Smoke detector flameout [RE-wrenches]

Sun Apr 1 10:35:07 PDT 2001

Hugh,

Your "logic" reminds me of a conversation I had with a local at a gas station
last week. I stopped in to complain that they had their ~2kW of HID canopy
lighting on in the middle of a bright sunny day. One of the customers overheard
my request to have this waste eliminated. He suggested (this really happened)
leaving these unneeded lights on was good, because the waste would create jobs
for people building more power plants and thusly be good for the economy...
somehow the wisdom of an economy based on waste escapes me, but this illustrates
the mindset of many here is the land of "we have the right to waste"... America.
We already live in a throw away society... why fix it, just dump it in the
landfill and buy another one. With this mindset everything becomes expendable,
even people. I think it is time for an attitude adjustment.

Mindless waste of energy is what got us into this environmental mess. While PV
gleans it's power from a "unlimited, free" source, the rest of the resources
involved in the conversion process are part of the finite supply this planet
offers. Yes, rich folks can totally stay asleep about how much energy they use
and mindlessly turn on the switch while their $100K PV system meets their
demands, but why not educate people on how they can do the same with so much less
resources by simply wasting less? I see no benefit at all, in promoting
unconsciousness or an attitude that waste is appropriate while we live on a
planet with finite resources and an ever growing population... plus it is all so
easy to transfer that attitude to so many other aspects of life:

-Oh, lets just throw away this last little bit of food... it is only a tiny bit
after all and "we" have plenty.
-Hey lets drive to town again for the 20th time today... it is only 5 miles and I
need just one more thing.
-Whoops I left the irrigation system on all night while it was raining, oh
well... it's just a "little bit" of water.
-Oh, Traces stonewalling us on the silent sell feature "only" costs me 650 watt
hours a day... I'll just add another $800.00 worth of PV's to offset this
neglected software feature.

What I see going on with folks on this planet, is an awakening of the collective
effects of individuals. We can no longer afford to mindlessly waste regardless of
what it is. Justifying throw-away energy (because it is renewable) promotes an
attitude of unconsciousness of our effects on others. Multiply that by the
planet's population and you get an idea of the scope of what we are up against.
One thing I like about home generated RE is that it presents an opportunity for
people to better understand their energy use habits. The more people understand
about their mindless and seemingly insignificant acts, the better off we will ALL
be... plus very watt not wasted saves between 3 and 6 dollars in reduced system
costs. Yes, running phantom loads might make one persons life "easier" but how
about the effects that has on the rest of the inhabitants of this planet? Life IS
short, lets not make it shorter by squandering the valuable resources we have.

For grid inter tied systems, every watt wasted is a watt not fed back into the
grid for others to use.
For battery based non-grid systems, it becomes more of a consciousness and
philosophy issue. When the sun is shining, you are right, the only to waste RE is
to not use it... when the sun is not shining (or wind blowing), it adds needless
cycles to the batteries and hours on the polluting fossil fueled generator.

And as to that answering machine, I have set up many devices such as these, for
constant "on" use through direct battery operation. To my thinking it makes no
sense to have the inverters 15 watt idle current powering a 50 ma load.

Stepping off the old soap box now,

Todd

hugh piggott wrote:

> >Interesting that HP has an article on tracking down phantom loads again this
> >month, and you are advocating waste.
>
> I read the article but it won't make me turn my inverter off (while
> there's any wind around).  I like to keep close track of phantom
> loads, but my days of running everything off 12 volt DEECEE are long
> gone.  Life is too short.  Why should we off-gridders not benefit
> from modern things like answering machines?  Wind is an abundant
> source of energy when it is there, so why not enjoy the fruits?
>
> It's all a balance.  Running the inverter all night may use 100 watt
> hours, but it makes my life easier.  I reckon there was some effort
> put into making modern inverters use so little power on idle.  Was
> that a wasted effort?  No!
> --
> Hugh
>
> Scoraig, Scotland
> http://www.scoraigwind.co.uk

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