"Re: [LessIsMore] ... paradigm-shift dates; solar-powered house" {at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LessIsMore/message/13088 after signing-in} is: At 03:02 2003-12-31 +1300, I wrote {at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LessIsMore/message/13083 after signing-in} :- > ... >· In the mean time, I'm keeping-faith with the idea that, even at this late date in the downward slide from the peak of civilisation the world reached during my working life, it may be possible to salvage the more valuable parts of what we all grew up with. At least in most of the earth. > · I know that sounds just like what old men have been saying for thousands of years, but having lived during the only period in the history of the human race when it was not only easy but relatively safe, to travel to far countries (as Peace Corps and CUSO volunteers), and teach e.g. physics in a local school even as a solitary man or woman from North America or Europe, then return, using the experience to help build (or maintain) a better society at home, I believe that statement ("the peak of civilisation the world reached during my working life") is true. · And I _remember_ the conserving, minimise-waste attitude most of us had after WW-II, before big corporations, too-effective advertising, and TV turned the rich world into a consuming "spend-your-money!" machine which demands what-used-to-be-luxuries, having turned them into "necessities" whose production already requires one-and-a-third earths, so we (the rich) _have_to_ drop back to the use-and-spending level we had in the early 1950s. Not in detail (we should use computers, renewable energy, fuel-cells etc), but the _level_ of use-and-spending needs to return to when we were frugal. >· I reluctantly left the house connected (making do with using as little as possible, e.g. turning the fridge _off_ for 3 hours and _on_ for 45 minutes, repeated), because our nearly 40yo electric water heater has almost failed so it needs to be left on 24-hours-a-day continuously to keep our water hot enough to shower in, for example for the return of my family. (We've arranged with a plumber to replace the HW heater, when tradesmen get back to work again, in January.) > · I left out the inter-personal constraint on my options. · At one point I was sure our hot-water-tank's heating element had failed completely, so I persuaded the plumber to supply and instal a properly- insulated replacement _as_soon_as_possible_; he went ahead and ordered one. · Next day I found the water had actually heated a little, rather than cooling further, but found when talking to the plumber that the replacement tank "was already on the truck on the way here". So to stay within my earlier implied commitment to pay him for the tank and his work, I asked him to postpone the installation to January when he could schedule our job at his convenience. Incidentally committing us to electric heating (though as- much-as-70% of New Zealand's electricity comes from a renewable source). · I'm detailing this as one more example where having to get along with other people limits your freedom of choice. As "a loner" I am acutely aware of such events; I get little-or-no pleasure from interacting with other people (beyond my wife), so all these negatives aren't erased by greater positives, which reinforces my "loner" tendencies. At 06:49 2004-01-01 +1300, I wrote, in: “Natural gas availability; acceptable risk" {at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LessIsMore/message/13087 after signing-in} :- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - · _I_ like to go straight to the absolute minimum and then work up to something I'm willing to tolerate, but almost everyone else wants to take little steps (in using less), seeing how acceptable it is after each one. So I would be happy to take the risk of 5-to-9 days of cloudy weather (not having a shower during that time) while living with nothing other than solar-heated water, but for most people that's not an acceptable risk. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - · Having some numbers to put into decision-making is one of the benefits I get from my years-long effort to record how much energy my solar PV panels produce: http://www.geocities.com/davd.geo/DMsDailyPVenergy.gif Copy-n-Paste · It's now 2004 (Jan 1); in mid-2003, winter, I analysed my daily energy record for the periods when there was less-than-winter-average energy collected; there was less sunshine than average. The 9 periods ranged from 2 days to 9 days (more cloudy than the winter average): mean 5.0, Std.Dev. 2.5 · I find it an interesting challenge, to make-do-with-less. · Last night I set up an 11 watt CF (compact fluorescent) bulb so it shone some light into just about every room in the house. It was running from my battery-bank because I know I'll get plenty of sun next day to recharge. I did this on New Years Eve (using a big mirror to get light into one room) so this house wasn't dark (as if uninhabited for the holiday). But I'll continue it when my family returns (they like a light on at night). David.