Posts by Caustic tWit

A Great Innovation...But...

Elon Musk is no doubt a visionary entrepreneur. My hat is off to him. However the big issue in domestic energy efficiency is not cost reduction and efficiency by load smoothing. The real issue is waste reduction, and there are many pressing issues in that regard, which could and should be addressed as higher priorities and have the potential to produce more rapid cost recovery for householders and less need for expensive and environment degrading energy generation.

Consider:

1. Most houses (and apartment buildings) are less-than-optimally insulated. Hurts energy efficiency in all climate zones except those where literally no heating or air conditioning is needed. Insulation upgrades are technologically simple, relatively small one-time expenses that can be performed incrementally if need (financial or otherwise) dictates. They require no maintenance or control systems. There are a plethora of options for non-destructive retrofitting of older dwellings of different construction types in different climates. Windows and doors count here too, not just ceilings/roofs and walls. Choices of exterior wall and roof surfaces can also make a differences, particularly in hot sunny climates. Reflecting heat away entails no further cost once the job is done.

2. Most houses are draughty. Air leak is sometimes the biggest enemy of residential energy efficiency and cost reduction, exceeding even insulation in importance. Infiltration of undesired outside hot or cold air means exfiltration of desired heated/cooled inside air, which you then have to replace, at your expense. Many sources of air leak are obvious, like the aforementioned windows and doors, also unplugged chimneys, gaps between sills and foundations, and the like. Others are downright arcane, weird, who'd-a-thunk-it sorts of things. First you address the obvious ones, then you formally test, most often by employing a professional, but you could do it yourself.

3. Household heating (including water heating), refrigeration, cooking, and clothes drying appliances often are working against us in not-so-obvious ways. The gas or oil fired boiler that draws combustion air from inside your house is using air that you've paid to heat or cool, and necessitating the infiltration of outside air to replace it. The technology exists to eliminate this waste of energy. Much the same situation with clothes dryers, be they gas or electric. They exhaust air from within the house, necessitating more outside air being drawn in. I'm not aware of any being made which address this problem, but what's wrong with clothes lines anyway? At least during clement weather. Gas kitchen ranges with pilot lights are both a constant waste of gas and (at least in the warmer seasons, in warmer climates) an unwanted source of heat. The gas waste amounts to about 30% of all the cooking gas a family of four uses. A good argument for ranges with piezoelectric igniters. (Those still with manually lit gas appliances should really consider replacing them for safety reasons). Domestic refrigerators and freezers are another issue. To cool the interior of these you must extract heat, which is then dumped into the room in which they sit, so in the summer you are paying to cool this warm air which you have paid to make because you needed to keep your food cold. I have not yet seen or heard of domestic units which address this issue.

3. Many houses are larger than the occupants need. I'm not a "Tiny House" advocate, but all those extra cubic feet add proportionately to heating and cooling bills, and all that extra external surface area is radiating or absorbing heat too, and that comes at an energy cost. Architecture figures into this too. Some house styles entail much more entail surface area than others. Again I'm advocating nothing; I appreciate a good looking or interesting looking house. It's just food for thought.

Addressing some or all of these issues will potentially save far more for both individuals and society, than Musk & Co's very elegant whole-house load leveller/UPS, and if you still want to go that route (and I'd like to), you'll won't need as big a one, or so many.