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I can tolerate pretty cold environments, but why should I have to? The outdoors are the reason we invented the indoors. “The potential energy savings are huge;
by hyko 6y ago
I can tolerate pretty cold environments, but why should I have to? The outdoors are the reason we invented the indoors.
“The potential energy savings are huge; the costs are almost nil.”
This is a complete fantasy. What’s actually happening here is, faced with a hard problem (heating indoor spaces in a sustainable way), they have decided to solve a much harder one (changing the behaviour and physiology of everyone on Earth) in the guise of a simple one (if only we all wore more clothing). What sounds like a simple solution is therefore actually nearly impossible, and of little use to us unless we’re facing extreme circumstances.
The whole point of civilisation is that life does not have to be a survival exercise. If we can’t come up with anything better than this line of reasoning, then we are done for.
- PurpleFoxy 6y agoThis kind of comment gets posted on everything from low tech magazine. I think the authors intention is not to give practical ideas that could be widely deployed to the world but instead to give ideas to people who find enjoyment out of maximising efficiency as a hobby. The author is a person who turns most of the lights off so they can run their office on a solar panel hanging out their apartment window.
- hyko 6y agoWell, live and let live :)
- PurpleFoxy 6y agoI think it’s pretty cool tbh. I just don’t review the proposals as things to do practically and more for fun to learn about energy
- hyko 6y agoYes, I think what you’re saying makes sense.
- oftenwrong 6y agoIt is just the opposite of fantasy: Wearing warm clothing indoors is a technology that exists now and is a completely viable way to reduce energy needs. Clothing is more affordable now than at any other point in history. Heating all buildings to a comfortable temperature at all times in a sustainable way is, as you said, a hard problem - one for which there is currently no solution. Switching the world over to sustainable energy sources for heating and cooling is not simpler than convincing people to adjust their thermostats and wardrobe.
- hyko 6y agoconvincing people to adjust their thermostats and wardrobe That’s the missing chasm in the plan: how are we going to convince people to abandon luxury (real or perceived), comfort, and status in the name of efficiency? Especially when we’re talking about something so fundamental as warmth, as expressed as clause two in the phrase safe and warm when describing basic necessities. The image of someone turning down their thermostat and wearing thermals at home evokes images of hardship that will be difficult to dislodge (not to mention all the impracticalities and flat out dangerous aspects others have pointed out). By comparison (in a technologically advanced capitalist society with a mature consumer culture) the challenges of developing and scaling renewable technology that fulfils people’s wants and needs are child’s play.