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Ask Slashdot: Minimizing Oil and Gas Dependency In a Central European City?
An anonymous reader writes I live in a big city in central Europe. As most of you know from recent news, most of Europe's (and quite a bit of China's) gas supply comes from Russia and is very likely to be cut off several times during the next few winters (China's time will come in later years). What many might not know is that not just our natural gas supply, but also our petrol ('gas' for the Americans in the audience) often comes partly from Russia and some of our electricity comes from gas powered stations. Most of our leaders, at least in Germany and Hungary, are in bed with the Russians and likely won't do anything about fuel security. I live in an building with a south-facing roof and I own the roof space but I don't have enough land here to put a wind turbine or something similar on. Can anyone make good suggestions for ways to cut down my dependence on unreliable power supplies? Extra points for environmentalism, but I am even willing to pay more to be sure the heating is there in winter and my server keeps running.
for the Americans in the audience
Okay, AC confirmed it. We're an audience after all.
Shit.
CLI paste? paste.pr0.tips!
a nie robic silownie wiatro-sloneczne.
Jak zechca zakrecic zawory, to do wjazdu czolgami bedzie malo czasu.
Get involved on the government.
As far as solar goes, pointing the panels WEST means more energy is generated during peak hours; which is more beneficial over all the trapping the maximum light. Winding up power plants to peak use a tremendous amount of power.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
that's what the USA does. most of our oil is from right here and canada
If your roof is big enough load it up with solar panels also put a water tank up there. During the day when you are at work use the power heat and to fill the tank. At night use gravity to spin an impeller to power the house from the water.
If it's 24 hour semi-reliable power you want for periodic short (up to several days) grid outages than the easiest method would probably be a small generator and a stored supply of fuel. (not the most environmental but it works)
Some will suggest solar with your roof area, which you are obviously aware of, but if you want 24 hour power with that you will need a large battery bank which is going to cost you more and take up a large amount of space.
As far as heating the cost effective method is to add more insulation, and if you're running servers you have a ready made electric heat source.
well done Dice! engaging in psyops... this article was CLEARLY written by an european!
You said you own the roof space. Do you own the whole dwelling? Can you insulate the walls, attic, and air seal bypasses? Can you run a heat pump? It still requires electricity but not that much. If you can purchase petrol when it's available and run a generator (or photovoltaics) when it's not, that might be the ticket. Of course the more more energy efficient your home and appliances are, the easier it will be to function off the grid, - even if it's just sporadically.
Do you really need to run your own server or can you have it hosted somewhere else?
The most obvious answer - the context of your question points to it - would be to suggest some form of photovoltaic panel solution. Unfortunately there are at least two or three problems with this:-
1. Your "generating space" is by your description limited to the space on the roof. You'd need to do some calculations to assure yourself that the space available is sufficient to generate a meaningful quantity of electricity. This problem will shrink with time, as more efficient panels are released.
2. As we see from a cursory glance at the news, research into photovoltaic technology is yielding amazing benefits every few months. This means that, anything you invest in now would most likely be wildly out of date in just a couple of years. Does that bother you?
3. Most calculations I've seen suggest that the ROI break-even for PV panels can be anything up to 20-25 years. Is your planning able to look this far ahead?
Perhaps another way to look at this might be to look at a bigger picture. In 25 years from now, it won't just be electricity that's a challenge, but is also likely to include both food and fresh water. This might seem a bit extreme at the close of 2014, but have you considered a relocation to a more rural location, and specifically somewhere that you could invest in i.e. ground pumps, perhaps have access to local fresh water and so on?
You don't give any indication of budget or personal circumstance, so your options will be framed by these and other considerations.
Final thought: depending upon your city of residence [well, country in this case] you may find your government willing to provide occasional grants or tax breaks to private citizens wishing to take the measures you outline. Notwithstanding my earlier comment regarding waiting for the tech to evolve to a price break-even point that works for you, it might also be worth exploring options on subsidies, grants, or tax breaks.
Lastly: good for you!
Most of leaders, at least in Germany and Hungary, are in bed with the Russians and likely won't do anything about fuel security.
Don't know much about Hungary (*), but if you really think that Merkel is "in bed with the Russians" you have bigger problems than worrying about your fuel security.
Anyway, oil dependence is essentially transport based; more specifically, private car use. So cut or reduce your dependence on that. You live in a multi-storey building of which you control only part - some kind of apartment block - so probably a fairly densely populated area. That makes it simple: If you currently drive a car to work, stop doing that. If you're really lazy, you could get a motorbike or scooter, drastically reducing your dependence; if you're not that lazy start cycling. With a bit of practice, a 20-30K commute on a bike is really not hard, and you'll save money on gym fees. That's oil dependance sorted.
Natural gas is trickier if you don't own the building (or at least apartment). If you can, you should probably install solar panels on the roof - not for your own use, as such, but to take advantage of the feed-in tariffs. And then buy an electric convection heater so you can heat your apartment if the gas gets cut off. And maybe buy a good sleeping bag or extra duvet. That won't save you from a catastrophic meltdown - you'd need a wood burning stove, a cabin in the woods, and a seriously unhealthy dose of paranoia(**) for that, but it will make short outages of gas a lot more comfortable.
(*) Feel free to sing this comment to the tune of Sam Cooke's "Wonderful World" :)
(**) You seem to already have 1 of those three.
no taxation without representation!
One idea that's starting to take hold here is the notion of community solar. An individual homeowner may not have the ideal site for a solar installation, but maybe there is a place in the neighborhood that does. So a community solar project gets funding from many individuals that share the energy and the expense.
Keystone Pipeline. Have your leaders pressure our leaders to build it. We need the jobs and we need the energy independence.
Signed,
U.S. Citizen
* Start by cutting the energy losses on your house. This can start as simple as avoiding unnecessary drafts, repainting your interior walls and ceilings with a radiant reflection additive like insuladd, thermic curtains near the windows, ...
* Install radiant floor heating.
* Install a simple wood fired boiler. Quite popular in some central European countries like Austria.
* Get a low temperature air-water heat pump.
* Put some solar panels on your roof if you haven't done so already.
When they are sitting in the cold dark and see your lights, you have scant minutes before they kick down your door.
I am very small, utmostly microscopic.
What's the power consumption of the server? Depending on the load, you might be well-suited to pick up a small ARM-based system (or more than one) if the loads are somewhat light. Personal web server/file server/LDAP/etc. doesn't need a lot of horsepower and there's a good chance you might be burning extra electricity unnecessarily.
Minions and a giant hamster wheel hooked to a generator.
If minions are in short supply, can always put a pig in the wheel. (Might need to swap pigs out every few hours) - but, you save, cause the wheel can be smaller.
Gas prices have dropped. Buy gasoline now, get a UPS, and get a generator that is electric/remote start. Put gasoline stablizer in your tank if you're concerned about spoilage (which isn't much of a concern over one winter.)
In order to be a good quiet neighbour, you can put the generator in a small soundproof box (box-within-box construction) with mufflers for air and exhaust.
This doesn't solve your ultimate problem of dependence on Russia, but it'll get you through spotty power.
Diesel works too.
Wood stove for heat!
Drink beer and turn off the AC in summer.
Seriously.
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
Your most cost effective strategy is going to be to focus first on load reduction and efficiency, and then on reliable backup energy sources second. It's hard to give specific suggestions without knowing more about your situation. Space heating is likely to be critical in any case, and that can largely be handled by adequate insulation and air sealing. The Passivehouse Institute will have a lot of guidance for you there.
Solar on the roof to generate electricity. In winter, use the electricity to heat water and then run it through a heating loop in your building.
In summer time, use the power for cooling.
Move to a place that isn't like living in a sardine can and without the associated stupidity that cities generate.
I don't see a problem here. But oil overall oil will deplete soon enough and the best alternative is solar IMO. You can draw large amounts of power with solar panels alone, probably enough for a computer.
The US has so much production now the oil companies have been refining it and exporting gasoline because of laws enacted because of the 70's OPEC gouging preventing exporting crude oil. They have been working with the Republicans to get those laws eliminated and so the US will probably start exporting lots more fuel and crude with this new Congress. Time to rejoice in new oil company profits.
I can tell you what I'm doing in *my* environment. It may or may not give you good ideas.
First, what's the biggest energy draw in your life? When I lived in a city, I rested comfortably knowing that while I couldn't insulate myself from the secondary effects of high fuel prices, I could eliminate the primary effect. It was possible for me to survive without a car. Actually, even though I now live in a far-flung exurb, this is still possible but it would be a pretty boring life. Technically, I don't need a motor vehicle to *survive* but it would be mere existence.
You're asking for more than just heat--you're asking for servers too so I'm going to assume you're at a "Western" level of desire and are simply trying to maintain a lifestyle as oppose to simply survive.
OK, so what's special about my environment here in NorCal? Well, it's semi-rural. I'm on the grid; but not subject to Bay Area restrictions. That means I can use wood to supplement my heat. So far I haven't had to do that because the weather has been warm.
I combine old and new technology here--I scrounge for free wood using technology. I'm not going to go into details on this; but it's all perfectly legal. I'm not poaching any wood, and I'm not even using the National Forest's fuels program which gets you wood for a very modest fee (but you must conform to rules, supply your own truck, winch, chainsaw, etc.; it's not for the faint of heart or a loner and may not be economical if you value your time and don't already have the right equipment)
Before any hardcore environmentalists get on my case, do realize that if I didn't burn wood in my stove it would just build up on people's properties, in forests, neighborhoods, etc and make the air that much worse in the Summer. This is a very sustainable source of heat if used responsibly, and that's what I do; so suck it!
Now being in central Europe I have no idea what alternatives you have available, but these are mind. I got my water heater converted to electric (needed a new one anyway) so I don't need any gas. I'm very cognizant of opening/closing blinds and window coverings at appropriate times. I only heat the rooms I need to heat. The only room I heat at night is the bedroom. This reminds me, I need to check the insulation on my pipes because we freeze here. If you heat selectively like this, you run a greater risk of freezing pipes.
So. Maybe I've given you some ideas. In general, I like electricity because the plant can make decisions about the primary fuel. I like wood because it's a low-tech alternative that works if the power goes out (and they tell me that power outages are a problem up here when it rains).
Anyway to reiterate, the solutions are going to be unique to your environment somewhat.
Get about a bazillion used smoke detectors and...
The French have nuclear power and own most of U.K. electric. The British have North Sea oil and natural gas. Norway is the eighth largest crude oil exporter in the world (at 78Mt), and the 9th largest exporter of refined oil (at 86Mt). Its the world's third largest natural gas exporter at 99bcm. And so on plenty of oil and gas in Europe. Cheap Chinese solar power panels I've seen on the rooftops of country properties all over the European Union, especially Amsterdam, and England.
most of Europe's (and quite a bit of China's) gas supply comes from Russia and is very likely to be cut off several times during the next few winters
Algeria sells gas to Europe and is one of the biggest producers. Already there are gas pipelines connecting Algeria with Spain and Italy.
If Russia cuts the supply "too much" risks to speedup the works to connect the rest of Europe to the Algerian gas.
#1, insulate and air seal.
#2, Mini-split heat pump (yes, you're dependent on the electricity being on), but if your electric utility has a brain they're adding wind and solar capacity as fast as they can (and starting to add battery storage as well which is already becoming cheaper than peaker plant power). Central Europe's climate is fine for modern mini-split heat pumps.
#3, Solar panels. Thanks to massive price drops of panels in the past 10 years, the price of residential grid-tied solar systems, even before subsidy, is cheaper than grid power in many, many locations around the world (and even in 10 US States, all 50 projected by the end of 2016). And you'll be helping your neighbors get off Russian gas too.
#4, If you purchase an electric vehicle, you can hack it to act as a power supply in the event there is a power interruption - you'll have at minimum 20kWh of usable storage there, possibly more depending on how close the nearest functional charger is.
And send the server to a proper data center.
It turns out that Ukraine is on a utility-scale solar buying binge at the moment. Can't for the life of me imagine why. ;)
Had solar photovoltaic installed about a year back. Unfortunately on those overcast rainy dark days in December, January & February I've seen whole days where my nearly 4kW system has put out a whopping 50W. Some days I can boil a kettle and still export a little, but unfortunately I don't think it will help much as a source of heat on the most overcast short winter days. I don't deny that it is a useful investment, but don't expect miracles.
Critical to any of your questions is your budget, as well as available space secondarily.
If you have the $$$ you can of course install solar as well as install a very pricey battery bank and inverter setup to have power backup. It is possible to get yourself setup for a few days of stored energy without too much trouble (still very expensive). Get an EV like a Leaf or a Tesla to avoid petrol usage. Stay grid tied so that you can keep keep your battery bank and EV topped up during long dark periods in case the power cuts out. Being 100% power independent by yourself is not a trivial matter, but having a house scale UPS is not impossible with enough cash to throw at the problem.
Install a wood burning stove and keep at least a few weeks of wood or wood pellets stashed for heating backup.
But really, we cannot have an advancing society if the most basic infrastructure of heating, power, and water is not solidly maintained and reliable. Having everyone running with a hodge-podge of backups is really inefficient for everyone in society. Consider moving to a different country if you can, trying to fix your own country these days will get you black listed or disappeared.
There is no good solution.
Solar panels and a battery bank will keep you in minimal electricity. You can run a tablet, a laptop and internet router plus perhaps charge your flashlights. A larger installation might run a 12-volt microwave or 12-volt freezer.
As for heat, I suggest many layers of clothing and lots of well insulated quilts. Hot water bottles were once popular and will be again.
Cooking? If you can get to the roof, then buy a few bags of coal for the winter and a heater than can handle coal (not a standard wood stove) and cook up there. Coal is fairly cheap, compact and generates a good amount of heat. With coal, you can boil water for the aforementioned hot water bottles.
Coal will also kill you with carbon monoxide if you try burning it inside the house. Try and avoid that.
Please do not read this sig. Thank you.
I just bought a pellet stove (I live in Boston) and I love it.
The only problem is that if you live in an apartment, you need to be able to install a stove and you need space for 3 tons (150 bags of pellets assuming one bag a day) of pellets.
I just got the pellet stove installed two weeks ago and my house is at 70 - 72 F (21 - 22 C).
I use one bag of pellets (5.20 - 5.50 USD) per day.
Strongly recommended if you have the cash to purchase one.
cheap Chinese solar panels on the roof, with an inverter capable of islanding if you can get it past your building codes people. That way you'll have some power during the day when there's no power in the city. Do you own the land? If so, put in a geothermal heat pump. More efficient than traditional heat pumps; so, lower energy consumption and lower operating cost. You're in the city so wood heating might be out of the question... If it's not, put in a wood pellet stove for heat when the oil and gas supplies are cut. If the city infrastructure is down for any significant time, you're going to be out of luck (lack of basic supplies, facilities, water, sewer, etc....)
Use fusion power.
They were supposed to be able to supply power to a small house or apartment.
XDInd
I'm not an expert, but you asked on Slashdot so I guess you are willing to listen to non-expert opinion.
lf(1): it's like ls(1) but sorts filenames by extension, tersely
Move somewhere where the power is mostly local and non-fossil in origin, and preferably where you have an ocean or two between where you live and any countries that might want a rematch for world domination (if tanks are rolling outside of your window, where your power comes from becomes a secondary concern). Pacific Northwest (either Canadian or American) fits the bill.
Is Kerosene cheap? Stockpiling enough kerosene to make it through a gas fluctuation should be trivial. In Japan my main spaceheating kerosene tank held 80 liters and I kept 100 liters in reserve on my deck.
a closet could easily store 200 liters in poly tanks. 1 liter could heat the house for two hours. So a typical heating day I would use 4 liters. Use an electric blanket at night. So my stockpile could last me about a month. Maybe less for you. How long is a gas cutoff?
For electricity you could stockpile diesel and enough to run a generator for weeks. you could use cogen by running hot water from the cooling system into a radiator in your house.
I'm unfamiliar with your housing situation but a lister clone diesel with generator is probably $1000 and could run your house and they last forever. can also be serviced by hand. probably same rate of fuel consumption 4 liters per day with enough heat to cut space heating requirements in half.
Counterintuitively, they are best mounted on ceilings in commonly-occupied places, radiating heat downward. They heat the objects and people in the room, and the air mostly indirectly. The infrared light/heat bouncing around the room means you can be comfortable at an ambient air temperature about 5C lower than with traditional heating. They're common in infrared saunas and hot yoga studios, but new to the home heating market. I haven't had a full winter with mine yet, but claims of savings on the order of 40% are common.
These are more efficient and far less costly to install than radiant floor heating systems... several hundred euros per panel, plus installation.
Before you consider any heating system, however, know the differences among radiant, convective and conductive heat transfer!
For bonus points, combine with renewably-sourced electricity and other home energy loss minimizations.
Just kidding. Frack, baby, frack.
I've given some thought to this and believe that insulation, modern well-designed heat and ventilation systems, perhaps incorporating heat exchangers for heat-recovery from the air leaving the house, systems to heat the water with sunlight hitting the roof or heat storage using a borehole heat exchanger are the right solution.
Move.
If you've got nukes, keep them. Otherwise, build next-gen plants like LFTR (Thorium). If you're in a country run by the Greens, vote the out of office.
How about libertarian socialism. Libertarian on individual freedoms, socialist in that the government creates money to pay for social services.
As a hedge against inflation, index everything, income, bank accounts, transfer payments, everything to inflation, so purchasing power does not decrease.
Make taxes voluntary.
The BIS reports that OTC derivatives worldwide are $710 trillion. That's how much money the private sector creates, an order of magnitude more than governments.
Buy a petrol heater, you know the kind that doesn't have a chimney.
With this device you can emergency heat your apartment with wide variety of liquid fuels, thus drastically reducing the number of solar panels required.
Real 70s countryside vibes with this one, and really bad room air. Of course the air quality improves with the quality of fuel. Coleman fuel > jet A > unleaded petrol.
http://pvwatts.nrel.gov/
It's U.S.-centric, but it also includes data for a lot of major non-U.S. cities. Instead of having to guess how much power your solar panels will generate, the site uses latitude and historical weather data to estimate how much your panels will generate. Northern parts of central Europe (like Germany) tends to have pathetic ROI on solar (capacity factor around 0.10). But for lower latitudes in Central Europe you should be able to hit close to 0.15 - about the average for the continental U.S.
Or Russia!
OK, now that we've got the jokes out of the way, I'd suggest 2 moves. One is local and immediate, the other strategic.
Local: Install solar panels. It's under your control and the costs are reasonable. Geothermal might be practical depending upon the local geology.
Strategic #1: Get another source of supply. North America for example has exportable quantities of hydrocarbons. It will require infrastructure development though and that costs big bucks and will take several years (at least). It's not under your personal control and may never happen so plan accordingly.
Strategic #2: Renewables through your utility. This is most people's preferred long-term solution. Again, big bucks and will take years and you cannot directly control this. It will probably happen in time but you cannot count on any specific timeline.
You should buy LNG from the United States. My gas bill is super cheap because of frack-gas in North Dakota. By all accounts we are better to do business with than that jerkoff Putin.. Oh, but I forgot. We have a leftist muslim nutjob for a President who stonewalls attempts to export LNG. Hopefully the new GOP majority will soon do something about that.
an ill wind that blows no good
First, determine if the structure is worth keeping. If it is several decades old, has poor insulation, and is breaking, don't invest money in it. If you're a cheap bastard, spend all winter in a coat, with lots of electric blankets around the house. It worked for me.
If it's a decent structure, with decades more life in it, fill the roof up with fiberglass insulation. I added, an extra 10 inches. Cover all the windows with foamular panels. Tape pieces of panel onto the door.
If feeling a bit rich, stick in a heat pump, or make sure the existing one is clean. And, keep your server near your bed, for free heating.
Don't.
You Europeans never had any gas problem with us Euro-loving Russians. All the problems are dying rabid psychotic entity lying over export pipelines and your Brussels bureaucrats galvanizing this cadaver. The North Stream would give you enough gas but it isn't allowed by them. The South Stream would give you enough gas but it isn't allowed to build. And it's YOU who elected them into Brussels. And you know who bribes them to accept an ephemerid LNG from that side of the pond.
You may buy a really big UPS to survive a short term outage. And I advice you to have some fuel heater (preferably propane one) and some fuel for short term outage. You shall throw them out of Brussels before the long term outage.
I also recommend a PV panel, heat insulation, triple heat-reflecting windows, etc. But it's secondary.
1: Transport - Petrol (Americans: Gas):
a) Bicycle: I'm 120kg and I cycle commute about once a week 40km, there are about 5 guys I ride with from my area who do that every day, I think I could do it but I have small children. There are about 40 who commute 25km a day. We have a train but I prefer to cycle when I can.
b) Electric Car: Leaf, iMiev, Tel$la, etc. You have heaps in Europe or you can convert your own
c) Wood Gassifier - it's possible to run a petrol car from wood, they did this in the war, takes a bit of space - http://www.woodgas.net/
2: Heating / Cooling
a) insulation - saves on any option
b) electric heat pump / reverse cycle air conditioning
c) British style coal/wood/woodgas/Kerosene heated furnace plumbed from the roof to radiators in the house
d) Tank / Storage for coal/wood/Kerosene
3: Cooking
a) Gas / Kerosene Camping Stove is ok for a while
4: Electricity - apart from cooking and heating you aren't using heaps. Heating includes computer servers...
a) Solar
b) Battery Backup - old UPS batteries? or LiFePO4
c) Woodgas / Petrol / Kerosene Generator on the roof + big tank.
If you can't beat them, join them.
1) get rid of your politicians. They are as bad as the neo-cons/tea* here in America. These bastards have made us dependent on China. Really bad IDEA.
2) Ideally, your nation would change their approach to AE. The best thing is to require that all new buildings under 5 stories have enough on-site Alternative energy that EQUALS the amount of energy used for your HVAC (with Heating AND COOLING). In general, that will mean Solar. BUT, it could be others. However, this would get builders to focus on insulation and cheaper means of heating/cooling.
3) if you are in an older building, then consider a new home. Otherwise, focus on insulation.
4) Finally, Buy a Nissan leaf, or better, a Tesla. If you do that, it sends a message to ALL car makers that you want electric. At the same time, if you have Solar on your roof, you can rig things so that several circuits are able to run during the daytime via solar, but then run at nighttime, via your electric car. Yes, you can use your electric car as a back-up.
Did I mention that you should get rid of your politicians? Sadly, we just voted back in the same fuckers that put us in bed with Communists.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
Emigrate.
You really should consider getting coal=>methane conversion going. You can bury the excess CO2. Interestingly, if Germany and Poland were to tap their coal in this fashion, they could provide all of Europe.
Ideally, America would tap our coal and convert into methane that we can use to keep our prices down, but also export to any nations that Russia decides to screw with.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
1) bicycle
2) collective garden
3) back to the essential
An acquaintance who lives in Germany once showed me an experimental setup he had: replaced his house's heating with a small generator (sealed unit) that generated electricity as well as heating the house from the waste heat. Apparently it was still allowed to run on the "heating oil" (diesel fuel), while natural "heating" gas-burning versions were available too. So you still get the heat for which the fuel originally was intended, but some electricity as a bonus. You'd still be dependent on a stockpile of fuel though...
This may not be practical in a densely populated first-world city (with more regulations than sane) but I still like wood as a renewable fuel source for space heating (and emergency cooking). While there are a lot of wood (and coal and even gas) burning stoves being manufactured in various North-European countries (and South American, South Africa, China etc.) Rocket Stove Mass Heaters (which may be googled) seem to be cheaper to construct and cleaner burning - IF you can get the building plans approved.... Retrofitting an existing building can however be a pain.
Free, as in your money being freed from the confines of your account.
Wear wool, turn off heating... yeah I know you mentioned wanting heat but think of the free cooling for your electronics that you'd get at the same time... and why is your south facing rooftop not plastered with solar panels already ? I live in an apartment complex (in Europe) and I basically have not been using ambient heat radiators for a year and a half and did not even have to put on the woollen jammies yet. I am guessing your question is more of the rhetorical kind to enlighten fellow slashdotters. On a side note the multiple times I've been in china and in rural areas wool was the solution indoors with room temperatures nearing waters freezing point by a few degrees. People need to get out of their comfort zone. A lot can be done by installing multi layer gold coated thermo glazing in your windows. Wall isolation etc. Look at experimental, zero and even plus energy housing all over Europe. The biggest hurdle against independance is legislation brought on by the energy lobby to curtail initiatives and you see that happening all over the world. Be creative but most of all fight idiotic legislation such as area laws that demand red clay rooftop tiling because you need to fit in with the rest of the "useful idiots" and other laws that curtail freedom and innovative ideas that would keep you from implementing power saving ideas.
MS, ALS, Aphasia ? http://globability.org - Me http://einarpetersen.com
Mail your representatives to build modern nuclear reactors. Nuclear has come a long way. Passively safe designs have been around for a while. With a combination of breeder reactors, waste transmutation, and glassification, waste is a non-issue. And let's not forget that nuclear has the lowest number of deaths per Terawatt-hour of energy produced--lower even than wind/solar/hydro**
**Sources:
http://webcache.googleusercont...
http://www.forbes.com/sites/ja...
"Politicians and diapers must be changed often, and for the same reason."
I also live in Europe, and in winter I can often get 1KW output from my 3KWpeak solar array. I use this to drive a 1KW peak consumption Mitsubishi Air-Source-Heat-Pump (reverse cycle air-conditioner, other brands are available) This FREE ENERGY! Heat Pump gives me 3KW effective heating, down to an outside temperature of minus 20 degrees C. How can I pump heat IN at minus twenty? well minus 20 centigrade is actually +253 kelvin, so as you see there are oodles of therms available.
If you can't fit an PV array - just drive your highly efficient reverse cycle A/C from your direct mains power, it is still free energy, you can spend more and get an air-source-direct-to-heating-water-system. As for having a greener server, sell your current one on eBay & invest in a stack of Macminis or home-brew a DIY server using Bulgarian Olimex microPC's
This post is a red herring, pretending to ask about energy ideas while his primary aim is to get front-page Slashdot play for his political viewpoint.
Meanwhile, in reality, Russia has been trying to diversify supply routes to Europe (see Nord Stream and South Stream) to reduce dependence on unreliable transit countries, those countries being responsible for interruption in the past (and most likely in the future, as well).
Meanwhile, in reality, the political leadership in most Central and Eastern (not to mention Western) European countries (with very few exceptions) is almost exclusively in bed with (though perhaps "tied up in bed by" is a more accurate analogy) the United States and the UK vis-a-vis their NATO military empire, primarily for banking reasons.
Meanwhile, in reality, Central European countries have done great work diversifying their energy supply to avoid dependence on one source of energy, which is great.
PV and air-con is fine for reducing your carbon emissions, but it ain't a reliable backup system.
Anyway, oil dependence is essentially transport based; more specifically, private car use ... That's oil dependance sorted.
Private car use is just a tiny part of oil use, although the only many people you see directly. Public communication is largely based on oil as well, but it's still not the point.
Even if you decide to use own muscle power for moving around, there is a bigger problem, especially in large cities - practically all goods are nowadays delivered to shops via road transport. Most important - food. Unless you can find a food source that is not transported by car into the city, you are still pretty much oil dependent.
Ahhah, you know they get a real winter at least in some parts of Germany? Those solar panels will be under a feet of snow and the water tank will burst when it freezes ;-D
"If it's a decent structure, with decades more life in it, fill the roof up with fiberglass insulation. I added, an extra 10 inches. Cover all the windows with foamular panels. Tape pieces of panel onto the door."
Or.. like, look up how it's really done by some nations that are actually located in cold climates.
If you tried to put 10 inches of insulation in my roof or tape some goddamn insulation panels on my windows I'd throw you through my quad glassed window panels, that I can actually see through. The windows are actually done as two units of double glass filled with some gas that won't fog the inside. Doors are already insulated, so they actually remain usable. If you randomly stuff insulation here and there you'll create a moisture problem inside the house.
The easiest way to solve problems with gas supply in Europe is to build more pipelines to/from Russia that bypass areas of political instability. Firstly, allow the construction of the South Stream pipeline - paid for in full by Russia. Secondly, open the second half of the OPAL pipeline to Russia. Neither of those options would cost Europe a cent.
My brother has a company that builds wood / biofuel heated stirling engines. You get both electricity and heat so it is very efficient in the winter or whenever you have a heating need, like for hot tap water.
http://www.inresol.se/the-geni...
Cool as hell imho. But then ofcourse, im biased :D
HTTP/1.1 400
Most of our leaders, at least in Germany and Hungary, are in bed with the Russians and likely won't do anything about fuel security.
I do not know about Hungary, but Germany is heavily investing in the renewable energy.
Or you expected them to immediately cut the pipes? halt production and transportation? cut the forests to heat the homes?
All hope abandon ye who enter here.
$710 trillion. Now unwind all of those trades and tell me how much it actually is. Also stop watching Prison Planet.
This post reads like the European version of a crazy American doomsday prepper. Half of his "facts" are just plain wrong, and he's actually terrified of not having heating despite, I presume, being well-off (owning the roof of his building) in a major European city (probably Berlin?).
Even if Russia and China got together and said "fuck our economies, let's stop exporting energy to Europe" a rich person in a rich city is only going to have to grumble about paying like a thousand euros a year more.
why are you asking slashdot?
Talk to people who have a clue about this kind of stuff.
For heating, a stove is great, both when it comes to any supposed outages (also of electricity) as well as making for really cosy living. Also wood is pretty cheap and a renewable energy source.
Depends on if you are more afraid of a power outage or gas crysis ;) You can also use bottled gas for most gas stoves (though you need to configure them for it) which makes you more independent from short-term outages.
Thats what the Swedish environment minister uses so it must be OK.
I believe that is a good way to avoid having your service cut. I works for me but YMMV.
It depends on the amount of space you want to heat and how strong your roof is, but large gas bottles (200-500kg) can be bought in my neck of the woods, and there are multiple services that travel to my place to fill them. If access is an issue then multiple smaller bottles may do the trick - it all depends on how long you will be without gas.
Oh, and insulate your place. Walls, ceiling, windows, even consider the floor.
Work like no one is watching. Dance like you've never been hurt. Make love like you don't need the money.
You really need to move. If you had your own land, you could have a large tank of heating oil or propane. Either one will heat a building and run a generator. There really is nothing else that can store enough energy to do what you want except maybe coal, but a coal operated generator is not an easy thing to DIY. As for where you live right now, you could see how much weight your floors will tolerate and get as many batteries as you can to be charged from the AC mains power and solar on the roof. You could see if it possible for you to have a small generator on the roof. Some of the new camping generators are very quiet. You could maybe have a coal heat stove and store enough coal for a week or two. Do think about how many OTHER problems you will be having if no one else has electricity or heat.
The Russians have never threatened to cut off gas to anyone. Who is posting this rubbish? Is this paid propaganda?
Firstly, the Chinese will certainly never have trouble with Russian gas supplies. The pipeline there goes directly from Russia to China, not through some corrupt nightmare, like Ukraine.
Secondly, Russian gas is delivered through Ukraine, which has been routinely stealing Russian gas for some time, and has massive gas debts to Russia. It is Ukraine that is abusing its position as a transit country, to try and apply leverage to get a better gas price. This won't work for two reasons: the EU will not allow Ukraine to endanger European gas supplies, and secondly Russia will build alternative pipelines, so that Ukraine is no longer able to behave in this way.
For anyone who believed the anti-Russian propaganda, you can stop worrying, and go back to life as normal.
Build a Gasifier like your grandparents did during the war
http://www.woodgasifierplans.com/
True. You should better revamp your lifestyle.
Sadly, the site is only in German but there are lots of pictures from their alternative community:
http://www.lebenswagen.nirgendwo.info/bilder.html
They promote living in a contractor's shed, use wodd-fired ovens (for cooking), have upperstairs winter gardens designed after its own self-heating capabilities, use solar-powered Laptops and generally try to attenuate their overall energy footprint.
While living in a contractr's shed is truely not for everyone, you may still adpat some of their findings which are sometimes very creative and tought-provoking!
Here is more (in German):
http://blog.eichhoernchen.fr/tag/Lebenswagen
Have you already considered just relocatiing to Russia?
Hi, I am a debil from Prague and my brain has been thoroughly washed with Ariel, Persil, Tide, et al. Since Russians won't sell their oil and gas to anyone, not even the Chinese (according to news media, which I obediently trust and believe), what can I do about my energy independence in a city with narrow gullies, uneven gusts of wind due to Prague's rugged landscape and with roof shaded from sun rays by surrounding hills? Please help me! I am a stupid Czech!
The OP initially sounds plausible and hooks enough readers in with an interesting but ultimately unsolveable problem. The bit where he says, "..and my server keeps running." is guaranteed to score brownie points with /.-ers. The Russian fossil fuel industry is in the business of making money and it's not going to allow anything get in the way of it maximising its profits. Unstable, irregular energy supplies on their part will encourage consumer countries to increase investments in alternative sources, e.g. wind, solar, and geothermal, and supplies (other pipelines). That's the last thing they want. Irregular and more expensive energy supplies would also affect the competitiveness of their customer countries' economies, thereby further reducing their ability to pay top dollar for their energy.
This post appears to be pure FUD. I'm not exactly sure what the OP is trying to do but it's not at all convincing.
The high cost of oil and low interest rates (and being completely and totally addicted to oil) are more compelling reasons why America went bonkers for Bakkenpuffs; the recent price dip should be a good test to determine just how resilient those producers are, and to see who is out swimming sans skivvies. Also, the population density is rather higher in Europe, which may nix or upsize the costs of any fracking, depending on where those hypothetical fields might be located (there was a recent 96% slaughter of the reserves projected for the Monterey Shale, fluffy optimism and bad data being hallmarks of this field), and the land usage rights would also need delving into. So whatever "new" methods there might be may not fly at all in the EU, assuming that there is profitable oil to be had—for example, how are those fields in Poland panning out? Hmm, hmm, "Fracking Setback in Poland Dims Hope for Less Russian Gas." Righty, then. Consider also the brutal decline rates of fracked wells; Rune Likvern has written several times on the "Red Queen Running" state required to keep the tight oil party flowing.
I would just get something like a Mr heater propane heater. Safe to run indoors, propane is easy to store.
It's not going to be a good solution to get you through an entire winter, but should get you through minor outages, it's also way less costly and complex than some of the other ideas mentioned.
If possible I would get a wood stove, I have one, the initial cost was pretty steep but all I need to keep it going is wood which is nice.
Hmm, hmm, "Fracking Setback in Poland Dims Hope for Less Russian Gas."
Why not "Frelling" or "Smegging" setback?
With a bicycle, you still need to walk from the vehicle parking space to the door if a place has no bike rack or if a bike rack isn't very close to the door. At a lot of large shops, the only thing remotely resembling a bike rack is the shopping cart return in the parking lot.
Unless you can find a food source that is not transported by car into the city
There used to be something called a victory garden, a vegetable garden on one's own urban property, but some cities have tried to outlaw that.
Now feed the animals. Good luck.
Are you personally paying any money for your personal carbon emission? And BTW: The greens state that the forests are the lungs of the planet but pray tell me Sir, where does the carbon goes after it's trapped by trees?
And also: The efficiency of heat pump seriously depends on the temperature difference. It may give you 3 KW heat per KW spent in spring and autumn but not in winter.
It will be more difficult where you live, but you should be able to build a waste-to-methane system such as are commonly used in South America.
In those places, where it's easy, you just put a plastic cover over a trench full of goat shit and let the sun do the work for you. The aromatics burn off without stinking up the house (with purchased methane, odorants are actually added but you won't need to). Those kinds of places don't have to worry about explosion and fire hazard much, because the system can be set outdoors well away from the point of use.
You will have a harder job, since you'll have to do in a more contained & insulated space, but it can be done if you're up to the challenge.
From TFS:
China's time will come in later years
How utterly blind. China doesn't need Russia's gas and oil, nor will they need it later when the infrastructure needed to realize their recent energy deal has been completed. China will use Russian energy as long as the cost (monetary and political) is acceptable. China will never put itself at Russia's mercy; just review the history between these two countries.
OTOH, China might allow Russia to become dependent to a great extent on China's gas/oil purchases, seeming to accept short-term costs as a matter of long-term strategic interests. Upon hearing of the deal, I immediately wondered if Putin had relegated future Russia into becoming a vassal state of future China. Either way, it's no good for the West.
- T
Whether renewables will work in isolation for you is going to depend on a number of other variables, such as how big the space you need to heat is under your roof, how big the roof is, and the thermal efficiency of the building.
Even in Central Europe during winter you should be able to generate 1kW from around 8m2 of solar photovoltaic panel. That 1kW is sufficient to power a heat pump capable of providing around 3kW of heat. You can do your own calculations about how much you would need to scale that up by based on your own space measurements.
As others have said everyone can benefit from using solar thermal to heat their hot water. For a short while now there's been a new technology called thermodynamic panels that combine solar thermal technology and a small compressor, working a little like an air-to-air heat pump. These are highly efficient and depending on how much hot water storage you have you might be able to pump it through a radiator system to provide central heating. Again for an off-grid solution you'd need PV to provide the baseline power for it, but it would be in the order of magnitude capable of being supplied by solar.
Lastly, depending on how much control you have you might be able to rebuild or rework the actual building construction. If you can do this to a high enough level you might consider a Passivhaus which would drastically reduce the space heating requirements.
If your building does not have them already get double-glazed windows and insulate the roof. Use centralized heating. Either heat-pump based or a propane or diesel boiler. I say propane or diesel because it is denser and easier to transport and most of it in Europe comes from petrofuels of the Middle East rather than Russian natural gas reserves. Burning wood or coal is nice if you live in the middle of nowhere but if everyone started doing this in cities atmospheric pollution would get worse just like it was in the XIXth century. Check where your electricity comes from if it is natural gas or coal. You might not actually have a problem at all. Get an UPS for your PC and surge protection for every major appliance because I think it is more likely you will have rolling blackouts than actual total grid failure.