Wyvern wrote:
EDIT: incidentally wind power is useless due to the massive land take required. Solar energy on the ground is unreliable.
Wrong and wrong. If you were right 75% of European Countries with hot climates and even those with climates like ours (i.e. Germany) would be making it the law to have solar panels installed to heat your water. As for the wind power bit there is a blog of a guy using the Stealth Gen44 wind turbine i posted about and actually making surplus energy from it for his household. Hes currently trying to sort something out whereby his local supplier buys it back off him.
Oh of course, you are referring to residential energy use only. How stupid of me.
You are ignoring the massive electrical requirements for industry perhaps?
Let's hope for the power companies sake no-one realises you can just bump a solar panel and a turbine on your roof and never pay for power again! Even in midwinter!
They got things like the atom bamb... so I'm gonna stay where I... AM!
Think I've posted this before but you can never have too much Bill Hicks!
Bill Hicks wrote:There's too many f-ing people in the world. Someone needs to say that by the way. Tired of this, "Hey hey aren't we the coolest. Humans are so neat." Too many of yer. Quit rutting, just for a f-ing day. Let's work out this food/air deal. Then go back to your rutting.
Nice quote Morton, you can never have too much Floyd either
Lisa, if the bible has taught us anything - and it hasn't - it's that girls should stick to girl's sports, such as hot-oil wrestling, foxy boxing and such and such.
Wyvern wrote:
Oh of course, you are referring to residential energy use only. How stupid of me.
You are ignoring the massive electrical requirements for industry perhaps?
Let's hope for the power companies sake no-one realises you can just bump a solar panel and a turbine on your roof and never pay for power again! Even in midwinter!
Well I wasnt ignoring Industry I just wasnt talking about that however if you read up I did mention Fusion power stations providing power the experimental one in France proves a success and doesnt crack the earths mantel in a tremendous explosion. I was also talking about whats avilable now rather than what might be in the future. More to the point if people are serious about it (which I dont think anyone is, I think everyone secretly hopes like Dubya that technology will bail us out) they can start now by installing Turbines and Solar panels. As Tesco tells us every little helps and who are we to argue with the might of the corporations.
*switches lights on and off* Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight!
Lisa, if the bible has taught us anything - and it hasn't - it's that girls should stick to girl's sports, such as hot-oil wrestling, foxy boxing and such and such.
ITER (the fusion experiment you speak of) has yet to generate more energy than is required to get fusion going. But that certainly is the most likely source of future energy, if we can get it self sustaining and contained.
No chance at all of it blowing a hole in the mantle since none of the fusion bombs already exploded have done so, and I guess they are rather more powerful.
Everyone could certainly help out with home generation, and it would make a huge difference.
Energy breakdown is something like 25% industry 25% home 20% services and 30% transport ( finger in air)
I also think you are right on everyone counting on technology to bail them out, if they think of it at all...
They got things like the atom bamb... so I'm gonna stay where I... AM!
Fusion has always been "just round the corner". Ignoring Fleischman and Pond's cold fusion, it's only failry recently, IIRC, that a fusion experiment has managed to generate more energy out, than in. That said, fusion works, we see it every morning and every time we look up at the skies.
OTOH, yes, technology has dug us out of a hole - Pournelle's original essays were written well before the OPEC crisis of the mid 70s (that's when petrol was 20p a gallon, approx 5p/litre), my children...
More efficienct engines, better home insulation, and so on, came out of that. But, fossil fuels are a finite resource - we've got to stop burning the bastards.
Since you mention it the better insulation thing really piddles me off. So many houses in the UK, I dare say about 90% of them although thats me guessing, arent properly insulated. If we (home owners)/builders/council bothered their arse to insulate properly houses would be a lot cheaper to heat and consequently less damaging with regards to emissions and energy useage. *fumes* (but not that sort of fumes). Living in Edinburgh there is a shortage of housing at the moment so there are lots of new build flats popping up on every available plot of land. Everytime I pass one I get mildly miffed because these new builds are cheap crap. You see the shells go up, then its mostly wood work, gyp board and some crappy sandy coloured stone as an outer facing. The price folk pay for them is disgusting too but thats another story. These houses/flats are just money sinks for whoever is foolish enough to buy one they are that poorly made. At least from what I have seen of them and what I understand from my old man (builder/joiner). Its also like living with your neighbours when/if you do buy one. Im not saying the old tenaments are great pieces of housing but compared to new flats they are far superior. At least in a flat in Haymarket or Dalry you'll only hear your neighbours above and below in new builds your likely to hear the entire block as well as outside. 'course you only have to put up with that for a few years till you try to sell and move on due to the noise, cracking in the walls/ceiling, subsidence yadda yadda yadda *faints*
