Sustainable Energy – without the hot air

[paultrafalgar]

Thanks again to AtoB magazine for pointing out that you can download this recommended book for free from:
http://www.withouthotair.com/download.html
Edit:
By the way, the author is a Fellow of the Royal Society.

 

[Tiberius]

This is a brilliant book.

My son alerted me to it about a year ago and I've mentioned it on here and the UK pedelecs forum. There's no harm in mentioning it again; in fact maybe there should be a sticky or a permanent recommendation here on ES. The author is a physics professor at Cambridge University and since the book came out he's been made an advisor to the UK Department of Energy.

The book cuts through the nonsense on the subject but still keeps the science well grounded. Wouldn't it be nice if the people reading and posting in the AGW-sceptic threads would study this instead - if only because Prof David Mackay has a section on how both sides of the argument manipulate the figures and how to see through them.

Nick

 

[dogman dan]

Just read the 10 page synopsis. Yeah, this is good work. For once some common sense along with science. Stuff like sure turn off your cell phone charger, but in a year it will save enough energy for one hot bath. Obvious that swapping one bath for a shower would save a lot more.. Also the flying thing, one long trip is like driving your car for a year!

Definitely I'll have to settle in and read the whole thing.

 

[torker]

I just read the synopsis too. And I just turned off the tv I had muted I like those heatpumps. I'm sure I could design a house that would have a good enough passive design that a couple heat pumps is all I would need. Then a few kilowatts on the roof to run that, a few lights, computer, a fridge and charge my bike/car and I'm set. Well maybe several kilowatts :wink:

 

[paultrafalgar]

Torker, Ks stands for Kansas, doesn't it? In which case, you forgot the wind generator!

 

[voicecoils]

An excellent read.

I read Tiberius' original post about it and have been revisiting sections of it regularly since then.

 

[hydro-one]

Good read , guy seems stuck up on keeping his lifstyle fairly same (ridiculous, air travel, car travel, no local grown food), basically if you replace the word person with idiot, eg the "average person" does blah blah then comparing his ballpark math, to pie in the sky "green" energy ideas . its really alot of mishmashed garb , with absoulutly no basis in reality, but like i said good to read. also he forgot hydro---mabye i got it out for this dude.....

One thing i did find interesting is some bus numbers. eg sky high numbers energy unless full of people.. Today I was passed by a bus while riding my ebike, pulling my 4 yr old on sleigh!, carrying groceries. The bus had nobody on it. It left us in a trail of dirty particulate and carcinogenic smog, which persisted along side the street for hundreds of meters. I found this particularily funny as this bus weighs more than my groceries for the whole year, we(taxpayers) were paying to have it drive around and choke me and my kids. and im getting great exercise and (i hope in the future) fresh air, try8ing to be green. Seems like a no brainer. Ebikesreplacebuses. The old people can get gyroebikes. the people left driving cars , well Ill fix them lest they be run over...then well be safe again

 

[FeralDog]

Quote from Book Synopsis: "First, easily-accessible fossil fuels
will at some point run out, so we’ll eventually have to get our energy
from someplace else. Second, burning fossil fuels is having a measurable
and very-probably dangerous effect on the climate. Avoiding dangerous
climate change motivates an immediate change from our current use of
fossil fuels."

#1) "First, easily-accessible fossil fuels will at some point run out, so we’ll eventually have to get our energy
from someplace else" >>> So, couldn't that wizened statement have been said from the Stone Age to the Present?
Nothin' new here.

 

[voicecoils]

Good read , guy seems stuck up on keeping his lifstyle fairly same (ridiculous, air travel, car travel, no local grown food), basically if you replace the word person with idiot, eg the "average person" does...

Perhaps he has a different view on the changes and sacrifices individuals are willing to make. At the national and global level, what is the likelihood of whole populations halving their energy consumption by personal choice?

 

[hydro-one]

Its not that hard!!! esp with ebikes, zigbee, geothermal, a little education (or a lot). Its going to happen anyways may as well get readdy...

mike