We had dinner with some friends last weekend. We have know each other since our kids were babies.They are witty, charming, terrific cooks and, for the most part, clueless about peak oil or anything other crisis that might change their comfortable lifestyles. Only one other in our group of ten wanted to talk about the future and what it may hold for us. Jim is a really smart guy. He is making plans for living in an energy starved world. He even came equipped with a photo of the electric panel truck he just ordered. He had all sorts of plans for converting his home to solar and photovoltaic and installing heat sinks. It was pretty impressive I must admit but there was something fundamentally flawed with his thinking. It wasn’t until I got home and really started to ponder his plans that it hit me. Jim is trying desperately to design systems that will allow him to continue to live exactly as he always has. He wants to drive as much, be as warm, eat the same food and consume in the same way. I know I often recommend that people buy something as they prepare. I really hope you all will call me on that when I am out of line as I I believe that preparedness is as much mental as anything and it is buying too much that has caused an awful lot of the world’s woes.
If one has unlimited resources, I suppose a photovoltaic system makes more sense than a boat but I still have to wonder. These systems require big energy inputs, not just in the manufacture but in the replacement of the battery arrays. Solar panels work well but they don’t last forever either. Electric cars have a lot of advantages and while no one wishes more than I that every car on the road was powered that way, that sad truth is that the electric car idea is a ship that has already sailed. It would require enormous fossil fuel inputs to manufacture a fleet of electric cars to replace all existing vehicles. Then we would have to build the recharging stations and figure out what to do with old cars. It is not as easy as just having the will. You also need the money and the gas and oil to pull it off. If one is building from the ground up, I would put in every energy efficient system I could manage but most of us are not in that place. We are trying to cobble together a life that works.
Rather than investing in an electric or hybrid car, it will make more sense for most of us to plan on driving less. We are carpooling some, biking some, walking some and staying home some. I am in need of more refrigerator space as I am getting all of my milk for the week from a local farmer and those gallons take up a lot of space. I could spend the money on a top of the line energy star fridge but I could also use an existing cooler and replace the ice in it daily as I run a big freezer anyway. I am thinking about a wood furnace to replace my inefficient gas furnace. Until I can afford one, we are turning down the thermostat and putting on sweaters. Our upstairs rooms get really hot in the summer. We used to run air conditioners so the kids could sleep comfortably. This year, we put a fan in the back bedroom to suck the hot air out and kept basement door open so the cool air was drawn up. On the few nights that it was really hot, the girls slept downstairs in the living room. The actually enjoyed the pajama party and we saved a lot of energy. I could get a new washer and dryer that would be more efficient than the ones I have or I could put a clothes rack in the spare bedroom and dry our clothes inside in the winter. I want a solar hot water system but until I can get one, I am turning down the temperature control on my hot water heater.
We have a mindset in this country that we can always throw money at a problem and make it dissapear but that won’t work this time. All of the bailouts and stimulus pachages are not going to change the fundamental truth of the impossibility of infinate growth in a finite world. Preparedness is only going to allow us some breathing room when the next big catastrophy happens. Real preparedness, long term preparedness is about mind set changes.
August 31, 2009 at 9:05 am
Great post! I have to admit that we originally thought the same…buy solar and wind in enough bulk that we could continue to live without any changes in the house. The pay back and start up costs have delayed us, and I’m glad it did. We have since learned that reducing as much as possible is the real way to go. We are down to one car and I stay home most of the week. We’ve cut our driving almost in half that way. I thought about the big new dryers, but honestly, I’m happy with a line most of the time. It’s a life style change that is needed, not a change in appliances! We have a wood stove and rarely rely on the propane furnace now. You might want to check into one of those out door wood boilers, I hear they do hot water also.
August 31, 2009 at 9:27 am
I thought about your post while I was running this morning. I believe there is a middle ground. We moved into a house last year with PV arrays and solar water heating. No AC but a swamp cooler. We wanted as energy efficient house as possible. In the beginning it was about maintaining a lifestyle. However, the PV arrays have led to a whole different mind set. Using as little electricity as possible has led to wanting a solar oven and trying to dry foods rather than canning or freezing. We open and close windows and blinds to take advantage of the sun or not. Some of the technology has led me to hang clothes out. I also know that I am using less power than will be created by coal burning power plants. I agree that a change in lifestyle is necessary but these things led me in that direction.
August 31, 2009 at 9:42 am
If we could afford it, we’d be going the wind-power route. We live on top of a bluff where it’s so windy, on a normal day I can’t keep clothes on the line. In my mind that’s no different than buying open-pollinated seed, a draft horse for pulling a wagon, canning food or using a wood stove.
What I DON’T get is folks who rush out and buy thousands of dollars of MREs and big generators. Once the food is gone and the fuel runs out, what then? I’d still have my windmill, but how could they run their generator?
August 31, 2009 at 11:09 am
Electric cars are not the way to go for a long term solution until there is a renewable energy source to power them. Not only is blowing up mountains in Appalachia a bad idea, but someday people will be talking about peak coal!
I’m proud to say our electric usage is down to 16 kWh/day! That’s with an electric cook stove, water heater, an older fridge, and clothes dryer. I need to dry clothes on the line to go any lower. I don’t have the answers, but I think reducing is the best way to go for now until there are more affordable options for us common folk.
BTW, school starts tomorrow so I’ll probably be missing for a while. These cool autumn-like days remind me of the Ant and the Grasshopper story…happy preparedness efforts to all!
August 31, 2009 at 3:46 pm
Love this post! Lots to think about – many of which have been running through my mind for a while (reading so many apocalyptic books this summer!). It must be a lifestyle change, I agree, but it will take even the most motivated soul, years to really break away from a way of life that we have cultivated over the last 100 years. And I am amazed at how conditioned my girls have already become! I am constantly trying to teach them why we are doing things the “hard way” when it would be so much easier to run to the store and buy whatever it is we need”. And our family has a LONG way to go.
Andrea, I live in the second most consistently windy place in the USA. We have wind farms on the mountains east of our town. Lots of them. I had considered putting one up where I live for our own use but our CC & R’s would not allow us to. However, in talking with the locals, I found out that the parts on these newer type windmills wear out after about 5 years. I’m not sure how true this info is, but I would do some serious investigating before jumping in to this type of power. If it is this difficult for individuals, you can see how the government is struggling with this as well. Until we really change our lifestyles it ain’t gonna happen. And some how, I doubt the lifestyles will change for most unless it is forced upon them by circumstances. Sorry to be so discouraging! Seriously, I find joy in doing what I can do as an individual.
August 31, 2009 at 8:19 pm
CC-
You’re not discouraging, you’re factual! There’s a lot of talk about wind farms in this area, village meetings and such, so I figure we’ll sit back and watch things unfold. My husband did find a plan for using wind to power an alternator and make electricity, but we’re going to start small scale: going to make a water heater for the chicken coop : )
August 31, 2009 at 10:39 pm
A water heater – is it wind powered? I am so amazed! I put down $150 bucks for a small water heater in my new coop because I HATE washing out buckets and such in freezing cold temps (IF I can even keep the water from freezing in the lines). I would love to hear more. Be sure to blog what you find. Wish I was better about thinking creatively around some of these issues. I never even thought it a possibility to even begin researching it. Shows you how far I need to progress in my thinking.
September 1, 2009 at 8:38 am
CC-
From what I gather, you have a small turbine or windmill that’s attached to an alternator that creates energy. Then you can hook up small engines to the alternator for power. From what I gather. That’s more my husbands area of expertise.
Just bear in mind, none of this has come to fruition yet. I’m afraid it will be one of those projects that looks and sounds good on paper, but doesn’t translate to real life, you know? We’ll probably be dropping the $150 for a water heater LOL.
September 8, 2009 at 4:05 pm
What I see a lot of doomers miss is staying out of debt. The big ticket items like the PV array, the EV, the eco-house retrofits, can easily put you into major debt. Since economic collapse is the first impact of peak oil, all that you’ve gotten will just be put on the auction block when you default on these debts. All preps must be bought free and clear, or debt quickly paid back.
I’ve even heard some people say they think TS will HTF so hard that debt will have no more meaning. Well, maybe it will, but that’s still assuming a high level of risk to bank on a catastrophic crash like that. What have you really netted in security by going into debt in a way that could wipe you out?
So I really think the first “prep” is to get out of debt and stay there.
September 8, 2009 at 4:42 pm
I totally agree!!!!
September 27, 2009 at 10:42 pm
You are right on about doing the simple stuff first. It’s better to cut usage way back BEFORE considering generating electricity. We started using this clothes drying rack and usually put it outdoors on the deck or indoors under the ceiling fan if rainy or cold. Because all the clothes hang freely they dry fast. A big step away from relying on an energy hog clothes dryer.
April 1, 2010 at 9:07 pm
There is little doubt we will run out of oil eventually just not soon. Supply and demand will mean that as oil becomes scare the price goes up and consumption goes down etc. However it still tends to have the same effect. The real problem is we have no alternative. You may think PV or wind is viable but it is not and withouth chea energy from oil we wouldn’t even have the expensive and ineffective PV and wind power we are trying to subsidize. The bottom line is we will all suffer; no jobs, little food, little health care little law enforcement. There is no “successful” preparation for life after cheap energy. There are 6.5 billion people on earth and without cheap energy many of them must die so the others can survive. The old, the young, the unlucky and many, many more. While I can appreciate and even applaud “preparing” my point is that there is no “right” way to do it. In fact the closest thing to “right” would be to live it up now for tomorrow you may die.