5 ms·

I'm paying my bills and I'm giving about 1.5 mWh per year back to the grid for free. I don't think I'm doing anything wrong.

hgomersall 4y ago
Clearly not. What's your total energy consumption? Unless your looking at something closer to passivhaus levels of 15kWh/(m^2.yr) your house is too hot (and frankly, however efficient your house is the temperature is absurd). That is a statement of ethics. The price you pay for your energy doesn't even begin to pay for the damage. That is a big part of the problem. Moreover, every kWh spent on overheating your house is a kWh we as a society need to find for all the other things that are less stupid. Put on a jumper. Or even, let your body adjust. There's plenty of evidence that keeping your body working to stay warm when you are healthy is very good forblood sugar control, which has additional benefits.
- pshirshov 4y ago
  About 1.2 mWh per month on average. In summer time I generate more than I consume. In winter time I generate about 15% of my consumption. My house is extremely well insulated (BER A2), dunno if it qualifies as a passivhouse. Also I'm exporting more than a megawatt per year back to grid for free, so you (as a society) may be happy. So, I don't think I'm being unethical.
  - palata 4y ago
    > I'm exporting more than a megawatt per year back to grid for free Do you take into account the energy needed to grow and transport the food you eat? To extract the material needed for objects you own? To build your car? To maintain the roads you use? I guess you obviously don't use fossil fuels at all and instead rely exclusively on the clean energy you produce? Because if you don't, then you are still overall a consumer of energy. But even if you were a net producer of clean energy, we as a society have a big problem of consuming too much overall. We will have to reduce that at some point (whether we want it or not). So it would be great if people started thinking about not eating meat for every meal, taking a plane every second week-end, and living in a sauna.
    - pshirshov 4y ago
      Again, I think that I'm doing better than the majority of the people and it makes zero sense for me personally to save several hundreds of kWt/hs per year (which I compensate through PV) while there are major industrial offenders around. Also I travel rarely but I can't work while on vegetarian diet.
palata 4y ago
The whole point of the energy / climate crisis that is coming is that it's not about money. We as a society need to consume less energy (because we depend on fossil fuels that emit CO2), and anyway we will have less energy in the future (because... peak production of fossil fuels). There is no price on that: we need to do less with less.
- pshirshov 4y ago
  I (as a society) would happily (or unhappily) do whatever is necessary when everyone does that and the system is fair. At this point I see zero reasons to conserve damn solar energy while half of the country still uses OFCH.
  - palata 4y ago
    Yup, that's rational. That's why I don't believe that we will solve this major crisis. We will just have to survive with the consequences.
    - pshirshov 4y ago
      Probably, but if your solution is to propose me to reduce my home temperature to 19 degrees instead of dealing with Russia and China burning shittons of coal - that's kinda laughable.
      - palata 4y ago
        I guess my point is that we will need to do *a whole lot more* than most people are comfortable imagining. One way is to say "well I don't care, I won't do anything until I don't get a choice, and probably at that point it will hurt a lot". Another is to face it, start doing things, and pushing your politicians to enforce very big plans. One problem I see is that everyone says "I would be ready to do a lot more if I knew everyone else did", but when it's time to vote, they don't. Not being ready to go lower than 24.5 degrees (doesn't have to be 19 if that's not bearable for you) in winter does not sound like you are ready to do much, though.

hgomersall 4y ago

Clearly not. What's your total energy consumption? Unless your looking at something closer to passivhaus levels of 15kWh/(m^2.yr) your house is too hot (and frankly, however efficient your house is the temperature is absurd). That is a statement of ethics. The price you pay for your energy doesn't even begin to pay for the damage. That is a big part of the problem. Moreover, every kWh spent on overheating your house is a kWh we as a society need to find for all the other things that are less stupid. Put on a jumper. Or even, let your body adjust. There's plenty of evidence that keeping your body working to stay warm when you are healthy is very good forblood sugar control, which has additional benefits.

pshirshov 4y ago
About 1.2 mWh per month on average. In summer time I generate more than I consume. In winter time I generate about 15% of my consumption. My house is extremely well insulated (BER A2), dunno if it qualifies as a passivhouse. Also I'm exporting more than a megawatt per year back to grid for free, so you (as a society) may be happy. So, I don't think I'm being unethical.
- palata 4y ago
  > I'm exporting more than a megawatt per year back to grid for free Do you take into account the energy needed to grow and transport the food you eat? To extract the material needed for objects you own? To build your car? To maintain the roads you use? I guess you obviously don't use fossil fuels at all and instead rely exclusively on the clean energy you produce? Because if you don't, then you are still overall a consumer of energy. But even if you were a net producer of clean energy, we as a society have a big problem of consuming too much overall. We will have to reduce that at some point (whether we want it or not). So it would be great if people started thinking about not eating meat for every meal, taking a plane every second week-end, and living in a sauna.
  - pshirshov 4y ago
    Again, I think that I'm doing better than the majority of the people and it makes zero sense for me personally to save several hundreds of kWt/hs per year (which I compensate through PV) while there are major industrial offenders around. Also I travel rarely but I can't work while on vegetarian diet.

palata 4y ago

The whole point of the energy / climate crisis that is coming is that it's not about money. We as a society need to consume less energy (because we depend on fossil fuels that emit CO2), and anyway we will have less energy in the future (because... peak production of fossil fuels). There is no price on that: we need to do less with less.

pshirshov 4y ago
I (as a society) would happily (or unhappily) do whatever is necessary when everyone does that and the system is fair. At this point I see zero reasons to conserve damn solar energy while half of the country still uses OFCH.
- palata 4y ago
  Yup, that's rational. That's why I don't believe that we will solve this major crisis. We will just have to survive with the consequences.
  - pshirshov 4y ago
    Probably, but if your solution is to propose me to reduce my home temperature to 19 degrees instead of dealing with Russia and China burning shittons of coal - that's kinda laughable.
    - palata 4y ago
      I guess my point is that we will need to do *a whole lot more* than most people are comfortable imagining. One way is to say "well I don't care, I won't do anything until I don't get a choice, and probably at that point it will hurt a lot". Another is to face it, start doing things, and pushing your politicians to enforce very big plans. One problem I see is that everyone says "I would be ready to do a lot more if I knew everyone else did", but when it's time to vote, they don't. Not being ready to go lower than 24.5 degrees (doesn't have to be 19 if that's not bearable for you) in winter does not sound like you are ready to do much, though.