Beyond food supply, one of the ways in which humans have increased their life expectancy, in my opinion, is to have hot water on demand. We all consume it, but have we ever thought just how much energy this consumes and how that energy is produced? At nearly 20% of household consumption on average in the USA, well thats a lot and there are alternatives for sure! This article details appropriate technology features for just that.
https://treeyopermacultureedu.com/appropriate-technology/water-heating/
Excerpt:
Water heating is a luxury we have become quite accustomed to in developed nations and probably never really have thought about the vast amount of energy this demands. Our consumption of hot water comes at a cascading fossil fuel price through the electricity or the natural gas we employ. We may not think of hot water as such, but I feel having hot water on demand is one of the ways in which humans have increased their life expectancy. Hygiene has improved because who wants to take a cold shower when its cold out. Also reheating the body in the winter is such a beneficial approach to keeping the immune system robust. However, as always with the burning of fossil fuels, sunlight stored of ancient times, there is a fallout of negative impacts from air quality where it’s burnt to water quality where the fuel source is mined.
Consequently, this heating of water is one of the first appropriate technologies many will implement in a permaculture built environment. The systems are less complex than the electricity producing and storing ones (solar PV and batteries for example) and it helps to reduce your electric demand if wanting to go with renewables or go completely off grid. Whether it is showering or washing dishes or laundry (just do laundry in cold water), your hot water needs can be met through appropriate technologies.
I could throw a lot of numbers and conversion rates at you to provide more substantial evidence that heating water is energy intensive. If you do a web search of “how much energy does it take to heat water”, you will find the conversion factors. This shows the amount of energy and its relationship to the cost of electricity and it is actually pretty astounding how much the cost of hot water is. Furthermore, the amount of total energy used in a household for water heating is quite astonishing and see the graph below. With an average in 2015 in the USA of nearly 20%, this is a critical factor of societal energy consumption or production.
Interestingly enough, Nature produces its own hot water on demand in the form of hot springs. Warmed by underlying volcanic/geologic figures, humans once did pilgrimages to source this heat and mineral rich waters. Now we simply open a tap and voila; no real thought on energy. Thus part of this articles desired outcome is for readers to simply even think about hot water and what that implies. Sitting in hot springs is my top pilgrimage choice and am grateful for this blessing of the earth.
read more at:
https://treeyopermacultureedu.com/appropriate-technology/water-heating/
