3 ms·
Some of these seem a little out-of-date given technology improvements since 1998 - it looks like he updated the numbers & notes but not the conclusions. Lighti
by nostrademons 3y ago
Some of these seem a little out-of-date given technology improvements since 1998 - it looks like he updated the numbers & notes but not the conclusions.
Lighting is almost never a major household energy user since the development of modern LED lights. Their efficiency increased so dramatically in the incandescent -> flourescent -> compact flourescent -> LED transition that you can leave a whole household of lights going all day and it'll take less energy than one clothes dryer load.
Same goes for refrigeration - modern refrigerators and chest freezers are extremely well-insulated, and use negligible electricity amortized over a day. This also has implications for power outages - many folks don't realize that you can get one of those portable emergency battery backs and it'll power your fridge for days, so if you're prepared it's relatively easy to avoid having your food spoil in a power outage.
Washing machines, other mechanical appliances like dishwashers, and even heat pump water heaters are also not huge contributors - advances in electric motors have made them very efficient.
The biggest remaining culprits are HVAC, EVs, clothes dryers, electric ovens, and anything with a heating element. This is largely inherent in the thermodynamics - 1 kwh of electricity is only 3412 BTUs, so mimicking the 15,000 - 25,000 BTUs of a gas range is around 5 kwh. Heat pumps can help a little for large-volume heating, but current technology has a max efficiency of about 400%, and a theoretical thermodynamic max for reasonably safe evaporator & condenser temperatures is about 700-800%. The secret to higher efficiency with electric heating is to heat less volume, which is the principal behind induction cooktops (heat just the pan instead of the whole stove), electric kettles (heat just the water instead of the whole stove), and toaster ovens (heat 1-2 cf instead of 5-6cf).
If you can, replacing a clothes dryer with a drying rack can yield very big dividends. A single full-size dryer load is about 5 kwh; a clothesline is free. In our family-with-young-children-and-gas-heat before getting an EV, the clothes dryer was about 40-50% of our household energy usage all by itself.
- AndrewKemendo 3y ago> In our family-with-young-children-and-gas-heat before getting an EV, the clothes dryer was about 40-50% of our household energy usage all by itself. A decade ago when I still had young babies and were cloth diapering, we hung dried as much as possible so I definitely concur. However unless you live in phoenix az, it's not a year round solution, and you end up using the Dryer a lot no matter what. The biggest culprit IMO is that humans aren't building housing based around the ecological area because it's "too expensive" for property developers to do the architectural and environmental planning necessary for 100+ year multi-generation, multi-family homes. We generally raze an area, and then build what is basically an ecologically dead zone for up to 5 people with imported non-native grasses (lawn) and plants that aren't built for the ecology of the area to last a maximum of 30-50 years [1][2] Said another way, everything you write is correct, but it's basically moot because human society building and growing in such a way that it is mathematically impossible to be ecologically sustainable. [1]https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2017/nov/16/japan-reusable-housing-revolution https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2017/nov/16/japan-reusabl... [2]https://mosbybuildingarts.com/from-boom-to-break-down-the-problems-of-homes-built-between-1997-and-2007/ https://mosbybuildingarts.com/from-boom-to-break-down-the-pr...
- detourdog 3y agoI just ordered but haven’t received an Asko drying cabinet. it has hanging space for 52 linear feet and dehumidifies the cabinet and it contents. https://us.asko.com/laundry/drying-cabinets https://us.asko.com/laundry/drying-cabinets It gets delivered on the 25th and I’m really excited.
- AndrewKemendo 3y agoLooks cool! Doesn't solve the problem though, just tries to reduce the impact of a social structure that requires dry textiles of a certain kind and certain frequency of use. The actual goal should be to eliminate the structure that requires: "drying of wet clothes in period of time" So how would you eliminate the need for the entire wasteful laundry process altogether?
- detourdog 3y agoI actually discovered the product becuase I thought I had to invent it. The way I see it is that there are certain number of mechanical process that keeps our standard of living high. I'm trying to shrink the energy footprint while maintaining or improving our high standard to living. I have an 8 apartment building that was formed by renovating an old school. Everything is pretty energy efficient and we have a 40 kW solar array. The overall goal I have is to continue to reduce the energy footprint while maintaining I hight standard of living. Ultrasonic is probably the most efficient way to eliminate our current laundry dogma. I don't know of any existing ultrasonic closets for clothes cleaning. I do know of ultrasonic water cleaners that are used to reduce detergents. https://ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citations/20230001711/downloads/ICES_328_FINAL.pdf https://ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citations/20230001711/downloads/IC...
- AndrewKemendo 3y agoGreat write up > The way I see it is that there are certain number of mechanical process that keeps our standard of living high This is where I think I’m focused. Specifically “keeps our standard of living high” Can you think of a process to evaluate standard of living in a way that we would agree on how to measure standard of living?