Energy generation, consumption and waste.

[xelasnave]

The question for the future is where will our energy come from.
Any ideas.
Coal is excellent but it probably will run out. And we have neclear but same problem as it too will run out...solar ..well as the climate changes I expect more cloud..you don't realise just how few days your solar panels deliver enough power...so what is the answer.
And can't something be done about the waste..it's a small thing but representative of wastefulness in general...out side my place .day light arrived hours earlier and yet the street light is still on...now we have everyone wringing their hands about the future so why..why..is the waste not addressed.

Add your observation of waste please and let's focus somewhat on the hypocracy of the current situation which no doubt in some small way must help to head off the carbon footprint worries.
Alex

[xelasnave]

And I am in a shopping centre looking at the light in the super market..at least double to what would do the job...and in the public areas lights every ten feet and yet the windows to the light outside are so small they clearly are there only to meet the building code and certainly not to contribute light.
I mean everywhere you look things are designed with little regard to energy efficiency...so imagine if we plugged the gaps ..would that help..if only a little?
Alex

[bojan]

I am sure it would.

IoT may be part of the solution... but really, there are too many of humans on Earth.. reduce the numbers and solution is here.

[JeniSkunk (Jenifur)]

Originally Posted by bojan

IoT may be part of the solution... but really, there are too many of humans on Earth.. reduce the numbers and solution is here.

Actually, the IoT is a new part of the ewaste problem and wastefool energy consumption problem.
And another are the privacy invading tech toys like aerial drones.

[xelasnave]

Originally Posted by bojan

I am sure it would.

IoT may be part of the solution... but really, there are too many of humans on Earth.. reduce the numbers and solution is here.

I am doing my best as I have stopped producing.
But a market economy must have more market each year which means we must have more people...strangley it is to only way we can survive.
It's like the energy waste thing...can you imagine the power company including notes on how to reduce consumption...they need more consumption...actually we could do this..reduce the numbers of people but increase living standards so the market can grow..and this is happening all the time..but the energy consumption goes up obviously..you get a car for someone who only had a bicycle and guess what you need more petrol or electricity...stopping creating people would say energy..you would save fuel and if you composted the remains that would lessen the need for fertilizer...now I am thinking of all the sewerage that is wasted.
Alex

[JeniSkunk (Jenifur)]

Originally Posted by xelasnave

And I am in a shopping centre looking at the light in the super market..at least double to what would do the job...and in the public areas lights every ten feet and yet the windows to the light outside are so small they clearly are there only to meet the building code and certainly not to contribute light.
I mean everywhere you look things are designed with little regard to energy efficiency...so imagine if we plugged the gaps ..would that help..if only a little?

Connedsumers have been trained to expect supermarkets to be extremely brightly lit. Can you remember the lighting levels in the older, 1950s, minor supermarkets? They were a lot lower than what ColesWorth use now. Present day connedsumers, however, would complain that the old supermarkets were insufficiently lit.

As for lighting waste, the push to move business and council lighting to LED, is being waged successfooly on the economics front. Brighter and more light for lower bills. And EVEN MOAR light, if you want to keep the bills about the same as at present.
And what that means for everyone is worse and worse light pollution and no more night sky.

[bojan]

Well..

There are other solutions available.
If capitalism is self-destructive concept when the further growth becomes impossible, it will have to reinvent itself.. Market (economy) is elusive space, and not only physical (material) things could be subjects of sale and growth..


See here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prosperity_Without_Growth
http://www.ephemerajournal.org/contr...conomic-growth
https://www.theguardian.com/sustaina...our-inequality

[xelasnave]

I have it..no property to be passed by way of inheritance, objects purchased can not be sold but only sent for recycling. Reproduction limited on a per family basis so only when grandpa died can you bring a new human into the world...production is increased each year but surpluses is returned for recycling.
And all animals must wear clothing.
Alex

[bojan]

Originally Posted by JeniSkunk

Actually, the IoT is a new part of the ewaste problem and wastefool energy consumption problem.
And another are the privacy invading tech toys like aerial drones.

That depends how it is used... anything has the potential to be misused by someone...
As to privacy.. what's that?

[xelasnave]

And fancy black roofs on houses.. all I notice with big air conditioners ..could cooling a house with a black roof even if well insulated not require more energy than one with a roof that reflects rather than absorbs...
Alex

[Startrek (Martin)]

My old company ( I was a director ) designed , engineered, installed and maintained electrical and lighting to approximately 750,000 sqm of retail floor space in commercial shopping centres and buildings over 25 years across Australia
We started with incandescent and fluorescent lighting late 80’s and early 90’s then came compact fluorescents , halogens and metal halide lighting in early 2000’s and by 2012 we were fully LED specified
The energy saving and cost saving in watts per sqm was an absolute quantum leap from the early days to just recently when I retired
LED is the way of the future but only in the hands of competent, experienced lighting engineers and designers
Most installations these days I’m finding are way over specified and therefore waisting lumens ( not so much cost ) in the wrong areas ( hence your overlit supermarkets etc... )
They are governed by the BCA and Australian Standards in regards to design but tend to be overzealous to cover themselves and their companies
My 2 cents ........

[xelasnave]

Certainly your input is worth more than two cents.
Really there are so many places where energy could be saved and that before we turn on tractor pulling etc.
Heck when I was a kid and electricity had just be used to change from gas lighting we used one bulb in the house...in those days you did not waste anything...socks were darned if they had a hole..even if a pot got a hole there was a little kit with a small bolt and washers that you would repair the hole and get another twenty years out of that pot.
Who can remember such things?
Alex

[xelasnave]

In the public service when your pencil got to about 2 inches long the boss gave you a little cardboard cylinder so you could hold the pencil until it was gone..that's true in my father's day...he managed a court house in a country town..one ton of firewood for the whole winter...
Alex

[Startrek (Martin)]

This is my 2 cents on our planets future energy needs beyond the year 2200
Not wind ( a fruitless idea )
Not solar ( an idea with merit but unreliable )
Not coal ( depleted by then )
Not nuclear ( to expensive and to much hazardous waste )

Nuclear Fusion ( safe , reliable , efficient , main byproduct waste is H2O, and the Moon is in abundance of Helium 3 , only 1 week to get there , mine it and bring it back to earth on a future Space X interplanetary cargo carrier)

Stupid idea ? maybe but it could sustain our energy needs to the next millennium

Comments welcome

[xelasnave]

Originally Posted by Startrek

This is my 2 cents on our planets future energy needs beyond the year 2200
Not wind ( a fruitless idea )
Not solar ( an idea with merit but unreliable )
Not coal ( depleted by then )
Not nuclear ( to expensive and to much hazardous waste )

Nuclear Fusion ( safe , reliable , efficient , main byproduct waste is H2O, and the Moon is in abundance of Helium 3 , only 1 week to get there , mine it and bring it back to earth on a future Space X interplanetary cargo carrier)

Stupid idea ? maybe but it could sustain our energy needs to the next millennium

Comments welcome

I am not a physicist so am in the perfect position to comment on Fusion

I personally can't see it happening on the basis they need so much energy to sustain a very short reaction...and I know the idea is that once it gets going that energy will be insignificant to the energy produced..so they say..but it's been a long time coming and from the little I know the results do not suggest that the dream will be delivered.
And the belief that the light elements give out energy, when the others require energy for the same proceedure may suggest observation of that quality in the light elements could be wrong..in my view...and please understand I don't know what they are talking about at all and my opinion is offered for no other reason to provide a platform for someone who does know what they are talking about to enter this discussion and offer encouraging facts that show they are close to a break thru..however it does seem all we hear us each twenty years is that it will be another twenty years..
I have yet to see any invention that produces more power than you have to put in...say ICE ..you only get say 30% of your input, steam I think is under 10% ...
Fusion occurs as I understand due to the free energy in the Sun, gravity, and it seems to manufacture a similar environment on Earth requires enormous energy input ...I don't know as I said but for me it does not sound much different to folk claiming they can turn water into fuel etc..sure you can but the energy required is huge .
That's my contribution and perhaps I should not elevate its value by attaching the usual two cent figure
But I do hope others can take the discussion to a higher level.
Alex