By P Gosselin
Back to the 19th century…climate-crazed political leader: Washcloths and heating just one room are enough…
Since Germany put itself on the path to de-energize by throttling energy production and creating high prices, some German leaders lately have offered creative ways of dealing with the resulting crisis, among them: advising people to prepare themselves for a possible blackout lasting for days.
Some weeks ago we reported on how the Minister President from Baden-Württemberg, Winfried Kretschmann, suggested that people stop taking hot showers and instead use a washcloth with a sink with some lukewarm water for bathing. This would help to curb a gas supply crisis later this winter.
Heating just one room
Mr. Kretschmann is back in the news again with a new idea, one that he says he himself practices: Allegedly, he heats just one room in the house, the living room, and expects others to follow his lead. This means citizens are now expected to bathe themselves with a washcloth, turn off the lights and to sleep, eat and do their home office work in frosty rooms.
The message in Germany is clear: politicians have no intentions of re-establishing a steady energy supply that would return its citizens to normal comfort. Instead citizens are being asked to return to the 19th century.
Health and property hazard
But there are of course problems with going back to the stone ages. Not only is cold dangerous to people, but not heating the rooms in your home poses another health hazard: toxic black mold. According to the online Karlsruher Insider:
Meanwhile, experts warn against heating only one room or no room at all. The cool air in the room would lead to increased humidity, which would then promote mold growth.
Ventilation and adequate heating are therefore both important basics for getting through the winter in good health. Mold can cause lasting damage to the apartment and the house, as well as to one’s own health.”
Everything climate-crazed politicians touch seems to turn into destruction, misery and death.
Also, see here what it will cost on average for a German family to heat a 100 square meter residence tomorrow (1 day).
Business tip: If you sell wool sweaters in Europe, build up your inventory now!
In other news, Vienna University has already been forced to close because it can’t afford high heating costs. Die ganze Story hiere: https://pleiteticker.de/drohende-zahlungsunfaehigkeit-wiener-uni-muss-schliessen/
Where are they gonna get the wool with places like new Zealand taxing animal husbandry out of existence?
Can’t use manmade fibres either, all that oil we’ve got to just Stop.
When I was a child my granny used to hand knit, one thing she did was salvage wool from old sweaters and make new ones.
Anyone can raise angora rabbits and no one is taxing sheep or alpacas in the US. Tons of wooly dogs out there for Chiengora. If people are actually cold in Germany which they won’t be… they will work it out but they won’t have to..
3 years ago I could always pick up nice wool sweaters at Church clothing giveaways…not this year in PA….. not with heating oil up %76%/
Now THERE would be poetic justice – “universities,” those centers of leftist indoctrination, being forced to close because they can’t afford the utilities.
A good thing. Shut ’em all down. Let them live their dream for the rest of us. Poetic justice, indeed.
They just mean that “online learning” is used more often over winter
I reckon their plumbers will love this idea. So many frozen and burst pipes and so little time!
Return to the 19th century? Many houses in the 19th century kept at least a bit warm with a log or coal fire. Wealthier people had a fire in each of several rooms.
Germans are rediscovering the Kachelofen (cocklestove), if fuel were easily available where I live I wouldn’t mind having one going right now (almost summer).
Our 20 + years of travel experience to rural Germany is that “Kachelofen” are far more common…
Warmed myself many a time in German hutes in the mountains in a room heated by one of those. They are quite effective.
Sophisticated people like the Sherpas of Nepal accommodate their animals at the first floor of the house. They live on the second floor.
In fact, my Father (as a child, in Southern Manitoba) lived with his Mother and siblings in a house that had a cow in the lower level, to help heat their home.
Return to the 19th century? More like return to the mid 20th century for me.
We had no internal bathroom facilities until 1968, when I was 12. No central heating until 1968. We heated one room with a coal fire including during the winter of 1962-63. Frost on the inside of bedroom windows was a regular occurrence.
My maternal grandparents did have an inside bathroom with hot water being provided by a coal fired back boiler. They only had a small coal fired stove in their main room.
My paternal grandparents had no inside bathroom facilities and again heated one room with a coal fire.
Yes, JohnC,
In Mackay, Queensland, my first living memories starting 1945 were living in a 3room fibro shack of kitchen-family room, bedroom 1, bedroom 2 on the verandah for 3 children. Heating by wood cooking stove. Cold shower only, under the tank stand outside, dunny at the back of the yard for weekly collection, washing clothes in a copper bowl over a wood fire, then hung on a length of fencing wire between two trees. No car, no bicycles, father just back from WWII in New Guinea, broke and jobless. Did not taste steak until I was 7, first shoes at 14.
Yes, we did help to personally create the golden years of 1970-90 era, by finding big new mines, which makes the national decline of the past decade so much more bitter, because we have lived the better way and know how easy it is to create it again. Geoff S
Much the same hear in Britain, early 60s no central heating just a coal fire , winter of 63 brutal , snow on the ground till late March, bedroom curtains frozen to the window, no fridge or car , walk or bus every where, food expensive, one small black and white tv with just two channels. I don’t think the kids will be so happy going back to the 40s or 50s
We should tell the kids that to save energy we’ll need to take away their smart phones.
And computers, tvs and video games.
And them jumping up and down while throwing a fit will keep them warm.
But – jumping up and down – all winter!??
Without any screen?
Not even an itsy-bitsy one??
Great could do that – but the rest of them?
Auto
Asking for a friend.
Me too, rural Perthshire, Scotland. No mains services – water. electricity, gas, sewage and not even refuse collection.
We had a Rayburn in the living room-kitchen for cooking and hot water and rarely lit open fires in other rooms. We did have an inside bathroom though but it had three outside walls so was bloody freezing in winter. As you say frozen inside windows most winters, but 1962-63 I averaged about one day a week at school as the snowplough was busy keeping main roads open. Getting fuel got very difficult and towards the end of the freeze we were sawing and chopping wood indoors as it was needed, fortunately we’d a good stockpile but it got dangerously low. Had the snow continued we’d planned which tree was going to be sacrificed, there were stumps left from 1947’s emergency used by previous residents.
Anyone who wants us to go back to those days should be locked up in a house with no electricity, gas or coal and told to get on surviving in the mild winters we have now
I have horrid memories of growing up in a two story uninsulated farmhouse located in southeastern Wisconsin during the 1960’s & 1970’s. The original part of the house, the kitchen, was built as a log cabin in the 1880’s then added onto later. Main heat for the entire house was an oil fired space heater located in the living room on the first floor. Secondary heat was provided by the small cast iron wood burning stove located in the kitchen adjacent to the living room. The single bathroom was located just off the kitchen.
The main bedroom (parents) was located behind the living room close to the space heater while all other bedrooms were on the second story accessed by a steep narrow staircase. This staircase was the only means of heat traveling to the upper level.
All too many times I remember having to break through the ice that formed in the glass of water on the bedside table before being able to take a drink during the night or in the morning. Everyone usually had some type of respiratory illness lasting weeks.
During my time in the military, I spent 3 months with the Italian Alpini mountain troops living in the unheated barracks on one of their camps in the Italian Alps. One actually looked forward to getting breakfast in the morning in the only heated structure, the mess hall. There one could get the hot chocolate coffee mix along with a packet of rotgut cognac to wash down the frozen bread roll & butter.
Spent way too many years (55) in the frigid North of the USA before coming to my senses and moving to northern Florida.
From age 10 until I left home at about 17, our “indoor facilities” were a pail, which I had to carry out to empty daily. We had a hand pump in our dirt basement, which was our drinking water supply… snow and rain water were caught in metal tanks below our kitchen and shed roofs. Wash water was heated on a stove.
Similar experience for me. no indoor plumbing, no phones, no TV, the radio had more batteries than a modern car, drinking water from a well was in a crock by the door where it often froze over during cold weather, heating was with wood with coal used sparingly if we could afford it that winter, and travel of any kind was extremely difficult.
Walked a half mile to meet a cold school bus and sometimes had to walk back if the bus could not get through in sub zero weather. Homework and pleasure reading was done by the light of kerosene wick lamps which had to be at your elbow. Nights were long during central Alberta winters.
I was in my teens before we had the use of electricity. Never did have indoor plumbing until I moved off the farm.
Somehow it did not seem that bad. Few outside the cities had any more. I remember good things such as home made ice cream after a midsummer hailstorm. Our house was usually the Christmas gathering place for family and was always warm when crowded. The memories are as many good as bad, and we had never known a different situation as children.
The outhouses were not heated!
I remember the paraffin (kerosene) heater used to stop the pipes freezing.
In YOUR experience!
Is your current outhouse heated?
Don’t worry folks :
That sounds very like ‘being retired with flowers’.
Not sure I am up for that just yet!
Auto
“Everything climate-crazed politicians touch seems to turn into destruction, misery and death.“. When are these CCPs (climate-crazed politicians – just as bad as the better-known CCP) going to apologise and admit that no-one can run a modern economy on intermittent energy.
when they’re in jail
when they are freezing to death in jail…
They won’t apologise. They cannot be seen to be wrong, image is everything.
BUT YOU CAN RUIN A MODERN ECONOMY ON INTERMITTENT ENERGY.
Leftists don’t like America.
They want to change it (aka fundamental transformation)
That starts by destroying everything that works
Leftists ruin everything they touch
Why would the electric grid be an exception?
Correct Mike. In summary, everything the Left does is a lie – just reject everything they say.
I warned these idiots way back in 2002 and provided more details in 2013. I actually predicted to within one year the exact energy shortage scenario that is unfolding this winter in Britain, Germany and elsewhere – and that was not difficult.
Months ago. I said Britain was facing a cull of its elderly and poor this winter, and these incompetent-fool leaders keep making it worse.
The alternative interpretation is that this cull is deliberate – one cannot rule out that possibility – it is difficult to believe that any individual or group could be this wrong, this utterly obtuse, for this long.
Meanwhile, we have a new competent Premier in Alberta, Canada is still the 4th largest oil producer in the world (mostly due to my efforts) despite the hostility from the criminals in Ottawa, and our energy costs, while increasing unnecessarily (against my advice), are still manageable.
Just know this: Every alarmist statement about “dangerous human-made global warming” is a lie and a fraud. Climate is INsensitive to increasing atmospheric CO2. There is no real climate crisis, except that created by warmist fraudsters – it’s all 100% false. The scoundrels know they are lying; the imbeciles believe them.
The Ubers want us to huddle in the cold and dark in mud huts while we starve to death — to Save the Planet from heating up one degree in a hundred years, hypothetically. The Great Reset with No Regrets: you will own nothing and be dead. Hurry: be the first one on your block to freeze for Gaia!
“You will own nothing and be dead” Best laugh of the day. This is what ‘socialism’ done.
One candle puts out about 75-80 watts, so if you gather up about 20 candles, that is equal to about a 1500 watt electric space heater. Women should like that in the coolish bath. Could always pre-heat the water with the candles I supose. What happened to the Germans? They were never a stoopid people. Now they can’t keep the heat on, and they will soon be chopping down the Black Forest. I suppose every generation has to learn the hard way.
I lived in a teepee for a winter in temps down to -40 when I was young and foolish, so I know all about survival. Not so bad actually, sleeping on hay bales and with an air tight tin stove dancing on the ground, glowing half orange. I still burn wood for back-up in case of emergency, but now I am lazy and do have ‘free’ electricity at a few of my off grid locations.
I don’t know what the poor folks in Ukraine are going to do, with no electricity or gas, and getting artillery fire inbound, or a bullet or a missile through the front window. But there is no excuses for the Germans. They made their bed, and now they have to sleep in it. Maybe more blankets. And everyone sleep in the same bed.
Rural Germany that we have visited, mainly in the west, have years of staves for their very efficient wood burners – like, I imagine, many rural areas more eastwards.
Merkel, of EAST Germany, wanted ALL Germans to know what it was like for her growing up in the East!
This is HER legacy, and no one is even talking about her responsibility for this mess.
It amazes me how those to blame, it leftist, which Merkel was, are never made to pay or even have their actions, and the results, pointed out. Even on WUWT, much less the MSM.
That the planet will warm one or two degreed is pure speculation. Model predictions that are as likely to be wrong as not.
The second assumed scenario is that a warmer planet will be bad. That is in spite of the fact that the warming of the last 100 or so years has been generally beneficial.
Only by blaming severe weather events on warming, without credible evidence, can the narrative be driven.
Real believable science is ignored and science is manufactured for political expediency.
I have been told that most furnaces, like the propane one I have, can tolerate having only one or two vents shut; closing too many increases back pressure too much and damages the furnace. Furnaces maintain the room temperature by shutting off and on, instead of burning at a lower rate continuously.
Furnace internal fans typically have three speeds that can be set by an installer. If you want to close more than one vent, I’d recommend using the mld-range speed or lowest speed. That also reduces furnace air flow noise compared with the highest fan speed.
Does that also throttle the burners?
Yes, when it’s set to ‘Auto’ it will cycle both the fan and the burner off and on. There is a sensor that detects the temperature and once it cools down to a set temp, it will cycle the blower fan off. Once the room temp reaches a preset temperature (user selected) it will turn everything back on, and it starts all over again. But the answer is, “yes’. I run with the fan on continuosely because the difference in temps is just too much, even when set at a differential of only .5 degrees. We set our thermostat at 61 F degrees at night and 66F in the daytime.
The multiple blower speeds are not intended to be used in that way [to shut down nearly every room]. The speed is set once upon system setup and often not even then as it will be preset to be suited to the burner output and “typical” ducting system restriction. The burner in nearly every gas fired warm air furnace is purely on-off in operation. Close too many vents, air flow will be insufficient and the burner will cycle via high safety limit which should not occur during normal operation and can certainly be deemed “damaging” to the furnace. Of course if the Germans used forced air to heat homes they’d actually use their manometers and velocimeters during setup,
This is indicative of the mental madness that has now overtaken the political class world wide.
Germany, has at its disposal sufficient engineering and scientific prowess to be able to heat every German home and every room in every German home, if they adopted the sanity to do so.
When the Past Chancellor of Germany, Angela Merkel decided the best option for the nation was to urgently shut down its reliable nuclear power stations, then destroy large forests and natural landscapes in order to erect intermittent energy generation wind parks, we knew something sinister was taking place. That concern was then confirmed/endorsed when the same German Chancellor a chemist by profession, who grew up in Soviet controlled Communist East Germany, blocked coal power generation opting instead for unique reliance on totalitarian controlled Russia for its energy security via gas pipe lines.
The impact of these odd political decisions and the effect on the largest manufacturing nation in Europe, results in a politician today telling Germany to stop washing and to live in just one room in winter, if you wish to stay alive?
The alternative strategy would be to stop listening to the Green voices filling the heads of German politicians and instead, return to low cost abundant reliable none weather dependent none Russian dependent, indigenous German energy supply. The German technical capability still exists, in coal and nuclear energy industries. Maybe it is past time to deploy the national strength of the nation and time for them to stop listening to Klaus Schwab and his political disciples. It is time to return to sane energy policies that serve the German people 24/7 not just when the wind blows.
The Germans went insane in the 1930s and 1940s.
Maybe it’s an insanity cycle?
Their Constitution must have an INSANITY CLAUSE
ha ha
‘The Germans went insane in the 1930s and 1940s.’
Much longer ago than that, Richard. In the ‘Pantheon’ of Germanic Philosophy that includes the likes of Hegel and Marx, and forms the basis of Western ‘post modernism’, there are no John Lockes. The Germanic embrace of statist authoritarians and totalitarians is a feature, not a bug.
Interesting point, but didnt the ‘Austrian school’ of economists formulated by Menger, Von Weiser and others ( in 1974 Hayek won the Nobel prize for economics) have a much more ultra free market economic view
The first free market Austrian economists were literally Austrians, some of whom fled before the German takeover of their country. They were, of course, denigrated by economists of the German Historical School, who were literally Germans and very comfortable with government intervention in the economy.
Baden Wurttemberg, one of the richest states in Germany ( capital Stuttgart) has The Green Party as the largest part in the government coalition and their leader is the state premier
Here is how mould can kill:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-63542651?at_medium=RSS&at_campaign=KARANGA
Here are some pictures –
https://uk.news.yahoo.com/shocking-photos-inside-home-covered-mould-awaab-ishak-died-084132364.html
It is literally incredible that Germany has come to this, and they are not alone.
How can anyone have any belief that politicians and their advisors have any competence?
It is no surprise, surely, whether or not you have had any form of contact with our present and most recent cohorts of career politicians, that as they seek power they blindly gravitate to those who are powerful in “other areas”. They must naively believe the – paraphrased – cheesy axiom “people like people they think are like them”. And everyone else “looking on” suffers from the consequences. All the above does nothing to shift my view that true “anarchism” is the way forward, the UK is ripe for a military coup (won’t happen) and Gulags are too good for these arrogant over confidant and under competent non entities.
Let them lead by example –
Turn off ALL heating in government buildings.
Use the ‘smart meter’ system to restrict energy use by green supporters.
If they survive the winter … next year we could restrict their use of oil products.
Wonder how many would carry on preaching ‘green’ ???
Why bother listening to people like Kretschmann?
The BBC described human activities this morning as “dumping Carbon dioxide in the sky”.
Not bothering with the FIFA virtue signalling circus either
At least the weather is normal
What is the current heating situation in the offices of the Government of Baden-Württemberg, especially those of the Minister-President?
What is the current heating situation inside the Landtag of Baden-Württemberg?
That recommendation is a big deal. Especially for elderly people with arthritis who prefer warmer than average homes
After 35 years living in the same home with the same thermostat set at 70 degrees F. every winter, I saw my first big 2022 heating bill — about 75% higher than last year (natural gas). I decided to turn down the thermostat to 69 degrees F. this winter. One degree F.is not a big change. But the wife noticed immediately. My cat now sits on the floor heat grate when the furnace starts up, waiting for the warm air to arrive. We use our electric heated mattress pad all the time instead of once in a while.
To people with forced air heating ducts:
You can close or partially close 10% of the heat vents without much of a decline in heating efficiency. You can also buy a small fan designed to fit over a hear vent to pull more hot air from that specific vent. Very useful for vents that are the furthest from the furnace. Or just add a small electric heater to the colder room, although electric is expensive, I do that for the room furthest from my own furnace.
My Wife and I are extremely blessed. Our hand dug well (we dug it thirty years ago) is far above our home, so the water supply is gravity-fed in a buried line, down to us, so no electricity required… we heat with wood from a bunker-encased large “tank” stove, the wood for which is from our land (lots of fire-dead trees to last for many years)… the stove itself is 40 ft. from the house, and at a lower ground level than the crawl space where culverts transport to where it enters the house… insulated flexible ductwork in the crawl space transports the heat to the few registers at main-floor level… all of the heat is transferred by gravity (up the slope from the bunker).. so, no electricity required there, either. I feel for those who are not as prepared as we are (tho’ it has taken years of hard work to make it so).
I built my small retirement house ten years ago. I installed hydronic radiant floor heat using a NG demand water heater which also supplies my hot water. Very efficient and it is comfortable at a lower thermostat setting. I back it up with an electric hot water heater which I had to use once when Gas pressure dropped below what was required to run my gas heater. All low cost and easily installed in new construction. the carbon tax hardly matters at current rates.
We live at 45ºN 86ºW, with Lake Michigan moderating our temperatures, in a cottage with a great room, bedroom, and bathroom, on electric heat with a gas log supplement.
The tiny bathroom is kept warmest for the piping and for personal comfort with a 500 Watt baseboard. The great room and loft are kept quite cool about 65ºF in subzero winds, all that the baseboards can do. The bedroom is not heated but by waste heat from the dehumidifier always running in daylight hours, instead we use a heated mattress pad and great duvet! In the dead of winter there will be clear ice condensed on the inside of the multi pane window. We wear sweaters indoors and use electric lap robes.
For historical legacy reasons our REA co-op subsidizes electric heat so that it costs about 25% of utility heat via two smart meters. The Island co-op keeps about 18 days of fuel for the DG’s at full load
Many old Islander families heat with wood, and the wood lots are bursting now, ready for a cold winter and expensive power. I went by the gas tation the other day to adjust snow tire pressures for 30ºF and noticed diesel, my auto’s fuel at $6/gallon for the ferry’s shipping premium.
We occasionally have long power outages, 24 hours and longer if trees fall. Then the gas log comes into play, helped by the 60 Watt-electric Aladdin Welsbach lamp and its abundant waste heat. The cook stove is propane powered. Our only essential service mains powered is the deep well, but we have abundant snow and Lake Michigan is just a couple of miles away.
Happy Thanksgiving. TRUMP-DeSantis 2024
Beaver Island could use one of these: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_floating_nuclear_power_station
My place in the UP gets it’s electricity from the 1/4 mile long 120 year old hydro plant at the Soo, using water from the only outflow from Lake Superior. I doubt Lake Superior is going to run dry.
‘I doubt Lake Superior is going to run dry.’
Keep your fingers crossed. The ‘progressives’ could create a shortage of sand in the middle of the Sahara.
The power plant: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCx2KqHmRgA
The company that now owns that hydro plant runs several large diesel generators and purchases power from lower Michigan via lines that run in the straits.
The unusual thing about the hydro generators is origins they had wooden shaft bearings. There is a wood in Africa and gets harder the longer it is in water. There is one shaft still running on original bearings.
Make your house warm again.
Bring Back Bituminous.
Make America Warm Again
If the “commoners” have to cut way back on energy use- then the rich should also. They should have to park their yachts, private jets and limos.
I’m sure the “minister” will take his own advice. Not. People need to consider torches and pitchforks as a means to rid themselves of the pompous asses in their midsts. Everywhere.
Any bets as to when The SHTF????
It won’t really be that messy – no electricity to run the fan…
Just ‘hook up’ the pols… abundance of hot air there.
Hmm, the local police make crack houses unliveable by turning off their heat…this guy’s desire to show his green side might have unintended consequences.
He is the leader of the Green party in the state, who have roughly 1/3 the votes which means with support of CDU 25% they can form the state government
My heating oil in PA has gone up 76% 11/2021=3.27 11/2022= 5.77) since this time in 2021. The price of natural gas in EU has gone up 20.4% as (11/3/22 39.02 compared to 11/3/21=31.05). It has been reported this month that Germany has plenty of natural gas. So what is all this hype about? Guess what? The Germans will heat their homes…even the fringy greenies. Germany will be warmer than I will be in PA.
There is a mad rush to compete in the global LNG market while the getting is good. The EU NG/renewables/oil/electricity harangue will be dead story in 10 months or less. Meanwhile there is plenty of natural gas to go around, way too much NG and this is the reason for Putin’s conflict in the first place. Too much oil and NG is also the reason for all the climate posturing by the mean greenie and reset folks.
Meanwhile, last week, Biden ensures the Saudi Princes will have US immunity in the Khashoggi Murder case because he wants oil prices to drop so he can be re-elected in two years. The global energy market synergy a marginalized/defanged Putin, the rush to LNG the world, Biden’s political gesture of good will to the Saudi Prince means OPEC is gonna crumble and so will oil prices.
BTW collusion in commodities and energy which is driving up food and energy prices means someone is making wind fall profits. I wonder who they are? It’s hurting the tech folks cause people can’t buy that new gizmo on-line…gotta buy Food, Gas and heating oil
The only way to stop collusion is the ensure local communities are not 100% dependent on global colluded markets for food and energy. Otherwise, local communities…that is you and I will be leveraged to the hilt. Part of the problem is that 1/3-1/2 Americans think they can just acquire money and sit pretty on their 401K, Roth IRA’s etc and never have to invest or do anything locally to improve the economic lot of the people around them. So everyone is working the boring program, meanwhile the dependency just grows deeper…… while big energy leverages all the regulations to keep you out of the game.
There is no collusion to stop. You can buy local if you want to limit your lifestyle.
100’s of thousands of people have been able to retire on their 401Ks and Roth IRAs.
Just because you have bought into every nutty leftwing idea that comes down the pike, doesn’t mean that everyone else has to.
Playing the subsidies…
CLIMATE
Biden grants PG&E $1.1 billion to keep Diablo Canyon nuclear plant openPUBLISHED MON, NOV 21 202211:39 AM ESTUPDATED 2 HOURS AGO
Bless his heart.
If you go to article via link, note the article at the bottom. Stocks in solar are again booming thanks to ongoing subsidies.
https://www.cnbc.com/2022/11/21/biden-grants-pge-1-billion-to-keep-diablo-canyon-nuclear-plant-open.html
Considering the mess that the rest of his energy policy is causing, nuclear subsidies (plan for 6 billion) may be a “bright spot”
https://www.city-journal.org/biden-nuclear-bailout-a-messy-necessity
Trump did the same, but included coal
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/06/01/trump-plan-bails-out-coal-and-nuclear-plants-for-national-security.html
There is no collusion in the energy markets.
What is driving up the price is the socialists who are determined to make everyone dependent on government.
The socialists are colluding on two fronts: First, by making everyone dependent upon government by attacking fossil fuels and all other aspects of the Western economy / society. Second, by allowing the Neo-Cons to have the proxy war with Russia they’ve always wanted in exchange for their help in disposing of DJT.
He wasn’t “elected”, unless by that, you mean he was elected by his peers to be “placed” where his puppeteers wanted him.
For an improvised heating solution a KeroSun heater works very well. We have a couple
that could be used to get us through an emergency if needed. They were popular
in this area when natural gas prices got real high 30-40yrs ago. They do require
kerosene, a 50 gal drum would last us a couple of winters..
Germany doesn’t need to burn stinky Kerosene their homes. They have plenty of natural gas.
Like my post stated, Heating oil in PA went up over 70% since 2021, NG in Germany has only gone up 20%.
Who cares really.
Germany reportedly has their NG storage full at this point in time, so they should be good for this winter. It’s also been reported that 2023 is the big issue due to the Nord Stream pipeline failure. I’ve been investing/following LNG companies for several years. I watched this years election and don’t understand the politics
in PA anymore than I understand PA not developing their NG fields.
There is too much natural gas globally so it becomes a very volatile risky market without geographic market control or collusion via cartel…. like the Gazprom Cartel grip Putin had on Eastern, Central and Northern Europe for the past two decades. Which out Putins cartel leadership, collusion goes out the window and every one gets scared about investing and shipping NG in CNG and LNG form. This is the reason there is a rush globally to cut longer term LNG deals like the one made with China last week.
They have plenty of natural gas. In the ground.
The leftists won’t let them extract it.
‘Who cares really.’
Clearly, not too many Pennsylvanian’s, given their eagerness to vote a brain-damaged ogre into the US Senate.
Trouble is, in addition to heat, those also give off CO. “Open a couple windows” is the advice. You’re still going to get some CO exposure, in addition to letting in cold air. Oops.
My first house was a “sweat equity” rebuild deal back in the ’70’s and I’ve
actually kero sun heaters for a couple of years in an addition..
I found they worked very well for what they were.
A CO alarm would be advisable. I haven’t used them
other than to test them out a couple of times since the ’80’s. IIRC
they were used widely in S Korea.
‘A CO alarm would be advisable.’
I’d be willing to bet more people die each year from CO poisoning than from CO2-induced Climate Change (TM).
How ‘available’ is kerosene presently, and at what price?
A quick google search shows it available, the price listed for K-1 grade was $581.84 for a 55 gal drum and a 5gal can for $54.99.
More fear mongering by an elected official to build self righteous action, which only serves to further entrench the narrative psychologically even if the narrative is stupid and uninformed. Entrenched self righteous action keeps people stupid and controllable. Some people are true believer of fear mongering BS but most of us are just trying to raise children and keep families close. Germany has no reason to fear… they have plenty of natural gas.
Ein zimmer ! Nichts grosse ! Und keine fenster !
One room ! Nothing more ! And no windows !
To be followed by ‘links’ ‘rechts’ at some point?
https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/European-Refiners-Now-Have-Too-Much-Oil.html
European Refiners Now Have Too Much OilBy Julianne Geiger – Nov 18, 2022, 3:30 PM CST
Send your heating money to Pakistan for climate reparations. /sarc
Ukraine has no heating or lights because of Russian missile strikes. Germans have no heat because of self-inflicted policy failures.
And
eating one meal every other day is good for you.
wearing a hair shirt is good for your soul
self flagellation will appease the evil climate spirits
One serious problem with power outages is freezers and fridges warming and spoiling food. Here every grocery store has to have diesel backup. I suppose Germany plans to keep the power up for food storage in wholesalers and stores. For the ordinary people, the loss of just the food in the freezer compartment of the fridge would be serious.
Our last outage was about 48 hours. The generator kept our freezers cold, and then the neighbours the neighbour’s.
That’s why they want you to only warm one room in your house. If the kitchen is cold, the fridge stays cold longer.
Politicians of this ilk should have the experience of living in one room. I am sure that accommodation could be found for them in a suitable facility.
Do you have any leaders who dare to speak out against this?
Thanks to the contributors here. Interesting stories.
I’d love to be able to drop in on him un-announced, to check that out.
How do you characterize the behavior of your home? How do you estimate the conductivity of its different parts? Do you use thermal cameras?
Do you identify your home with an electric circuit with a resistance network?
Can AI be used to model homes?
Its so obvious that the population of the western countries have been conditioned to believe things that are so ridiculous-, false narratives, illogical policies, obvious corruption , its like a sickness, who in their right mind would elect a Joe Biden or Fetterman? I think we may have already damaged our social fabric and economic resilience worse than we think; and maybe our microbiologic fabric too.
Heating one room in the winter has been normal for me for a long time.
Howsabout just stop lying about the cost of renewables doomsters?
https://www.msn.com/en-au/money/news/be-honest-on-bill-shock-from-new-energy/ar-AA14oko9
I wonder if the German Parliament is as warm as the British one? They probably live there not at home.
My long. detailed comment explaining the relationship between German energy problems and Ukraine military actions was deleted arbitrarily. I will no longer comment at this website. Apparently one must be pro-Ukraine to comment here.
While I wish details, especially usage, were provided regarding the daily energy cost in the link it is fantastic given my work, travel and design experience with the hydronic systems that are used nearly exclusively for space and domestic water heating in German homes.
The typical German detached or semi-detached home is solid masonry structure usually a foot or more thick covered with four or more inches of rigid foam, typically on five sides as the roofing tiles are removed and reinstalled on top during renovations. Windows are triple glazed and often fixed. When operable sometimes only a small portion will open or free movement will be restricted. Automatic exterior insulated rollup blinds are very common on all windows and secondary doors.
You’re essentially in an upside down foam ice chest–it’s really that tight–so ventilation problems and regulations ensure with what we would call an ordinary kitchen exhaust fan a source of significant and not always adequately addressed complications.
The heat source will be a gas fired boiler that recovers heat by condensing water vapor produced in combustion and is frequently capable of modulating its output substantially. Radiators–usually steel panels whose output is principally convective–are sized to allow 140F or lower temperature water (a condensation related rule of thumb) to heat the structure under normal conditions.
Thermostatically controlled flow modulating valves are required by law on all radiators. Combined with constant circulation of the water heating medium whose temperature varies inversely with outdoor temperature; the high mass of the structure; the extreme insulation and the meager ventilation produce a home that takes very little energy to heat by what those of us in the USA consider normal measure. Add a tendency to keep the temperature lower than normal in the USA (65F or so) and very little energy is used with outdoor low temperatures near the freezing point like at present. Daily temperature setback is lightly, if at all, used but unused rooms that can be closed off are often maintained at a substantially lower temperature. The rather apt nickname for them is “Eurocave.” Personally I find such conditions comfortable as long as relative humidity is kept in check and there is adequate ventilation.
The same boiler provides domestic hot water on demand. While more efficient than a tank heater the boiler does not recover condensation energy.
It’s not a perfect system but it’s an extremely energy efficient system especially given the nature of their housing construction. Combined with a concentric flue that preheats combustion air I’ve measured sustained boiler efficiency above 98% while heating a real world home.
The “heat one room” suggestion from that energy minister does not apply well to this sort of home. Something tells me he lives in one of the few genuinely historic structures that is protected and also comparatively airy–“windy” might be a better comparison.. Completely shutting down heat from any radiator under any conditions is normally impossible. Keeping just one room significantly warmer than the rest is possible with the system but it adds inefficiency and significant comfort issues. Humidity and ventilation issues are only magnified and the massive masonry core of the home cools considerably which results in what people call “bone chilling” cold as the walls suck yet more radiant heat from their exposed flesh while the face of the small “radiator” that’s designed for convection is barely above ambient temperature in all but one room. Using electricity for the extra heat in that room would be better with regards to efficiency but with a nearly 350% rise in electric cost in a year and the threat of blackouts who knows?
Were it not for the rush to decarbonize the worst of this could have been avoided even given the situation ion Ukraine where the people will suffer miserably this winter. Germany it seems may not be far behind but it will be because of their own foolishness in believing that they could conquer the whims of nature any better than those of human beings.
As a former Minnesota resident let me suggest that the frozen broken water pipes inside outer walls in under-heated houses will contribute to the black mold issue as well as the humidity.
While he may be speaking of another home, this was the minister’s new residence in 2011. The living room likely outsizes the average German home. https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-winfried-kretschmann-front-m-stands-in-front-of-his-new-residence-58216117.html