I'm with you on the ranting, trust me on this... I'm full up on "All we have to do..." solutions from the well-meaning and dreadfully earnest.
I'm less suspicious AC as a net win on replacement because of the HUGE amount of electric it eats up in comparison to some other things, and how trends are likely to only make new kit more and more of an improvement with additional use, which seems likely to continue for a while even if we cure every ill with modern society. Similarly, I'm less suspicious of wind and water generation than the saving ability of photoelectric generation (for which vast improvements in efficiency and cost have been just around the corner for something like four decades now), and solar water heating (as we discussed elsewhere a while ago in reference to chilled road tarmac).
A place where I see a HUGE potential win for living climate control for a lot of places *AND* a relative solution for spiraling real estate costs is to start looking at building building upside down. That is, put the garage and utility spaces on ground level and the living spaces below ground. Sure, you have to run lamps a lot, but efficient lamps we can make, from fluorescents and neons to LED and electroluminescent panels. Go down about 10 meters and your living space is the same temperature the whole year around, and usually very close to a comfortable one, solvable with a pretty simple heat exchanger in warmish climates, and smaller heaters than exist in above-ground homes in cooler ones.
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zvi
(no subject)
Date: 2006-07-25 06:25 pm (UTC)I'm less suspicious AC as a net win on replacement because of the HUGE amount of electric it eats up in comparison to some other things, and how trends are likely to only make new kit more and more of an improvement with additional use, which seems likely to continue for a while even if we cure every ill with modern society. Similarly, I'm less suspicious of wind and water generation than the saving ability of photoelectric generation (for which vast improvements in efficiency and cost have been just around the corner for something like four decades now), and solar water heating (as we discussed elsewhere a while ago in reference to chilled road tarmac).
A place where I see a HUGE potential win for living climate control for a lot of places *AND* a relative solution for spiraling real estate costs is to start looking at building building upside down. That is, put the garage and utility spaces on ground level and the living spaces below ground. Sure, you have to run lamps a lot, but efficient lamps we can make, from fluorescents and neons to LED and electroluminescent panels. Go down about 10 meters and your living space is the same temperature the whole year around, and usually very close to a comfortable one, solvable with a pretty simple heat exchanger in warmish climates, and smaller heaters than exist in above-ground homes in cooler ones.