Energy Infographics Put Renewables Into Perspective
My team and I are working hard to develop a series of infographics that introduce relative newcomers to the subject of energy — and renewables in particular.
I had fun with the first one, which looked at the history of renewable energy on this planet. The second one, which pointed out that all energy on Earth has come to us as a result of the Big Bang 13.7 billion years ago, was even more interesting, in that it inspired a bit of controversy among certain religious folks that I hadn’t even imagined when I put the idea together.
I’d like to see this bloom into a dozen such graphics over the coming year or two.
Good work, Craig.
1 – Have you seen the newest book from Amory Lovins’ Rocky Mountain Institute, “Reinventing Fire.” Have a look on their website, RMI.org. Great collection of ideas, and a plan to turn this country into a “fossil-fuel free” land by about 2050.
2 – Energy conservation: Get the home appliance companies to “think systemically,” rather than just making “furnaces” or “hot water heaters” or “stoves” or “refrigerator/freezers.” Refr/Freezers should be connected to outdoor air, and use this air when it is cold enough, rather than running the compressor. And the compressor can be water-cooled, rather than air-cooled, so that the “waste heat” from the compressor could be piped directly to a “pre-heated water” tank in front of the “hot-water heater.” And the furnace should never be turned on in the warmer months of the year just to heat water; waste heat from the compressor and the kitchen stove/range can pre-heat the water, so that much less electrical heating would be required than in a conventional water heater. And refr/freezers should comprise drawers, so that you pull out the drawer, pick out what you want, and then close the drawer, all without dumping all of the cold air onto the kitchen floor.
3 – Put an attached “greenhouse” or “sunroom” on the south side of homes (northern hemisphere), and put a solar thermal panel inside this room, to pre-heat water. In my home, we have such an arrangement; the advantages are quite significant. On an annual basis, we get about 2/3 of our hot water from this greenhouse pre-heater, with the rest coming from electrical heaters, that only come on when the water is flowing to the bathrooms or kitchen. In other words the only stored hot water is heated by the sun. Hence our electricity usage for water heating is less than a 1/4 of our neighbor’s usage. Plus, the solar thermal panel, being inside the greenhouse, is always surrounded by quite warm air when it is pre-heating water. Hence it is thermodynamically far more efficient than the same panels my neighbors have, up on their rooftops.
Here in New England, rooftop panels are very inefficient in about 8 months of the year. We have a 40 sq.ft. black copper absorber plate in our one panel (about half the area of our neighbor’s rooftop panels); it functions not only to heat water, but is simply hung from the safety railing on the front of the upstairs balcony within the greenhouse. Thus, it is structurally simpler than an outdoor panel, which must be built weather and wind resistant. Further if it ever leaks (no leaks so far in 32 years), I’ll know it, and be able to work indoors while repairing the panel.
4 – Drain pipes from the bathtubs/showers should be separated from other drains. They should run through the basement, well-exposed to the room air, thereby giving back a good percentage of the heat energy in the used tub/shower water, as the water flows to the sewers/septage tanks. Thus, roughly half the energy used to heat the bath/shower hot water can be recovered to heat the air in the house during the cooler months. In the summer, we ventilate the basement with outdoor air (free convection; no fans required).
5 – A solution to our energy supply problems? Yes: it comes up once a day.
6 – “Throw it away,” he said. But there is no “away” as we all share this planet.
7 – We all live downstream, so mind what you put down the drain.
Great response Doug! you sound like me when I used to live in NE Washington State.
Now, my “info graphics” idea is a graph showing how much energy of each type the average U.S. millionaire uses and the CO2 they produce, alongside the same info for the average person of $50,000 annual income. This will show how much more the millionaires need to do to slow global warming I expect.