[lit-ideas] Re: Portugal opens major solar power plant

So it seems we're all in the same boat.  Just some rhetorical points.  Wow, 
electric heat in Finland.  I assume the electricity is subsidized or it's hard 
to imagine anyone affording it.  Heating with waste heat is ideal.  The U.S. 
kind of sprawls (one of the reasons we're such CO2 emitters) so that wouldn't 
work here.  Regarding extracting heat from the ocean, I wonder if that would 
offset some of the heat gains in the water from global warming?  I personally 
wonder why no one has developed a way to burn methane from septic systems 
instead of venting it, and why geothermal energy from deep inside the earth 
isn't used to heat homes.  Probably as long as the oil companies run the planet 
none of that will happen.  

For Julie, why is heating with pellets expensive?  It was described to me as 
about a bag a day at $5 a bag.  Even two bags a day for three months would only 
be about $1,000.  My problem is that I'm used to a thermostat.  I hated my wood 
stove and I wonder if pellets wouldn't be a variation on that.  But a fireplace 
is different (maybe).  I like the idea of ceramic propane logs.  There's no 
easy way out it seems.

The birds are going crazy.  Two sets of them, one on each side.  Acres and 
acres of woods in the back of the house and they build in the eves.  Dumb 
animals, right?  Actually, I heard a story that birds discovered how to use the 
electric eye in a Home Depot store to open the doors at will.  They were making 
their nests in the rafters of the store.  Centrally air conditioned nests, no 
rain.  We so underestimate animals.  I love them, but I wish they weren't so 
smart sometimes.  




-----Original Message-----
>From: Teemu Pyyluoma <teme17@xxxxxxxxx>
>Sent: Mar 30, 2007 2:56 AM
>To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
>Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: Portugal opens major solar power plant
>
>"What do you sophisticated Finns use in Finland to heat your houses?  Is it 
>oil?  I've learned that oil gets the most BTU's per whatever the measure is, 
>dollar I guess."
>
>For sophistication I would look towards Swedes, in Finland we have about half 
>a million houses (pop. 5+ million) heated with pure electricity, which the 
>Swedes have very sensible simply outlawed. (In a nutshell, burning coal to 
>generate heat, turning that heat to electricity, transferring that 
>electricity, and then turning back into heat makes no sense economically or 
>ecologically, although it is very cheap to install.) On the bright side, good 
>insulation helps, triple-glass windows for example are common.
>
>Helsinki like other bigger Nordic cities mainly uses district heating, that is 
>houses are heated by waste heat from electricity generation, also known as 
>co-generation. While efficient, this usually does mean burning something, 
>although bio-fuels or waste can be used too as fuel. Stockholm uses giant 
>ocean heat pumps for part of heat generation, Helsinki is experimenting with 
>this too.
>
>For less populated areas, oil and electricity is common, augmented with 
>fireplaces. Wood pellets are increasingly popular, because turning an oil 
>furnace into a pellet furnace is relatively easy. Pellets are relatively cheap 
>and locally available for obvious reasons (basically the country is one huge 
>forest). Ground heat pumps are also becoming popular, they do have high up 
>front costs though. Swedes are leaders in this area, it took some time for 
>them to perfect the technology and figure out the correct way to install them, 
>which is why I would carefully check if any US company offering them has the 
>necessary experience. Other stuff includes AC systems that capture heat from 
>outgoing air and/or heats incoming air with air heat pumps. Check the German 
>passivhaus, most of the stuff is pretty much standard in Nordics, 
>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passive_house
>
>Efficient heating has been for natural reasons always a priority up here, 
>although the nature is chancing. We just had a six week winter, it is about 
>15C and sunny outside now (for perspective, two feet of snow isn't that 
>uncommon this time of the year.) Which is nice as long as you don't ask why. 
>This year is probably an anomaly, but when anomalies pile up year after year, 
>it is a trend.
>
>Heating is one of those low hanging fruits when talking about C02 reductions 
>in general, it really isn't that difficult to cut emissions from that to say 
>one third, given how ineffective current systems in place are. Which is one of 
>the reasons I don't get the obsession with "clean tech" energy generation 
>technologies in design stage, when energy saving tech exists, has been proven 
>to work, and is mostly a sound investment even in purely financial terms.
>
>
>Cheers,
>Teemu
>Helsinki, Finland
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