Lest anyone should think otherwise..........

Dave Behrens

I agree that SECOND home buyers will be very concerned with efficient heating/cooling devices in a well insulted home in the immediate future. First time home buyers seem oblivious to those qualities when making a decision on buying a home.

Conservation, including the incorporation of a high efficiency HVAC system, is a must as energy prices inexorably rise. I want to build a passive solar home, using ICF (insulated concrete form) building techniques with a small high efficiency central heater supplementing captured solar heat and dispersing in the home with an in floor concrete radiation. I like solid fuel (wood/coal) heaters as an additional supplement. Conservation, using multiple energy sources, will be necessary in the near future.

S Ebels_2

Here's the facts on energy prices

I've had a couple customers comment that they think the high fuel prices we saw this past summer are gone and won't return. It was all market manipulation and government messing around with things. I don't agree. While at the moment we are seeing destruction of demand along with de-leveraging on a monumental scale in the world markets, this is but a mere blip on a graph that will show an inexorable rise in the next 5 years. Personally I think that within 5-10 years a home or business that does not have high efficiency heating/cooling equipment will be an albatross that will be difficult to sell and difficult to keep. No one will want or be able to afford an inefficient structure due to high operating costs dictated by outdated equipment and/or poor building envelope integrity.

I urge anyone and everyone to read the article in the link below and make some decisions as to how you will address the energy issue in your home or business. The hand writing is on the wall and it doesn't say "Happy Days are here again"

http://www.financialsense.com/Market/wrapup.htm

And this

http://www.financialsense.com/fsu/editorials/dancy/2008/1222.html

radiconnection

What we are seeing is an inverse bubble of the peak that happened last year. No doubt oil prices will rise again. Whether the doom and gloom in that article is accurate, I don't know. We have tremendous coal reserves in this country, and if Germany could do coal gasification in WWII, why can't we do it better and cheaper? Obviously we need to move forward on wind and thermal power, even if it means that the cost is partially government subsidized. How can electric cars solve problems when our present electric grid is almost at capacity now?

I doubt oil will be displaced as king in the near future, or entirely in the future. But it is prudent to explore and develop alternative energy sources if only to keep our country from being held hostage by our more unfriendly world neighbors. Nuclear engergy is another option.. Venezula is a good example of why change is needed, not so much oil production peaking. Hopefully oil prices will rise to 100 bucks a barrel to renew our interests in those alternatives.

Mark Custis

Our

I know our calls fro solar therma have dropped off.

They will be back.

I used to pay 19.9 cents a gallon for gas in Lansing MI in 1971.

S Ebels_2

I don't hold out much hope.......

For coal gasification in this country any time soon. The good folks we have elected in DC have pretty much stated an open aversion to anything coal. They need a reality check and quick. The Chinese have built several coal gasification plants and have more coming on line on a yearly basis. We in this country can't get approval for a single solitary one. Wind and solar, while they do help, will never be much more than a drop in the bucket and won't be economically feasible until oil hits the $200 range.

Whether we realize it or not, we are already hostage and living on a very thin thread of goodwill by some of the members of OPEC. IIRC, we import over half of our fuel now and one of our major suppliers, Mexico has stated that they will not be able to export any oil after 2009.

High fuel prices definitely stimulate our trade but as we all saw this summer, they also have the ability too shut down mot only our economy but that of the entire world.

S Ebels_2

Ahh yes.........

Those were the days. Sunoco 260 ultra premium for the 383 in my old Plymouth was only 27.7/gl. I remember it like yesterday. Gas doesn't even smell the same anymore.

Mark Custis

Mr. Ebels

It has been so long since you and I typed here together that I forget if I used a screen name. I now do not care if everyone knows who I am or if all those rich guys will send me money if I just send a PDF of my signature, cell phone number, checking account number and the routing codes.

I will be in Washington D.C. for the next few days, I will let them know how we feel.

S Ebels_2

Mr Custis

Your name rings a bell somewhere in what remains of my mind. Do I know you from the Wall only or have we met somewhere along the line?

Mark Custis

I think it was on the wall

We both got laid off and hung out a shingle.

We took what Dan H and the good folks here taught us and travel the USA doing out side the box hydronics.

Spent last winter in CT doing geothermal retrofits.

We could have met at Beckett a few years back at Allen's class.

Your first name is Steve?

S Ebels_2

Steve is correct

Call me anything except late for dinner.

Mark Custis

Nite Steve

We are in DC tomarrow. Truckstop breakfast and 116 miles. Our child is there in grad school.

Have tools, do travel.

tccoggs_2

Coal Gasification

My father is part of the finacing team for Synfuel, and this project is moving forward as we speak:

http://led.louisiana.gov/view-release.aspx?id=2871

Its a viable technology and emissions can be controlled much better that direct combustion of coal, so I hope it has some legs.

Unknown

Happy days are here again!

I dont know about everyone else here but when oil hit 140.00 a barrel I was turning work away. Triangle tube couldnt make the prestige fast enough and were 6 weeks out.
As for myself I put some panels on the roof and installed geothermal, my energy bills are as low as ever. Next year my wife is buying a prius. I go to many jobs where I see an old weil coal stoker from the 40s converted to oil in the 60s and the people still want to know if I can repair it. The sad part is, they have 2 new or fairly new v 8s sitting in the driveway to take them to work. Oh spare me boo hoo. I cant wait till it hits 200 a barrel. Yea the truck fuel cost more , so what you tack it on the job.
Not to mention the high efficientcy units take alot of the hacks out of the trade. Nothin better than seeing a 500 dollar mcba control smoked by some idiot! This trade is a never ending educational experience plus you have to get your hands dirty, we deserve to get our piece of the action and its coming! When I read an article like that it give me a warm fuzzy feeling inside.