permaculture

[Harold Waldock <haroldw@alternatives.com>]

New Technology is not something one ordinarily tries to encourage in
sustainable designs for ordinary people with modest cash and time budgets.

The silver bullet for the energy problems is certainly not singular like
those neat solar dish powered hydrogen producing companies I mentioned.  We
must not discourage invention either though as Bill Mollison suggested that
the first thing designers are to look at is to modify existing tools in a
small way to improve their efficiency.  Thus tinker and get new tools - some
like those dishes could be made far cheaper than the cheapest car.  Imagine
all year energy independence for house and vehicle for the price of a  cheap
car?  Coming soon? Unlikely but definitely potentially useful for some
designs.

Bill said that the greatest gains in energy use will come from design -
especially landscape design and for the Temperate and Cold region's houses.
Lets look at some of the solutions that are working well:

1) Ground Source Heat pumps - cost Can$10,000 - 15,000 results 70% energy
use reduction.  Now 1/3 of all new houses in Switzerland and can be 100%
fossil fuel free depending on where the electricity comes from.  High rates
of penetration in Austria too.

2) Hot Water Districts:  very heavily used in Denmark.  Lots of cities still
have steam but hot water districts have been shown to be much cheaper and
more efficient.  This would work well for cool temperate zone Ecovillages.
So much used that one inventor there built a Wind Powered water heater  - it
is not an electric generator but converts mechanical energy directly to
heat - a wind kettle.  Very simple and easy to repair. If anybody wants the
contact ask I'll have to dig my archives for the info. If I remember
correctly these things were 5Kw and were less that Can$10,000.

3) Biomass Combined Heat and Power: very heavily used in Denmark. Up to 90%
efficiency.  Even if fossil fuelled I'd think it best practice.  Why? I keep
reminding myself that the idea is not going to happen unless there are
stepwise transitions.  I have a saying I say often: "If it is not
transitional it is not Permaculture." We are to meet needs here and now and
not expect people to take up 17th Century rural lifestyles even if they are
sustainable.  Take transitional steps and get better with time.  It is
important to look at ends or if all the world would switch to the solution
and see what would happen just to check to make sure it is a good solution.
But be reasonable - permaculture is about design for people and place.  The
solutions will be different all over the world and given better design
things will shift every 10 years.

If every subdivision was built with combined heat and power and a hot
water/chilled water district along with some ground source heat pumps people
could probably reduce their energy bills to 20% of current. Talk with your
neighbours.  This kind of stuff has a much better payback in dense
neighbourhoods than solar pv.

Industrial Ecology thinking is particularly useful when designing for
energy.

Let us  keep thinking energy design from the Permaculture perspective.

Harold Waldock


> -----Original Message-----
> From: permaculture-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org
> [mailto:permaculture-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org]On Behalf Of Kelly
> Finigan
> Sent: Saturday, August 23, 2003 1:44 PM
> To: permaculture
> Subject: Re: [permaculture] energy futures
>
>
> George:
>
> more personally philosophy:
>
> personally, I think low-energy use could also be better all round...I for
> one would not advocate keeping our usage levels anywhere near where they
> are, even IF we could...
>
>
> , however, there are scenarios that could be horrible (e.g. intensive
> military control of state, heavy reliance on nuclear power and its
> byproducts, large-scale burning of remaining coal deposits blanketing
> everything in soot, etc)...
>
>
> I think the end results (really good or really bad) are going to hinge on
> the decisions we (society) make in the next 10 to 20 years...
>
> I also don't hold out hope for "magic technology bullets" to
> "save" us...we
> have to start with our lifestyles.
>
> ciao,
> KElly
>
>
>
>
> On Sat, 23 Aug 2003 11:24:16 +0200, georg parlow wrote
> > >but we WILL have a landing in a low energy future.
> >
> > <warning: philosophy ahaed!>
> >
> > i sincerely do hope so.
> > ever now and then someone vents hopes about a dirt cheap,
> > perfectly environmentally safe and clean energy-source (with varying
> > degrees of conspiracy-thoughts, like "this was developed by xy in
> > 19xx, but he was killed" or "...but it was bought by general
> > electrica/exxon/younameit and filed"). this idea sounds tempting and
> > attractive from a purely materialistic point of view, from a deep
> > ecology point of view it is scary. living an energy consuming life
> > like the modern urbanite is injuring our integrity, our body-mind-
> > spirit convergence on which our true happiness and wholistic
> > fullfillment depends. the superficial cost of enregy-consumption
> > (=the cost to the ego either as monetary cost [reducing my
> >  influence and consumerist coice] or as selfimage pain "i am an
> > environmentally responsible person, i dont do this as bad as the
> > others do") is currently for most people on earth the only namable
> > reason for not glutting even worse in energy, removing their
> > physical rhythms even further from the natural rhythm of the
> > surroundings that gave birth to, feed  and harbour the body,
> > shooting their ainmal form criss cross the surface of the planet,
> >  dislocating their very minds even further from their bodies, and
> > moving ever further away from "be here now", "marry your mind to
> > your body" or "be a whole person". since we humans are no separate
> > thing but a functional emanation of our bioregion, it makes perfect
> > sense that the environment suffers visible damage, if we live in a
> > way that damages our invisible integrity.
> >
> > keep growing!
> > georg
> >
> > * * *
> > Georg Parlow
> > g.parlow@zartbesaitet.net
> > http://zartbesaitet.net/gp
> > A-1230 Wien, R.Zellergasse 70/4/1
> >
> > http://zartbesaitet.net
> > die Webseite für hochempfindliche Menschen
> >
> > _______________________________________________
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> > permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org
> > http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/permaculture
>
>
>
> --
> Kelly Finigan, M.Sc. P.Eng. Permaculture Designer
> ~ Sustainability consultant & ecological designer ~
>
> 744 - 4 Street NW
> Calgary, Alberta T2N 1P2
> phone 1-403-283-7270
>
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