[Gllug] [OT] Technobabble

[Sean Burlington]

On Mon, November 21, 2005 2:28 pm, Chris Bell said:
> On Mon 21 Nov, Sean Burlington wrote:
>>
>
>>
>> The other way of doing this is to install boilers in houses that
>> generate
>> electricity - in effect they are mini-power stations - but instead of
>> heat
>> being an incidental it is the primary purpose.
>
>    I have heard of commercial buildings and hotels doing this, but smaller
> units could be cheap and nasty, both inefficient and unreliable.

They are used more commonly in larger buildings - and this is a sensible
starting point.

In domestic situations they don't currently compete well on price and are
only installed by those with a strong conscience

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3658376.stm



>>
>> The electricity generated is put back into the grid, the overall
>> effeciency is very high.
>>
>> All these things (even nuclear at about 20%) could only ever be a small
>> part of the overall solution - but they all add up.
>>
>    We do not have a helpful climate. We need heating in winter, but mainly
> cooling in summer. We could help by reducing the need for energy. Air
> conditioning systems require huge amounts of energy, often trebling the
> amount of power required in summer, and the more you use the worse the
> problem.


Actually we do have a fairly helpful climate - without much by way of
extremes, most people don't need air conditioning, and the aircon that is
needed is usually because of poorly designed buildings in very large
cities.

London's climate could be improved a great deal by replacing car parks
with gardens (starting with mine if I could persuade my neighbors!)

-- 

Sean


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