Climate Change / Global Warming Discussion

[mspohr]

‘Reckless’: G20 states subsidised fossil fuels by $3tn since 2015, says report

The G20 countries have provided more than $3.3tn (£2.4tn) in subsidies for fossil fuels since the Paris climate agreement was sealed in 2015, a report shows, despite many committing to tackle the crisis. This backing for coal, oil and gas is “reckless” in the face of the escalating climate emergency, according to the report’s authors, and urgent action is needed to phase out the support. The $3.3tn could have built solar plants equivalent to three times the US electricity grid, the report says.

But Australia increased its fossil fuel subsidies by 48% over the period, Canada’s support rose by 40% and that from the US by 37%. The UK’s subsidies fell by 18% over that time but still stood at $17bn in 2019, according to the report. The biggest subsidies came from China, Saudi Arabia, Russia and India, which together accounted for about half of all the subsidies.

 

[mspohr]

Emissions will hit record high by 2023 if green recovery fails, says IEA

“Of more than $16tn [£11.7tn, being spent on recovery from Covid-19] only 2% is going to clean energy investments. This is by far not enough. What we will see is that 2023 will reach an all-time record high [in emissions]. This is very worrying.”

 

[Texas Electric]

@Texas Electric
you probably could also.
I got a “Sense” monitor with current clamps to monitor and report “what uses what”
it found a bad leg on a 240v Circuit breaker. some induction cooking, 100% led lighting, “tankless water heater”
you can still read the defunct magazine online “HomePower” that used to feature “guerilla solar” (just do it safely) for ideas. (and get a 30-40 year history).

The home inspector of my new home told me to get a tankless water heater.

 

[winfield100]

The home inspector of my new home told me to get a tankless water heater.

hopefully the home inspector also get a home water system for minerals so the tankless heater doesn't "gum up" from minerals in the water, ie get water checked by local pro.
if you have a Prius, then in a pinch you actually have a ~50kw generator that you may be able to pull ~1kw thru cigarette lighter, or tap off the HV mains into a APC UPS for pure sine wave output. (Priups.com)

 

[ZsoZso]

The home inspector of my new home told me to get a tankless water heater.

I had to install a tankless water heater 7 years ago in my home, when my previous heater died (I was not allowed to put in a new tank due to some building code changes as the tank would be too close to my finished basement bathroom with a tub). I had a very bad experience with my tankless heater in this 7 years. It broke down and had to be repaired 5 times (first two under warranty, the rest out-of-pocket cost), I have to do some filter cleaning maintenance twice a year that involves opening the unit and removing / re-inserting the filter at an awkward hard to access place within the unit. These problems are probably specific to the model I have and maybe better for other models.

However, I also find the experience inconvenient due to the fundamental nature of tankless operation:
When you open a tap that is fairly far away from the heater, i.e. has a long water-line between heater and the tap/shower, then you need to wait a significant amount of time before you get hot water, because all the water in that pipe has cooled down since you last used it*. Also if you adjust the pressure (e.g. while you shower) to change the temperature of the hot/cold mix, there is a delayed change effect as the "online" heater reacts to the demand-flow, so you often overshoot: e.g. you want warmer water, so turn the knob to wards hot until it feels right, but the change continues seconds after you stopped, so it will get hotter than you wanted, then you reverse and overshoot in the other direction etc. My family "adapted" to the situation by mostly using the shower in the basement that has the shortest water-line from the heater. Of course, that "solution" has its own inconvenience being two levels below the bedrooms and acting as a bottleneck when multiple people want to take a shower at the same time.

Sorry about my OT rant.

* there is some colling-down in the pipe effect also so for tanks, but the big difference is, that when you have a tank the water in the line is still connected to the hot water in the tank, and entropy helps you to distribute that heat, therefore the water in the line does not cool down completely. On the other hand, in a tankless system, there is no big body of hot water connected to the water inside the line, so it gets to cool down completely.

 

[Texas Electric]

I had to install a tankless water heater 7 years ago in my home, when my previous heater died (I was not allowed to put in a new tank due to some building code changes as the tank would be too close to my finished basement bathroom with a tub). I had a very bad experience with my tankless heater in this 7 years. It broke down and had to be repaired 5 times (first two under warranty, the rest out-of-pocket cost), I have to do some filter cleaning maintenance twice a year that involves opening the unit and removing / re-inserting the filter at an awkward hard to access place within the unit. These problems are probably specific to the model I have and maybe better for other models.

However, I also find the experience inconvenient due to the fundamental nature of tankless operation:
When you open a tap that is fairly far away from the heater, i.e. has a long water-line between heater and the tap/shower, then you need to wait a significant amount of time before you get hot water, because all the water in that pipe has cooled down since you last used it*. Also if you adjust the pressure (e.g. while you shower) to change the temperature of the hot/cold mix, there is a delayed change effect as the "online" heater reacts to the demand-flow, so you often overshoot: e.g. you want warmer water, so turn the knob to wards hot until it feels right, but the change continues seconds after you stopped, so it will get hotter than you wanted, then you reverse and overshoot in the other direction etc. My family "adapted" to the situation by mostly using the shower in the basement that has the shortest water-line from the heater. Of course, that "solution" has its own inconvenience being two levels below the bedrooms and acting as a bottleneck when multiple people want to take a shower at the same time.

Sorry about my OT rant.

* there is some colling-down in the pipe effect also so for tanks, but the big difference is, that when you have a tank the water in the line is still connected to the hot water in the tank, and entropy helps you to distribute that heat, therefore the water in the line does not cool down completely. On the other hand, in a tankless system, there is no big body of hot water connected to the water inside the line, so it gets to cool down completely.

Thanks for the info. I’ve had the same water heater at my current home for 20 years - no accidents no incidents. The tank is in the attic, and it takes about 20 seconds for the hot water to make it down to the kitchen in our two story house.

 

[nwdiver]

The home inspector of my new home told me to get a tankless water heater.

A heat pump water heater would be a far superior option especially if you already have a tank.

Tankless water heaters are terrible;

 

[eevee-fan]

A heat pump water heater would be a far superior option especially if you already have a tank.

Tankless water heaters are terrible;

Also cools your garage in the summer! Your Tesla would appreciate that.

 

[mspohr]

However, I also find the experience inconvenient due to the fundamental nature of tankless operation:
When you open a tap that is fairly far away from the heater, i.e. has a long water-line between heater and the tap/shower, then you need to wait a significant amount of time before you get hot water, because all the water in that pipe has cooled down since you last used it*.

Actually, all water heaters of all types have this problem. It has nothing to do with tankless. The only way around it is to add pipe insulation and a circulator loop and pump but these lead to a lot of wasted energy.
Tankless heaters are problematic for a number of reasons but water cooling in the pipes is not one of them.

 

[ohmman]

I apologize for not being able to rapidly come up with a web query for this, but is there a consistent agency which audits these "100% renewable energy" plans from energy providers? I understand the concept - they contract to offset the amount of energy subscribed to those plans with some kind of renewable source. Energy is fungible, so while the electrons delivered to your home may be natural gas based, you're offsetting those with electrons delivered elsewhere that were generated with wind or solar or whatever.

I mostly wonder if they're double dipping - some places require a certain percentage of generation to be renewable by law. The idea that an energy provider would sell subscriptions to customers which count toward this requirement seems.. convenient.

 

[mspohr]

Men cause more climate emissions than women, study finds

Both spend similar amounts of money but men use cars much more, Swedish analysis shows

www.theguardian.com

The analysis compared single men and women in Sweden and found that food and holidays caused more than half of all emissions for both men and women. The scientists found that swapping meat and dairy for plant-based foods and switching to train-based holidays, rather than using planes or cars, cut people’s emissions by 40%.

 

[mspohr]

Top US scientist on melting glaciers: ‘I’ve gone from being an ecologist to a coroner’

Diana Six, an entomologist studying beetles near Glacier national park in Montana, says the crisis has fundamentally changed her profession

www.theguardian.com

“I don’t think people realize that climate change is not just a loss of ice. It’s all the stuff that’s dependent on it. The ice is really just the canary in the coalmine. To have 97, 98 degrees in Glacier national park for days on end is insane. This is not just some fluke.

 

[eevee-fan]

If you or your utility have solar, precooling during daylight hours in the summer will do wonders in reducing emission and also grid congestion.

 

[eevee-fan]

 

[Texas Electric]

A heat pump water heater would be a far superior option especially if you already have a tank.

Tankless water heaters are terrible;

Thanks for the suggestion. I’ll check it out. I’m just a few days from closing. The lender is requiring flood insurance so I had to get that paid for today and set for closing. I guess after Harvey, the mortgage companies are requiring it. I had to chase down an elevation certificate.

 

[Texas Electric]

I apologize for not being able to rapidly come up with a web query for this, but is there a consistent agency which audits these "100% renewable energy" plans from energy providers? I understand the concept - they contract to offset the amount of energy subscribed to those plans with some kind of renewable source. Energy is fungible, so while the electrons delivered to your home may be natural gas based, you're offsetting those with electrons delivered elsewhere that were generated with wind or solar or whatever.

I mostly wonder if they're double dipping - some places require a certain percentage of generation to be renewable by law. The idea that an energy provider would sell subscriptions to customers which count toward this requirement seems.. convenient.

That is something that makes me wonder because the flow of electrons is generated by many different sources. How in the heck would you know which electrons you are getting? I think the green energy plans in Texas might be a way to determine how much demand there is for wind and solar from the public, and ERCOT develops wind and solar based on that increasing demand. I don’t see how one can get 100% of their electricity from a wind warm in West Texas.

 

[mspohr]

I apologize for not being able to rapidly come up with a web query for this, but is there a consistent agency which audits these "100% renewable energy" plans from energy providers? I understand the concept - they contract to offset the amount of energy subscribed to those plans with some kind of renewable source. Energy is fungible, so while the electrons delivered to your home may be natural gas based, you're offsetting those with electrons delivered elsewhere that were generated with wind or solar or whatever.

I mostly wonder if they're double dipping - some places require a certain percentage of generation to be renewable by law. The idea that an energy provider would sell subscriptions to customers which count toward this requirement seems.. convenient.

Theoretically, a renewable solar/wind energy provider would pump a given amount of electricity into the grid then a person/company who bought renewable energy would then take a metered amount of energy out of the grid. The accounting should work out.
However, as you point out, since electrons are fungible there is opportunity for accounting "errors", etc.
There is also the problem of time of use. Renewables are put into the grid when they are generated and consumers take them out when needed. These don't coincide. Net this shouldn't matter. Batteries can help solve this problem.

 

[ReddyLeaf]

Men cause more climate emissions than women, study finds

Both spend similar amounts of money but men use cars much more, Swedish analysis shows

www.theguardian.com

The analysis compared single men and women in Sweden and found that food and holidays caused more than half of all emissions for both men and women. The scientists found that swapping meat and dairy for plant-based foods and switching to train-based holidays, rather than using planes or cars, cut people’s emissions by 40%.

Thanks so much for posting this. It took me quite awhile to come around to prioritizing climate change over other pressing environmental concerns (water pollution, deforestation, habitat loss, etc). However, it’s now been 10 years of EVs and 5 years since my last airplane trip, so I’m fully engaged. I’ve been gardening for decades, but really stepped up my game since the 2010. You will notice that there is NO lawn grass. Since 2008, I’ve had a tree-trimming company delivery about 50 dump truck loads of arborist wood chips on the property and it just slowly decomposes into amazing high carbon soil.

South-facing front yard today, left to right: Kabocha Squash, sweet potatoes, crookneck squash, cantaloupe, beets, kale, tomatoes, climbing beans (already harvested and removed spring plantings of onions, carrots, lettuce, bok choy).

Back yard: spaghetti squash, tomatoes, carrots, cantaloupe, blue potatoes, garlic, leeks, cucumbers/beans on fence, peaches, green peppers.

 

[mspohr]

Another heat dome: Why the social cost of greenhouse gases is so important

As the Biden administration sets about taking action to stem the climate crisis, it must figure the social cost of greenhouse gases.

thehill.com

After experiencing 116-degree heat at the end of June in the Pacific Northwest, we are likely to become more familiar with this: calculating the social cost of greenhouse gases. It turns out there really is a way to quantify the cost of continued emissions. But — and this is a big but — the way the U.S. government currently does its math woefully undercounts the cost.

In our comments, we insist the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and other government agencies decide on a metric to measure effects like these — or, at the very least, prominently disclose their absence whenever they use a calculation for the social cost of greenhouse gases. With climate change, the ordinarily noble aim to get it “exactly right on the first go” is futile — we need deliberate action now, and we should understand that it is sensible to make adjustments as we learn more going forward.

 

[mspohr]

US set for punishing temperatures as huge ‘heat dome’ to settle over country

“It’s a teachable moment in many ways for the public that climate change is here and now and dangerous. It isn’t our grandchildren’s problem, it’s our problem. But it’s been a teachable moment for climate scientists too.”