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Why Germans won’t heat their homes even with free electricity?

kaikenhuippu.com

181–190 of 397 posts

Re: Why Germans won’t heat their homes even with free electricity?

#181
post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not the OP, but share his views. I wash my clothes in the washing machine, then hang them to dry, that's all there is to it. It takes time (about a day) and some space for the clothes hanger in a rather small apartment, but that doesn't bother me.

Thank you. But how do you hang wet clothes and not ruin your floors? Sorry if I sound stupid. American apartments aren't set up for this and I would rather handle it this way and I've had challenges.

Washing machines spin the clothes, so most of the water is already gone.

But it is true that you need space and a fitting room as the drying can create damp rooms that need a good ventilation.

I think many people actually have driers but don't use them if they can dry them otherwise. A disadvantage of drying by air is that the clothes can get pretty hard. Some use fabric softener for that.

Re: Why Germans won’t heat their homes even with free electricity?

#182
post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not the OP, but share his views. I wash my clothes in the washing machine, then hang them to dry, that's all there is to it. It takes time (about a day) and some space for the clothes hanger in a rather small apartment, but that doesn't bother me.

Thank you. But how do you hang wet clothes and not ruin your floors? Sorry if I sound stupid. American apartments aren't set up for this and I would rather handle it this way and I've had challenges.

Its not too much wet, you get rid of most of the water by spin drying. I have stone floors so I wouldnt be bothered anyway

Also it helps if you live somewhere with reasonable humidity.

Re: Why Germans won’t heat their homes even with free electricity?

#183

> On Monday 10th February 2020 something historical happened. For the first time, the market price of electricity fell below zero in Finland.(...) While this single day was a very windy one... I feel I should point out that "a very windy day" is a big understatement. February 10, 2020 was the day when storm Sabine arrived in northern Europe. In Germany, all medium and long distance trains stopped (electric trains, bt…

We called it storm Ciara in the UK. I wonder why we don’t unify names.

brexit means brexit /s

In seriousness, wasn't Storm Ciara named by Met Éireann ? that was certainly my impression, given that most people in the UK struggled to pronounce it. So there is some unification between The Met offices of Ireland and the UK with regard to naming.

Re: Why Germans won’t heat their homes even with free electricity?

#184
post #36

I recall talking to some europeans and they said they like their driers, which only half dry clothes (they put them up on a line to finish) but use less energy. It's some sort of virtue thing, I guess.

Not virtue, but space probably. A small apartment doesn't dedicate space to a dryer, and the washer typically spins at 1400 rpm, at which point clothes are half dry (like 15 minutes in the dryer).

Only really cold & rainy days is this a problem

Re: Why Germans won’t heat their homes even with free electricity?

#185

Do I understand correctly from the article, that these negative prices are so that the suppliers can still claim their subsidy for supplying you. They are effectively giving you a cut of the subsidy?

I think it's mostly due to the structure of the market: you can't sensibly reduce supply of power when demand drops like with commodities like oil. So the price is the only free variable left.

Re: Why Germans won’t heat their homes even with free electricity?

#186
Interestingly, most of Finland heats with electricity. I used to live there before I moved to Germany. Unlike Germany, Finland does not use a lot of natural gas.

So, Germans subsidizing Finnish heating with clean energy is not necessarily a bad deal for Finland. I'd say it's a better deal for the planet than Russia subsidizing gas usage in e.g. Belarus, which is currently negotiating a new deal for this with Russia (in exchange for becoming part of Russia). Finland is in any case not great for wind power.

The article is correct that bureaucratic inertia and taxing practices in Germany don't make much sense and are very counter productive (and not just for the energy market). I live there. German ineptness and inefficiency is cringe-worthy. It's a political problem; the current government seems paralyzed waiting for their term to run out and not getting much done at all.

That does not mean clean energy is a no go but it does mean that pressure on politicians to fix things will increase over time. Also, the rest of Europe gets a sweet deal on energy. E.g. the Netherlands where I'm from is far ahead in EV deployments and despite being a gas producer is already implementing a policy of decommissioning gas usage by households over the next decades (this is a big deal in NL). Germany has no such plans in place. Heating oil disappeared a long time ago from my country as well and apparently is still a thing in Germany. Even coal heating was still a thing when I moved to Berlin 11 years ago (you could smell it in the winter). That's a lot more rare now.

Fundamentally, selling excess clean energy at negative rates is a sign of desperation. It should be a very valuable commodity. The problem is that we subsidize production but tax/penalize consumption. It should be the other way around. That would drive demand up and the cheapest way to meet that demand would be clean energy. With plenty of EVs hitting the market at tens of thousands per month across the EU, there should be no shortage of new demand.

That's why Texas pumps and refines oil using lots of solar and wind power. It's an economic no-brainer for them. Most of the clean energy capacity in that state (and it is world leading on that front) is actually consumed by their industry.

Re: Why Germans won’t heat their homes even with free electricity?

#187
post #32

I'm rather a noob in the topic, but I've been reading in recent months about energy market and it seems like a collective insanity in the light of the climate crisis. - In most(whole?) Europe, electricity used by trains is taxed higher than jet fuel used by planes (legacy measure from decades ago which was meant to boost air market; of course now it's hugely difficult to change it) - Germany went strongly into renewa…

The German government and the EU as a whole is often much more focused on optics than data based solutions.

All governments are like that, it isn't just Germany or the EU.

Re: Why Germans won’t heat their homes even with free electricity?

#188
post #167
post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Modern air pumps work with good efficiency even down to around -15c which is a rare temperature for post global warming world.

Except some places in Russia it's still common to go below -20, and in a post-global warming world, these areas will likely experience a new ice-age. Electricity is the best bet, as gas can freeze too, while copper just becomes able to carry higher loads.

What’s the total population of And why should anyone outside that area care if the equipment they use will or won’t work in weather that they won’t experience?

Re: Why Germans won’t heat their homes even with free electricity?

#189

> On Monday 10th February 2020 something historical happened. For the first time, the market price of electricity fell below zero in Finland.(...) While this single day was a very windy one... I feel I should point out that "a very windy day" is a big understatement. February 10, 2020 was the day when storm Sabine arrived in northern Europe. In Germany, all medium and long distance trains stopped (electric trains, bt…

We called it storm Ciara in the UK. I wonder why we don’t unify names.

t'was called Ciara in Belgium also.

Re: Why Germans won’t heat their homes even with free electricity?

#190
post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> In fact Germany even recently invested in new coal powered plants. Any sources on this? In Australia in the past few weeks Germany is given as an ideal example of a country decommissioning all of its coal mines and power plants.

The UK is a better example.

The dash for gas, it had big environmental benefits but they weren't the original justification.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dash_for_Gas

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