More Musings of an Energy Nerd
There has been a gradual shift in emphasis for green builders over the last 15 years—away from focusing on thick insulation and triple-glazed windows toward an approach called “electrify everything.”
This isn’t just a fad. The move to electrify everything—in other words, to phase out combustion appliances and, if possible, install a photovoltaic (PV) system—is based on sound environmental and financial principles. Whether we care about carbon emissions or energy saving, it can be hard to make thick insulation and triple-glazed windows pencil out. Installing electric appliances and PV systems usually makes better sense for the environment as well as our pocketbooks.
If my summary of this shift in perspective is unconvincing, you should read these articles:
- “Energy-Efficiency Retrofits: Insulation or Solar Power?”
- “The High Cost of Deep-Energy Retrofits”
- “Revisiting Net-Zero Energy”
- “Deep Energy Retrofits Are Often Misguided”
- “Code-Minimum Is the New Green”
- “Do Deep-Energy Retrofits Make Sense?”
Avoiding combustion
If your house has combustion appliances, you may be burning natural gas, propane, heating oil, kerosene, or firewood. Moreover, your car or truck is probably fueled by gasoline or diesel. All of these fuels release carbon dioxide when burned, and all can now be replaced by electricity. If you’re lucky, you may even be able to generate some or all of the electricity you need at home.
Of course, it’s important to remember the first rule of green living: “use less.” If you’re building a house, make it as small as possible. Try your best to live near public transportation. If you can get by without buying a car, that’s great. If you can manage with just one electric vehicle, it’s better to own an electric bicycle than an electric car.
Making the transition is often expensive
The all-electric approach already makes…
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12 Comments
Thanks Martin,
A great comprehensive road map - and I admire your continued optimism about the possibility of dealing with climate change, when many of us are unable to sustain that perspective.
Malcolm,
Your simple sentence raises a huge issue, which isn't easy for any of us to address.
The climate change data are indeed quite depressing, and the political climate in the United States is catastrophic. My direct observations of the natural world and my reading of the data do not lead to an optimistic conclusion about the likelihood of avoiding disruptive climate change.
One way or another, we will be "dealing" (your word) with climate change. As we live out our years on this planet, those of us who care about the natural world need, at the very least, to listen to our conscience.
Martin,
Avoiding slipping into nihilism - instead continuing listening to your conscience and acting on it right now is to me something to be greatly admired.
As I hope you know, for your thoughts here, and all you have written on GBA, I’m greatly in your debt.
Thankyou Martin and Malcolm, my two favorite gurus, for your sage advice over the last five years. I have just completed the shell of my all electric house just north of Martin in Quebec. Everybody asks me , where will the fireplace go , or where does the woodstove go, never, are you going to install a woodstove. My three acres are adjacent to a family owned 100 acre woodlot that hasn't been logged for a hundred years. I have been searching in vain all this time for a steam turbine to provide backup but right sized ones seem to be non-existant. Solar panels are still around the $2 per watt range here so aren't compatible with my miniscule budget especially considering the price of electricity here. A lead on steam powered electricty would be great. Nils. It was the comments that were not behind the paywall that convinced me to sign up for GBA so I could read the articles.
nilst,
What did you end up doing for a foundation?
I ended up doing a concrete slab with in floor heat. I still like my idea of several layers of plywood on EPS on Glavel. The reactions of everybody I told about my no cement plan, were so visceral and unanimous that I worried much more about an inspector forcing me to redo it in cement . I have yet to see an inspector. But that's life.
nilst,
Probably for the best for the reasons you say.
Good luck with the rest of your build!
Nilst,
Item #1: Your budget is minuscule. That is the overriding factor.
You don't want a steam-powered generator to make electricity, for the following reasons:
Steam engines are obsolete, expensive to buy, expensive to maintain, fussy to operate, and prone to explode. The cost for the hardware and the expense of keeping this rarely used item in operational condition is so high it will frustrate you.
Your best options are: learn to live without electricity when you don't have any -- it's possible -- or buy a small $1,000 gas-powered generator to keep a few items running during power outages.
I was hoping that somewhere in the world someone would have produced a steam turbine whose output was measured in watts, not megawatts. In the meantime I acquired a broken generator which I fixed for $20. I should be fine for several days without electricity because I insulated and air sealed to the best of my ability . The house gets stuffy quickly because I haven't installed the air exchanger yet. Designing and installing an independently ducted system is proving difficult. But I digress.
Nilst,
It's definitely not a great solution, but an ICE generator fed with a wood gasification system is probably your only viable option for creating electricity from wood. It would be labor intensive and probably an ongoing experiment that will never be terribly reliable though. It also has the side benefit of creating biochar as a byproduct...
That being said, the proper answer is to just save up for solar, look for used components if you can't afford new. This is a the best resource I know of for piecing together a system yourself https://www.reddit.com/r/SolarDIY/
I was hoping to find a slightly larger version of a model steam engine that you can put on a table top. Where I lived before I started building my house there was a neighbour with a forge and a Stanley Steamer which he would get out occasionally and drive around the village. This is old and reliable technology. It is used for electricity generation but it seems to be made only in really big or really small sizes. IC engines come in all sizes from teeny to monstrous. It doesn't make sense that external combustion engines aren't available in the size I want.
#11 Nilst,
Just out of curiosity, I wonder if a group like this might be able to help you track down the pieces and parts to make your own.
https://www.steamcarnetwork.com/
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