Peak Oil News and Message Boards

mekrob wrote:I got one: people talking about others wasting energy when they themselves are wasting energy by using a computer to talk about others wasting energy which does not good to conservation because they are preaching to those that already conserve.

Well how else should they discuss and spread the message? Go and toss leaflets at everyone's home? Remember: not everyone tries to be economical of energy, so it's best to spread it around. If I drove to their homes I would be guzzling an eff of a lot more energy than I would be using my computer.

More dumb wastes of energy:

1. Producing TV shows that are nothing but gossip about some celebrity. Woo... what's Britney wearing tonight?! Good God it is irritating!

2. The military. 'Nuff said. Bush, get your a** out of Iraq!!! The people don't want you there anyway...

Okay this is fun...

Obvious wastes: Natural gas in the tar sands for process heat. Build reactors and use the natural gas for hydrogen upgrading of the heavy oil.

Flaring of natural gas on stranded oil wells. Hook up a GTL plant or even better a mini refinery to upgrade the oil at the wellhead. Not sure how small you can make this to be worthwhile.

Rankine cycles everywhere: Use kalina cycles and get instant efficency boosts.

Low ridership bus routes: Get vans for these things maybe, or cancel them all together.

Better consumer transformers: This one is easy.

Exhaust heat is unused on most cars except some turbodiesels, add a turbo-alternator for running ac or other gunk.

Automatic paper towel dispensers. What, we can't even pull down a lever anymore?

oilfreeandhappy wrote:Automatic paper towel dispensers. What, we can't even pull down a lever anymore?

Pull a lever!?! That means touching the filthy moist thing that probably hasn't been cleaned in weeks! Keeping your hands off the dispenser lowers your chances of contracting something. How much energy does it take to make a person well again?

At least I hope that's the reason these no-touch dispensers were developed. If they were concieved out of laziness the party responsible deserves to choke to death on a cheezy-poof.

sm5 wrote:If you want to say the war machine is a big energy waster, try the entertainment (sports, movies, radio, etc) industry. Not only do they waste resources, but they also waste our time as well.

If you think running a film camera costs more energy than driving a 10-ton TANK around then I don't know where you're getting your information... However if the programming is crap, then it is a waste (although how big is debatable, but still a waste), not just of energy, but of time, of money, etc. Especially when they focus the whole movie on showing off some chick's "sexy hot body" or they crank out pornos that do nothing but make more sex offenders. But hey! What else can you expect from today's effed-up world?

THose patio heaters that burn propane or natural gas to heat the great outdoors. And those mosquito traps that directly turn propane into CO2. Of course last night I went to costco and walked around in their new walk in fridge for keeping produce. 20'x20', 30 feet tall, with an opening 10 feet tall by 12 feet wide with nothing to stop the air from pouring out into the rest of the store. That entire area of the store was cold and those refer units never stop running.

Aimrehtopyh wrote:Pull a lever!?! That means touching the filthy moist thing that probably hasn't been cleaned in weeks! Keeping your hands off the dispenser lowers your chances of contracting something. How much energy does it take to make a person well again?

Ohh for god's sake. You really believe anyone ever got leprosy from touching a paper towel dispenser? American germ phobia knows no bounds.

At least I hope that's the reason these no-touch dispensers were developed. If they were concieved out of laziness the party responsible deserves to choke to death on a cheezy-poof.

My bet would be that they were developed out of neither germ phobia nor laziness. My bet would be that the driving concept was to prevent people from using excessive amounts of paper towels. They spit out one little square of paper. Then you have to sit there and do the Macarena in front of the machine to get it to give you another square. Less paper towel usage means less expense for the business owner.

What I do is I dispense a towel first and let it hang there, wash my hands, then go get the towel I dispensed. If I feel my hands may be dirty, I'll pull the lever with my arm instead out of courteosy for future users who do not use this ingenious method.

It's not a waste of energiy, but a denial of the right to use it.

We have lots of south-facing windows. We designed the eaves to shade them in the summer but not in the winter.

No matter how hard we tried, we could not get a permit to put in windows WITHOUT the solar barrier film in them. So while we could probably provide a substantial amount of heat for our house in the winter from sunshine, for free, and save natural gas by doing so, we are instead reflecting it back outside.

It's criminal stupidity on the part of our building department.

zensui wrote:The amount of energy that is invested in each newspaper to provide a bundle of news, propaganda and advertising is staggering when you think about it (not to mention the natural ressources invested). The newspaper is then read once, about 5% of it AT MOST, and thrown away.
What a dumb waste of energy.

I had a job assignment in a post office sorting plant several years ago. It astonished me how many tractor-trailer loads a day they get of advertising mail. I'd guess 20 to 30 a day at the one I worked at, which was pretty big. Then you see maybe a 100 workers moving skids and sorting bags and tubs and bundles, and even some pieces at sorting frames. All I could think of was that maybe only one item in 10 was even glanced at before disposal. That is a real waste of time and trees.

And, who owns the post office? Well, the same government that encourages us to conserve. I guess I should not be surprised as they also tell people not to drink irresponsibly or to smoke, but they make a good haul of cash off that too.

Denny wrote:And, who owns the post office? Well, the same government that encourages us to conserve.

The bit that just pisses me off is that they pay what? $0.10 to mail me a piece of junkmail. I then have to pay $0.39 to mail a letter. So basically I'm being forced to subsidize them to mail me all this crap.

smallpoxgirl wrote:The bit that just pisses me off is that they pay what? $0.10 to mail me a piece of junkmail. I then have to pay $0.39 to mail a letter. So basically I'm being forced to subsidize them to mail me all this crap.

Wow, there sure must be a lot of junk mail in the States at that cheap price. Up here in Canada, the advertising mail rate is about 36 cents, compared to 51 cents for a letter I mail. Mind you, that is Canadian money, so more like comparing 31 cents to 45 cents.

Denny wrote:Wow, there sure must be a lot of junk mail in the States at that cheap price.

I may be off a bit, but it's super cheap. It's even cheaper for the non-profit junkmailers.

zensui wrote:Just point what activities, products, behaviours, etc are wasteful.
(not in importance order)
1. public night light
2. dresses dryier... why not dry dresses with sun?
3. leaving electricity-powered devices on while not on use (TV, PC, etc)
4. military

I would modify your list as follows.
1. Public lighting in excess of that needed for safety.
2. Clothes drier on sunny breezy days when solar/wind activity would do the job for free. Not everyone lives where the weather makes drying a lot of clothes in one day practicle.
3. Luxury/convenience outweigh the electricity costs for most people.
4. The only thing worse than an expensive successfull military is an expensive unsuccessful military. Sooner or later if you have none you loose everything because someone else will come and take over.

Snowmobiles and two cycle engines are wasteful. Read Fuel Ghoul's latest post entitled Green Snowmobiles?.

Fuel Ghoul

Overpackaged materials. Shrink wrap, then box, then package in a corrugated cardboard box. Madness...
Also, why does trash have to be in plastic bags? Once it goes in the truck, the bag breaks anyway. What's wrong with a sealed trash can. I think Hefty Corporation is behind these laws.
Remember returnable bottles. Many don't know that milk used to come in returnable bottles.

zensui wrote:Just point what activities, products, behaviours, etc are wasteful. (not in importance order):
1. public night light
2. dresses dryier... why not dry dresses with sun?
3. leaving electricity-powered devices on while not on use (TV, PC, etc)
4. military

Just point what activities above contribute to GDP and employ millions?
Wasteful use is part and parcel to our way of life.
Conservation and capitalism are like oil and water; they do not mix.

Alright, I am more of aN EV'er, but there is one thing about ICE I have never groked. Why the hell do we throw away the heat?
With all the electronics controlling combustion, not a penny spent tring to recover the 80%+ energy lost to heat.
Nuke gennies do it, is it unscalable?

The stigma of steam?
It seems like we go to alot of trouble STOPPING water from boiling in ICE, why the hell not LET it boil and turn another crank?
Yur only going to recover 20-30% with a steam genny, but even ten points of eighty sounds pretty good.
Am I missing something?

It is done. Typically using the waste heat from diesel gennys to make steam. It's hostage to the relative price of oil and coal. These days oil is way expensive relative to either coal or natural gas.