Interesting Commentary

bob_50

Steamhead, you need one of these!

Mike T., Swampeast MO

The Hard Truth About Oil

I don't see anything that matters on a large-scale happening soon, but perhaps I'm just too cynical.

On a small scale however, I think that MANY wallies understand and ARE doing what they can to help...both themselves AND their customers.

Dennis

I think the ball is partly in our

court how many houses have you been in where the owners want service on a coal conversion. I will not service these old dogs. They get replaced or I walk and I don't care if I loose the customer.

Let me be radical here, I am a landlord (and an HVAC guy)all of my building are old, and the tenants pay the utilities, but all these buildings are insulated as best as possible. I install high efficiency heating units to provide heating and potable water. All the bulbs in the apartments are compact flourecents at move in.
I think this is an area that needs to be put in the building code, if a renovation is done and insulation can be added it should be required.

I am telling you I could retire a millionaire on the wasted energy in one day in my service area.

Now to my solution, treat the price of energy in this country the same as R12 refrigerant. Each year a tax of 15% should be tacked onto the heating/cooling bills of all consumers this should continue for 8 years and then expire. The money generated could be used to assist in financing those who could not afford to modernize their homes. This would spark real energy conservation methods.

I think folks would be a lot happier keeping the savings in the USA rather than sending the money to the lunatics in the middle east. If as a country we don't do something we will think in the future that $2.50 gas as the good old days.

bob_50

savings

Mike, interesting article. You roused my intrest in oil consumption. I looked up some statistics at the EIA. My first take was that our Gov. needs some serious help. The most current data is from 2001. The numbers are quite large so I rounded off. About 7.5% of our homes are heated with oil which uses about 99 million barrels a YEAR. The country consumes about 14 million barrels a DAY. We use about 7 days worth of total consumption for home heating. If we could increase the efficiency of all the oil heating appliances 20% we could save one and a half days worth. I don't think that would make a substantial difference in the geo-politics. I live in an area where most of the new homes going up are Mcmansions the walls are 2by4 with 31/2" of fiberglass and most of the heating is forced air with minimal duct work. Average price over a mill. Lots of BIG suv's. Now I believe everyone should be abel to live in and drive whatever they desire, it's their nickle. Until we all drive Messerschmidt's and live in little thick walled styrofoam boxes we are doomed to being oil addicts. We could take a tip from all the other species on the planet and learn to live in our environment. After all we are sitting on a ball of molten iron with a hydrogen fusion reactor just far enough overhead to keep us from frying. bob

Steamhead (in transit)

You all have valid points

This government is all talk and no action on energy conservation or alternate energy sources. And it will never change.

Dennis, I'm afraid your idea wouldn't fly. We Americans have come to regard cheap energy as a God-given right, and refuse to listen to anyone who tells us differently. The last big-league politician to stress conservation and efficiency was President Jimmy Carter- he lost his job partly as a result of this. In the ensuing 35 years energy has remained relatively affordable, with little or no research or conservation effort. Meanwhile people continue to buy gas-guzzling SUVs and install inefficient scorched-air heating systems- there is no incentive not to, as there is in Europe. We're seeing the results of this shortsightedness now.

Several of us have posted about fixing systems where we've saved the owners a lot of fuel. These should serve as inspiration to the rest of the heating industry. If it's possible to save a homeowner over 36% on her oil consumption just by fixing the very basic problems on her steam system, think of what we could do by getting similar results in everyone's house.

P.S. Bob- what's a Messerschmidt?

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Constantin

I've seen the enemy...

... and the enemy is us. :-P

Perhaps the Europeans are peering down their collective noses at us because the US consumes per capita about 2x of the energy to heat and cool their homes than the EU. In England, condensing gas boilers became the law in 2005. Yet, is regulating/mandating energy efficiency the way to go?

I don't happen to like energy efficiency regulations that prescribe the mechanism by which it'll happen unless you can prove a market failure and reasonable payback like the current US appliance standards. Making the energy more valuable and then letting the market decide how to do it is probably preferable. The invisible hand is usually very effective...

For example, in Germany there are still a few sections of the Autobahn that are devoid of speed limits. You can tool along all you want at 150+MPH (on a clear day w/o traffic) or you can elect to follow the example of most people who tootle along at 75-85MPH because they'll get there, and with good mileage too. At $6/gallon, it makes sense to self-regulate.

The market also ought not to reward largesse. In CA, Jerry has reported that the rates in his state increase as consumption increases, i.e. they reward conservation. In MA, Nstar "rewards" large gas consumers and discourages conservation by starting with fixed customer fees (which increase the cost per unit of energy for low consumers), and lower "distribution" fees for large consumers of gas (20+ therms/month). On the electrical side, they also have a fixed fee per customer but only one rate.

A known, predictable path towards higher energy costs is probably the best tool you can use to motivate businesses and homeowners alike to plan ahead, make adjustments, etc. w/o the need for shocks to the system. There is a lot of improvement potential in this country, such as improved heating plants and housing envelopes. The technology and the professionals to do it are also there. Once the market can predict a payback, the work will get done. It is the current uncertainty about paybacks that restricts the funding.

Bob, your comment about the need to look at where the fuel is being used is spot-on as well. With as low a market share as oil has in heating homes, even a strong impact on efficiency is not going to change the market overnight. However, every bit of spare capacity means purchasing clout for the consumers, which they won't have in a tight market. As the DoE makes clear, most of our oil is going up tailpipes...



Yet, even if we started mandating hybrid cars with diesel engines (and reaped a potential 30% increase in fuel efficiency) It would take over 10 years to turn over the present stock of cars. Under the above assumptions, every year the transportation efficiency would increase 3%, which again does not sound like a lot. But every spare barrel in the market gives suppliers and speculators that much less of an opportunity to turn buyers into price-takers. That is the true power of conservation.

BTW, my father used to own a Isetta...

Steamhead (in transit)

Looks like

a Citroen 2CV with a bubble on top.

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