unlike California, is not a very warm place and to save on heating costs means to save big time. I don't actually know what it means, but the term "zero energy house" is a marketing term you see a lot here. Solar energy in private homes is heavily subsidized, too. And Germans don't move as much as Americans, they tend to build their houses to settle and grow old in them, so sustainability is a logical value.
Scott Adams: How I (Almost) Saved the Earth
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Re: Scott Adams: How I (Almost) Saved the Earth
#12One house item which shows no progress on the green side is the refrigerator. Obviously it should be a split system: fridge is inside and heat exchange outside the house. If it's hot outside, I don't want fridge to heat up air inside the house so then my AC has to cool it (an you know, my house has quite limited AC capacity). If it's cold outside, I don't want fridge to consume energy - just dump excessive heat outsi…
I thought about this too. It would be really nice if there was a central compressor that will pump that cold gas into ACs and refrigerators of multiple homes. I think that will be a lot greener than the other stuff suggested by Scott Adams.
Re: Scott Adams: How I (Almost) Saved the Earth
#13One house item which shows no progress on the green side is the refrigerator. Obviously it should be a split system: fridge is inside and heat exchange outside the house. If it's hot outside, I don't want fridge to heat up air inside the house so then my AC has to cool it (an you know, my house has quite limited AC capacity). If it's cold outside, I don't want fridge to consume energy - just dump excessive heat outsi…
Except you're just turning the problem around. While now, if it's hot outside, the fridge heats up the air in the house, just like you said.
With your system, if it's cold outside, the fridge cools down the air in the house (since the heat extracted from inside the fridge comes from the air inside the house, which is heated by your central heating system).
You're losing energy either way.
Re: Scott Adams: How I (Almost) Saved the Earth
#14One house item which shows no progress on the green side is the refrigerator. Obviously it should be a split system: fridge is inside and heat exchange outside the house. If it's hot outside, I don't want fridge to heat up air inside the house so then my AC has to cool it (an you know, my house has quite limited AC capacity). If it's cold outside, I don't want fridge to consume energy - just dump excessive heat outsi…
I thought about this too. It would be really nice if there was a central compressor that will pump that cold gas into ACs and refrigerators of multiple homes. I think that will be a lot greener than the other stuff suggested by Scott Adams.
Finland is now doing that for industry and warehouse refrigeration, and for some large retailers too. It might eventually find its way into homes too.
Re: Scott Adams: How I (Almost) Saved the Earth
#15Alternatively you can move to a location with a decent year round climate (Redwood City, CA) and move into an apartment. My PG&E Bill for 29 Days ending 4/21/2010: $5.00 - 40 Kwh @$0.11877. Easily the most massive energy consumer was the refrigerator - I would have cut that energy use by 2/3 if I could have figured out how (conveniently) to do without a fridge. My Hot water came from the building, but, at 97 degrees,…
I'm about 5 minutes north in San Carlos and I'm spending $50/month. My apartment is poorly built (gets up to 80 F when it's only 60 F outside, no idea what's up with that), however I try to avoid running the A/C and it's still that high. My Mac Mini and a couple of external hard drives are always running but otherwise I'm surprised at the energy usage.
Re: Scott Adams: How I (Almost) Saved the Earth
#16Alternatively you can move to a location with a decent year round climate (Redwood City, CA) and move into an apartment. My PG&E Bill for 29 Days ending 4/21/2010: $5.00 - 40 Kwh @$0.11877. Easily the most massive energy consumer was the refrigerator - I would have cut that energy use by 2/3 if I could have figured out how (conveniently) to do without a fridge. My Hot water came from the building, but, at 97 degrees,…
I lived in an apartment in Northern England one winter.
In about January I found out that I hadn't understood the thermostat and the central heating had never turned on. I went through the whole of December oblivious (and warm) thanks to the surrounding apartments providing heat through the walls, floor and ceiling.
Re: Scott Adams: How I (Almost) Saved the Earth
#17One house item which shows no progress on the green side is the refrigerator. Obviously it should be a split system: fridge is inside and heat exchange outside the house. If it's hot outside, I don't want fridge to heat up air inside the house so then my AC has to cool it (an you know, my house has quite limited AC capacity). If it's cold outside, I don't want fridge to consume energy - just dump excessive heat outsi…
The problem with this is that it isn't as flexible as a normal frige, it basically has to be built into the house. Also, if you don't have it next to a exterior wall, you have to pipe the coolant through the walls or floors. It's a great idea, but it requires a major redesign of the refrigerator, and means you can't easily get a new one if it breaks or you want it bigger or smaller.
Yep, it's not easy, but this problem is already solved with split ACs. While they do require drilling the wall, some people still prefer them to the in-window units.
Re: Scott Adams: How I (Almost) Saved the Earth
#18One house item which shows no progress on the green side is the refrigerator. Obviously it should be a split system: fridge is inside and heat exchange outside the house. If it's hot outside, I don't want fridge to heat up air inside the house so then my AC has to cool it (an you know, my house has quite limited AC capacity). If it's cold outside, I don't want fridge to consume energy - just dump excessive heat outsi…
Except you're just turning the problem around. While now, if it's hot outside, the fridge heats up the air in the house, just like you said. With your system, if it's cold outside, the fridge cools down the air in the house (since the heat extracted from inside the fridge comes from the air inside the house, which is heated by your central heating system). You're losing energy either way.
Yep, it's not ideal in the cold weather, but presumably split-system fridge itself is well insulated and thus not cooling the house interior significantly. And house heating system is capable of delivering heat to the right places more efficiently than in the case of traditional fridge "we heat the kitchen because that's where the back wall of the fridge is." But of course only real modeling and prototyping will tell for sure.
Re: Scott Adams: How I (Almost) Saved the Earth
#19Interesting article. However, there's one aspect that I find a bit puzzling. I currently live in Germany and Adams' summary of tips how to build a greener house is pretty much a description of how houses have been built here for ages. I mean - the regular houses, not the ones considered particularly green. The general topic seems to be very big in this country, and apparently caters to a huge market. Almost everybody…
It seems that the art of building efficient houses is contained only in Europe.
The houses in the US all seem to be made of wood, without much insulation. "Problems" that that causes are all dealt with using "efficient" heating or air conditioning systems. From what I've seen the same is true of Australia and New Zealand though. There you see a whole lot of portable electric heaters being used for the winter, which are probably the most inefficient way to generate heat.
The way typical Americans treat "energy conservation" is also an affront to people from Europe. Nobody in the US seems to think about conserving water in any way. Just look at the toilets, they flush a massive amount of water compared to the ones in Europe. Or the amount of ice that is used in drinks, the amount of water that is served and thrown away in restaurants.
It's all the little things that make a huge difference, and there seems to be a huge gap in the way these things are treated in Europe and in the US.
Re: Scott Adams: How I (Almost) Saved the Earth
#20“Don't brag to me about riding your bicycle to work; a lot of energy went into building that bicycle. Stop being a hypocrite like me.”
That doesn’t make any sense, does it? Making something will always require energy, what matters is whether something needs more or less energy than the alternative. (Making a bike needs less energy than making a car, riding a bike needs less energy than driving a car.)
Scott Adams’ writings always seem very shallow to me. He says something that sounds sorta good if you don’t pay too much attention.