First let me reiterate that I am a great believer in the duty of all of us to do what we can to combat energy waste and therefore global warming. Nothing I am about to say goes against that.
This was our first fire on Saturday. Our house is now being heated by our central heating system. We don't have the thermostat very high and it goes off (well, unless the house threatens to get REALLY cold) overnight and is turned down in the middle of the day too. Most people would consider that to be a reasonable use of energy. But what about leaving electronic goods on standby or using incandescent bulbs - that is a wanton waste of energy right? Well actually no it isn't.
A TV on standby is not a TV, so the energy is being wasted. A light bulb is designed to give light, but only 10% of its energy is converted to light so the other 90% is wasted. Except, that energy is going somewhere - where? Well, it is heating our house and saving us from burning more oil to keep it above the thermostat setting.
So, does that make it all OK? No. Firstly, all through the summer we were not heating our home and at times were using energy to cool it. Secondly, if a light is there to give light and we switch it on for that purpose, we are heating our home without deciding how much to heat it and when. So why mention this at all? I was in two minds whether I should - because the last thing I want to do is fuel the arguments of the global warming deniers. But I also can't support the calculations of those who say that you can save money and energy by switching to CFL lighting or whatever based on the heat energy being wasted - this is only true in mild climates and in the summer (when there is more daylight and lights stay switched off anyway). Here in upstate NY, we are expecting a long winter of significant household heating and although an electric bulb may not be the most economical way to heat our home, there is no reason to believe it is significantly worse for the environment that any other way.
So, by all means encourage me to switch off my appliances and incandescent light bulbs (especially in warmer weather) - I hope we will all do all we can - but don't ask me to switch off my brain. We don't need ecology to be a new religion - the science will do very well by itself.
Hi there exile. You got quite passionate about that - so much so, I'm missing the lovely picture of your fire! I'm going to challenge you on the basis of (informed, I hope) intuition, rather than science! I follow your argument, but surely the heat energy given out by our old fashioned light bulbs is less efficient (CO2/joule) at heating the house than the central heating? Isn't it?!!? :)
ReplyDeleteNicola
Firstly, sorry about the picture - I think blogger had a 'moment', secondly thanks for your comment Nicola, and thirdly...
ReplyDeleteI think that it is reasonable to suppose that the incidental heating will be approximately as efficient as any other form of electrical heating. However, that is likely to compare unfavourably with natural gas (so for example, half the 'wasted' energy may be actually wasteful if the alternative heating source was natural gas central heating). How it compares with the oil we use here including its road journeys to get to us is less easy to estimate.
However, I wasn't trying to suggest that anyone shouldn't avoid these uncontrolled heat sources, just that the headlines sometimes hide some dodgy science, sweeping generalisations and/or invalid approximations.
Mmmm... am left to ponder!
ReplyDeleteNice fireplace!
All the best
nicola
thanks :)
ReplyDelete