Re: New paradigm for home heating automation and control

["Robert Green" <ROBERT_GREEN1963@xxxxxxxxx>]

"Dave Houston" <nobody@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:43ac7669.65743217@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> There have been some big advances in solar recently including "spray on
> solar panels" that work on cloudy days.
>
>      http://209.157.64.200/focus/f-news/1330520/posts

Neat.  I've seen a solar shingle material that doesn't look much different
from the regular variety.  It's improvements like these that will propel
solar in a big way.

> My point, sardonic as it was, is that there is no energy crisis. There's
> ample coal and it's used now for more than 50% of our electricity. Even in
a
> state like Texas where the oil industry controls nearly everything, coal
> supplies more than 40% of the electricity.

There *IS* an energy crisis to the poor Jane and John Homeowners who are
paying twice what they did last year to drive to work and twice what they
did last year to heat their homes.  For lots of people, that's a crisis of
incredible proportions.  It means giving up a lot, especially to people who
live close the borderline, economically speaking.

I do agree, however, it's not like we'll have to shutter America and go
dark.  There is a short-term crisis as a result of Katrina that, with the
help of some rabid journalists, Senators and newscasters, has been blown up
to incredible proportions.

> It makes more economic sense to develop technology to burn (and mine) coal
> cleanly than it does to continue to depend on oil and gas and the wars
that
> is sure to bring. China is also a big coal user with huge reserves.

My read on the matter is that once upon a time we had the most voracious oil
appetite.  Now China has come into the modern world as a very big mouth to
feed, oilwise.

> As for the Hummer driving (there are big tax breaks for buying a Hummer)
> pseudoenvironmentalists doing the oil companies dirty work, the U.S. Court
> of Appeals has already ruled that mountain top removal is OK. I wouldn't
> hold my breath waiting for that to be overturned. Anyway, most of W. VA
will
> be flatlands by the time the case reaches final resolution. :(

I agree.  I recently read a piece that described how much lobbying muscle
the coal industry has.  They aren't going to be weaned from mountain-eating
very soon.  It's important that people try, though.  The mining companies
have been forced to change at least some of their ways, even if their
compliance is half-hearted, at best.

>      http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10194185/
>
> BTW, Mother Nature's solar devices didn't fare so well in the years
> following Krakatoa - crop yields were down for a few years.

And the weak died off, just the way She intends!  I've read that some
scientists believe our ancestors got our big break during the iridium
asteroid strike that alleged to have wiped out the dinosaurs.  The skies
stayed dark for a long, long time and only the carrion eaters made it
through - only the small ones, at that.

> I hope Santa puts coal in everyone's Christmas stockings.

One lump or two?

--
Bobby G.