Guest Essay by Kip Hansen — 9 January 2023 — 1400 words/6 minutes
The new mantra for the renewable energy advocates of almost all stripes is: “Electrify Everything”. Think not? Try an internet search for the phrase: “electrify everything” — a few samples:
We Need to Make ‘Electrifying Everything’ Easier — Scientific American — Jul 1, 2022
Electrify Everything — Center for Energy and Environment — Jan 1, 2023
Electrify Everything — Mother Jones — Apr 18, 2023
Why and How to Electrify Everything — Skeptical Science — May 4, 2022
2022: The Year that Launched the Electrify Everything Movement – Sierra Club — Dec 12, 2022
How electrification became a major tool for fighting climate change. – NY Times — April 14, 2023
Electrify Everything Everywhere All At Once For The Climate And Economy — Forbes Nov 6, 2023
Let me start with the claims made in the NY Times news item — by Nadja Popovich and Brad Plumer — published last April in the NY Times ( repeating the link ). Their main point is given in the first three paragraphs:
“The United States still gets most of its energy by setting millions of tiny fires everywhere. Cars, trucks, homes and factories all burn fossil fuels in countless engines, furnaces and boilers, creating pollution that heats the planet.
To tackle climate change, those machines will need to stop polluting. And the best way to do that, experts increasingly say, is to replace them with electric versions — cars, heating systems and factories that run on clean sources of electricity like wind, solar or nuclear power.
But electrifying almost everything is a formidable task.”
They have at least one thing right: electrifying almost everything is a formidable task. It is not just formidable — I suspect it might be physically impossible in the present and probably in the short-term (years, decades).
Another quote from the same Times article:
“Can the Grid Handle It? — Electrification would require sweeping changes to the nation’s power grids. Under the scenario visualized above, total electricity demand in the United States would roughly double by 2050, even as overall energy use went down.” …. “To meet that demand, electric utilities would need to add staggering amounts of new emissions-free power while making sure that all those newly electrified cars, homes and factories don’t strain the system and cause blackouts. They would also have to construct large new power lines across the country, both to accommodate far-flung renewable projects and to improve the reliability of the grid.”
I wrote just last year: “How Much of the Grid Must Be Upgraded?” in which I examined the small case of upgrades needed to the grid just switch the homes of the California city of Palo Alto to “All Electric”. I used this cartoon:
The transformers are circled in yellow — that’s a lot of transformers ….and many of them will be needing to be upgraded or replaced. The problem? We not only don’t have enough transformers to do a major upgrade on the grid, the United States doesn’t even have or manufacture enough transformers to meet current demand. And that problem is only going to get worse, not better, as demand grows ahead of the manufacturing capability.
The green box surrounds the long-distance transmission lines – from the generating stations (oil, gas, solar, wind, hydro) to the transmission customers to the utility companies and finally local transmission to the end-user customers – you and me. We don’t have enough – we will need far more to connect to different places of generation – and we aren’t building them. CNBC’s Catherine Clifford tells us why in “Why a U.S. national electric grid would be great for the climate — and is nearly impossible”.
Hey, but don’t worry about the fact that a new, upgraded electrical grid is absolutely necessary and is simultaneously “nearly” impossible – the government is studying the issue! (…I wouldn’t hold your breathe while waiting for their solution).
It is not just the necessary political will and the necessary money (the government can “just print more”), but do we have the necessary other physical stuff? Transmission cables, insulators, high tension power line towers, on and on….
As a nation, we don’t have sufficient quantities of transformers or the manufacturing base to make sufficient quantities our own – many come from China. An analysis by the Heritage Foundation considers this to be a national security issue.
What about skilled laborers?
“Laborers?” you may ask. Yes, men and women with the skills to actually build transmission lines. For that matter, do we have the trained and qualified men and women necessary to just install the dedicated 240v outlet in your kitchen to allow you to put in an induction stove or to install an EV fast-charger or two in your garage. The Climate Crisis propaganda outlet GRIST has run two stories on the problems of doing this: “He wanted to get his home off fossil fuels. There was just one problem” and “To get off fossil fuels, America is going to need a lot more electricians — A shortage of skilled labor could derail efforts to “electrify everything.”” Each details the trials and tribulations of a True Believer® who sets out to ‘do the right thing’ and electrify their homes.
The roadblocks? The costs of all of the necessary equipment and total costs of the projects were far higher than they originally thought. And, even when they trimmed back the projects to lower the cost, they had difficulty finding contractors who would do the work within a reasonable time frame. There are not enough trained personnel to do the work even at today’s demand levels – no less if Electrify Everything were to be mandated by municipal or state governments via laws or regulations.
What about the economics? Aren’t we constantly being told that electricity is far cheaper than gas or oil?
Let’s ask the U.S. Department of Energy:
(click for larger image)
Looking at the “Representative Average Unit Costs of Energy” per million BTU (a measure of the heat content of fuels or energy sources). This is the official document from the energy.gov, for 2023. Electricity costs over three times more than natural gas per million BTUs with the costs listed. Currently, for January 2024, the average of state averages is 13.9 ¢/kWh, a little lower than used in the chart. For Natural Gas, as of Aug 2023, the average of state averages, the cost was $13.65 per thousand cubic feet (MCF), also a bit lower than in the chart. [Your Local Costs May Vary]
And, finally, out in California, where I last looked at the Electrify Everything idea in regards to adding EV chargers and making homes all-electric in Palo Alto – Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) has announced:
“Effective Jan. 1, monthly electricity bills for the typical PG&E electricity customer reached an average of roughly $222 a month. That’s 28.4% higher than the monthly electricity bill of $172.84 in January 2023.
Gas bills now average $72 a month. That’s 6.1% higher than the average monthly gas bill of $67.89 in January 2023.” [source – paywalled]
Bottom Line:
We don’t have enough to Electrify Everything:
1. Not enough electrical grid
2. Not enough transformers
3. Not enough raw materials
4. Not enough skilled laborers
5. Not enough time (to meet arbitrary targets).
Maybe, someday, we could sensibly electrify home heating, cooling and appliances. But not anytime soon.
# # # # #
Author’s Comment:
I think electricity is cool – always have. Did electricity experiments (all totally unauthorized and some terrifyingly dangerous) when I was a kid. But the Electrify Everything agenda is really an anti-natural gas/fossil fuels agenda and is not being pushed for the benefit of citizens.
And, yes, this Electrify Everything doesn’t even touch Primary Power.
Heat pumps that can operate efficiently in sub-freezing temperatures are very expensive and lose efficiency in cold weather. Even heat pump installers recommend having backup heat for when the weather turns very cold.
They promote induction stovetops – not induction kitchen ranges – the ovens in kitchen ranges are all plain old electric ovens using hot coils to bake your cake or braise your meat. ONLY the stovetop burners are induction. If you are a baker, like one of my daughters-in-law, having an induction stovetop doesn’t save you much – she has and uses two electric ovens.
If you can efficiently turn your Natural Gas to sensible BTUs in heating your home, the natural gas is far cheaper.
Thanks for reading.
# # # # #
Discover more from Watts Up With That?
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Just remember, nothing is impossible if one does not have to do it or pay for it!
Tom ==> Cute!
There certainly wouldn’t be sufficient Copper for upgraded wires or Turns in up sized Transformers if 20 times current available GLOBAL mine capacity would be necessary just to replace ICE with EV in the US alone.
My corollary to that is “Nothing is too unimportant to spend someone else’s money on it.”
And, everything is simple to people who have no idea how anything works. I have noticed that quite often over the course of my life.
I have also observed that the dumber a person is, the more unshakable are their opinions. Now that is recognized as the Dunning-Kreuger effect.
You may electrify what ever you want, but don’t wonder, when switching on it doesn’t start. 😀
Krishna ==> Used to happen on my sailboat occasionally, total electrical failure…. batteries pooped, gen set won;t start, engine staring batteries dead….a lot of work to get things going again.
My dad used to say … A boat is just a hole in the water into which you throw money. Didn’t stop him from buying one of those holes though.
BOAT.
Bring Out Another Thousand.
But of course. If you electrify everything, it’s easier to switch off at the source – control is everything. Without any alternatives, what could we do about it?
To paraphrase an old quote: A government big enough to require electrification of everything, is a government big enough to shut down everything you have.
Googled: “A government big enough to give you everything you want, is a government big enough to take away everything that you have.”
That’s because governments don’t produce anything except debt and so can only give away what they take away
I think that was a Gerald Ford saying.
Ah, another corollary: “What the government giveth, the government can taketh away.” I’ve said this often when evaluating what needs io be done due to environmental regulations.
Since the whole AGW alarm is based on shaky data, wrong models, and failed predictions, it is not surprising that the alarmist ‘solutions’ are also. As here.
California’s new ban on small HP gasoline engines (electrify everything) isn’t going to end well since it includes the chain saws needed to do the forestry needed to reduce the fire risk. Obviously didn’t think it through.
As a happy aside, the 5th Circuit just struck down the EPA’s new efficiency standards for dishwashers. The court found that as a matter of fact, they don’t work as well so have to be run twice. The new EPA standard actually wastes both energy and water in the real world of dishes that need washing. Ouch.
Rud ==> California is overrun with drug consuming politicians — they have to be high out of their minds — disassociated with the real world.
I think it was the DOE case — but yes, a win for the Good Guys.
Two years ago when I needed to replace a chainsaw, I compared Stihl gas vs electric.
I don’t remember exactly, but I think the gas was 3X better for 1/2 the money.
Likely, one can’t find out the sales of each, but an electric would fit only a very
special niche.
Electric saws aren’t for serious forestry work. I have one. They may run for an hour or so then need charging. Probably fine if being used by government workers- an hour per day is probably sufficiently productive for them. 🙂
I have a nice 24″ electric, uses a 100 ft extension cord, never needs recharging. Still needs bar oil. For the deep woods stuff I just throw a gas can and a small gen in the back of the truck/skidder. Very quiet but still just as dangerous.
Same with nail guns. My wife is building a shed for our lawn equipment (she’s a master wood worker), and researched nail guns. Electric battery-powered ones were hugely expensive, while corded electric ones were far less so. She ultimately decided on a pneumatic gun, which was much less expensive (and we have a big air compressor).
Battery prices have gotten so high that Home Depot is offering special deals on electric tools. You buy the battery and charging station for $300, and they throw in the tool free of charge! I used that deal to buy my son a $189 scroll saw for Christmas, saving $89 on the whole smash.
There are other ways to harvest trees … Just axk a lumberjack
Rud,
It is a HUGE mistake to to put “think” in the same posting as “California” and/or “politicians!”
Logical thinking has now been determined to be “waaaaacist,” so all the insiders in Sacramento have given it up for the duration!
More unintended consequences coming our way.
mleskovarsocalrrcom ==> I am afraid I agree. Governments are shooting themselves, and their citizens, in the foot.
…or higher and more centrally. 😉
Shooting them there would remove almost all cognitive functions. 😉
Absolutely expected with any liberal scheme.
Without Crude Oil There Would Be No Need for Electricity.Everything that needs electricity is made from petrochemicals manufactured from crude oil.
Summary: Electricity allows the iPhone and defibrillator to work but cannot manufacture the petrochemicals that make the iPhone and defibrillator.
https://heartland.org/opinion/without-crude-oil-there-would-be-no-need-for-electricity/
Ronald ==> There is a guy in California that will make you a wooden-cased laptop — really.
Call me when he makes a wooden microprocessot.
I still have a 1978 North Star Horizon S100 with all of 64K RAM, Z80 CPU and two 8″ floppy drives.. It came with a nice stained plywood case. Put it together from a kit. You could do arc welding with the power supply.
How absurd- 96% of the CO2 in the atmosphere is naturally occurring which can’t be changed and which means that the amount that can be removed doesn’t alter the composition of the atmosphere in any meaningful way – and if there is no change in the composition of the atmosphere how is the climate being affected ? It’s not and the money being spent is just wasted
Bill, while I am with you, please get your math straight. 280 is not 96% of 400.
Are you really claiming that 280 ppm is the natural set CO2 level?
Just curious. How did you determine how much CO2 is manmade and how much is from continued ocean outgassing as the hydrosphere warms up from the Little Ice Age and an increase in oceanic volcanic activity?
For anyone who believes that the oceans are warming from higher atmospheric temps, I would ask you to please warm your bath water with your hairdryer! I’ll wait!
Even a wash hand basin is going to take a while.
AB, there is a solid way, posted here several times before. For your edification, it relies on just two scientifically verifiable ‘facts’—neither having to do with Henry’s Law or your bathtub hair dryer.
An aside to Murray Salby. He failed three times in three televised lectures to recognize this basic physchem fact in his otherwise very faulty CO2 residence time presentations—otherwise also easily proven faulty here several times by different means.
Indisputable basic physics and chemistry.
We have a pretty good idea how much oil/coal/gas has been extracted and sold over the last 100 years or so. If you assume that all of those fossil fuels were burned, that’s more than enough CO2 to account for the increase in CO2 levels.
I wish I knew why some people are so desperate to believe that man isn’t responsible for the increase in CO2.
Two problems with that belief.
1) The oceans have only warmed a few tenths of a degree.
2) The data shows that the CO2 increases lag temperature increases by some 900 to 1000 years. It’s only been about 200 years since the bottom of the Little Ice Age.
PS, It really is amazing how long really bad analogies manage to survive.
The air doesn’t warm the water. The sun warms the water, always has. What air does is control how fast the energy that the sun puts into the water is able to get out. The warmer the air gets, the warmer the water has to get in order to maintain the same rate of heat flow.
William
Man made CO2 has made little to no impact on climate warming over the last 40 years.
But rather its been the high sensitivity of electonic thermometers to the warming effects of sunshine that’s been the only cause of any man made warming.
My current reseach suggests it can add anything between 0.4C to 2C to a winter’s day Maz temp over that of a glass thermometer’s reading. So its little wonder there’s seems to have been climate warming showing up in the weather station data.
One thing that certainly will not be making the news.
ls how the electrifying of thermometers has been the only significant cause of man made warming over the last 40 years.
taxed ==> Didn’t I just write about that?
What am talking about here Kip is the MSM.
Because what am discovering through my reseach is that a large part of the recent warming is purely been created by misleading data.
taxed ==> Have you written up what you have found? Can you provide a link?
Am just a plain old factory worker and writing up papers sadly is not in my skill set. All my knowledge about the weather has been learned by myself as l have never been to college.
But because l have learned about the weather from the ground up the first question l ask myself is “how is the weather allowing this to happen” and then take it from there.
So l have been recording the temps with a glass thermometer to see how they differ from the rusults of the local AWS’s as well as noting the weather for that day. Through this combined reseach l now feel l have a good idea about what’s going on as l build up further data to confirm that am right.
taxed ==> To do a decent job, you’ll need one of the thermistor-based home weather stations — they aren’t too expensive — and locate it at the same height and location as your LIG thermometer. You cannot depend on a distant site (local AWS) for comparison. Temperature is very localized.
There are rules for locations of thermometers…check ’em out and make sure your two are in compliance. (Not in direct Sun without a shield, etc)
lts not really possible for me to set up a AWS as l live in a town centre with no garden and so it would be at risk to damage.
But because l have learned much of my knowledge with watching and recording the weather l have a “feel” for if the temp trends during the day the AWS are recording look right or not.
So far the results are showing me that electonic thermometers are far more sensitive to the warming effects of sunshine when compared to my glass thermometer. This is leading to greater swings in the temp during the day then would be recorded with glass thermometers. They react to sunshine quicker and stronger then glass does, and this is leading to them running warm with there temp recording.
So the real culprit is instrumentation, not AGW.
Does this mean we will resume using the electric chair?
Shoki ==> Can’t say — but ask the Gov’ner.
I don’t understand why N2 isn’t used.
N2 would be any miscreant’s choice, if given one. Natural gas from your oven is smelly, as is carbon monoxide from running your car inside the garage. Firing squads are noisy, and hanging can give you rope burns.
It’s like nuclear power – some people are just against it because asphyxiating crooks sounds terrible. They can be against electrocution because a nuke plant may be at the other end of Old Sparky.
In China, they use one bullet to the head- then send a bill to the family for the bullet. Low cost, no need for ff- a clean and green execution.
Green? The US EPA evaluated different gun propellants for CO2 emissions. Local CO2 levels exceeded 1500 ppm due to the propellant gases. The EPA would no doubt insist on billing for the bullet and carbon offsets for firing it!
Ah the EPA – your US tax dollars at work.
only if it uses clean and green energy!
“The United States still gets most of its energy by setting millions of tiny fires everywhere. Cars, trucks, homes and factories all burn fossil fuels in countless engines, furnaces and boilers, creating pollution that heats the planet”.
It’s clear that the moron who came up with this quote has no idea how electricity is generated nor how it ends up at points of consumption. So something is burned at a power plant (natural gas or coal, or heat generated by radiation in nuke plants) and the resultant steam turns turbines. The electricity generated from those spinning turbines is then sent out across transmission lines, where (as this story notes) it will pass thru many transformers. And then, for applications requiring heat, it must be then converted to electric resistance (or to power a reverse refrigeration cycle that is truly a Rube Goldbergian way of creating heat) to be useful.
When you stop and think about it, it really makes much more sense to actually burn something to generate heat, even if just for a small home. That also seems to be the crux of the whole green movement – find the most difficult, most expensive and and most inefficient ways of delivering energy and mobility to consumers.
Lee ==> Well, you have things the right way around….
just to be nit picky: every use of any form of energy creates heat, immediately or eventually
a heat pump’s purpose is not to created heat but to move heat from one place (outside, normally) to another place (inside normally), just the opposite of an ‘air conditioner’ that is used to move the heat in the opposite direction.
Looks like Nadja and Brad did not get the message. Their comment “…clean sources of electricity like…nuclear power.” is not in favor with the CAGW crowd, who still believes “China Syndrome” was a documentary.
Looks like Kip thinks confessing to “electricity experiments…terrifyingly dangerous” is theraputic, so I’ll try it. In the High School Science Lab, which had two doors into the hall, we had a Van De Graf Generator. When left alone we decided it would be fun to position it inside and next to the doorknob, with a sign that said “don’t touch the doorknob”. When we fired it up, and watched from the other door, a girl student came along, and leaned in close to read the sign. An impressive bolt of electricity shot out against the braces on her teeth, whereupon she fainted. We put away the generator and played dumb (neither the first or last time) and the electricians condemned the Lab. There, now I feel better.
Ron ==> Great Story! Hope you pass it onto your descendants…
“the CAGW crowd, who still believes”
If regulars here think different thoughts, I’d assume people who believe in cagw think different thoughts too.
People who saw “China Syndrome” in a theater are finally passing out of power.The Three Mile Island accident began on March 28, 1979, now 45 years ago. “Of its 435 members, the US House has 64 members born in the 1980s — almost doubled from the previous Congress — and one born in the 1990s. The age group with the biggest gain compared to the 117th Congress was 40-49, while the 60-69 group saw the biggest losses.” The largest age cohort in the us Senate is in its 60’s. They were about college age when “China Syndrome” was a recognizable phrase in pop culture.
(if they didn’t change their mind on it between 1979 and 2023, then we’re waiting for some new minds). Certain representatives have their own crazy ideas, but ideas from pre-1980 science fiction are fading.
KevinM, although I generally agree with your comments, the term “China Syndrome” is still very much in play, in certain contexts. The most recent example I found was from August 1, 2023, by Power South Energy Cooperative.
They also think that the ice age the earth is in ended at the end of the movie.
Working in an RAF bomb dump servicing missiles we used to connect tantalum bead capacitors to the bench power supply and turn them on when an armourer walked in to great amusement as the armourers hit the deck when the capacitor popped.
They did pay us back though with exploding peddle bins, draws and toilets.
Your soul is now cleansed!
This idea is more than 100 years old, see
“Communism is Soviet power plus the electrification of the whole country.” [Vladimir Lenin]
Curious ==> In the “basement” of my current home (the oldest part built sometime just after 1800), there is a pamphlet tacked to the wall that says “Running Water – You Deserve It” from the local electric utility and the Rural Electrification program.
Powder River Basin coal. Last I checked $0.82 per million BTU.
Too easy. You just need temporary skilled immigration visas to keep the costs down-
pictures power lines asia – Search (bing.com)
experts increasingly say,
These words, or something very similar, are appended to every media article describing the imminent end of life on earth due to the rising temperatures. Not only are the temperatures going up, so are there more statements attesting to it. Practically never, as in this article, are the names and positions of those “increasingly saying” mentioned. What is the basis of their expertise? When doors blow off of airliners we want to hear the findings of named aeronautical engineers, and we do:
The discovery of the missing door plug came shortly after NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy announced at a news conference that the investigation found three previous incidents on the same Alaska Airlines plane where the auto pressurization fail light illuminated during flights on Dec. 7, Jan. 3 and Jan. 4.
In spite of the fact there’s a real shortage of climate, as opposed to weather, experts available and that there’s no complete agreement among them as to the current development of the climate or the processes involved, government bodies at all levels have seen fit to term the situation as a crisis requiring immediate action. They are encouraged in this by corporations, if things work out in their favor, to make trillions of dollars. The “experts” being quoted in these articles must be named by alternative sources of information and their education, credentials and monetary relationships examined. Anonymous sources can’t be used to justify something of this magnitude. Even the people who review movies and books are publicly identified.
Why not? The EPA does it all the time.
The EPA does a great many things, many of which it absolutely shouldn’t.
The Earth is still in a 2.56 million-year ice age named the Quaternary Glaciation.
Over twenty percent of the land is frozen, either as permafrost of underneath glaciers.
The ice age won’t officially end until all natural ice melts.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quaternary_glaciation
This is literally dicing with death in places where the freezing temperature kills people. Some Texans learnt that lesson a couple of years back.
There will be real problems soon enough to shift the focus from make-believe ones like CO2 causes Climate Change ™.
By the time you add up all the hardware to bring free wind and solar energy into a home through electrical wires you realise that you have already burnt enough coal to produce the same electrical energy using current combustion technology for 200 years supply. You just get 30% of the job done and you have to start again as it wears out. NetZero globally is IMPOSSIBLE. China simple does not have the manpower to waste on it. Nor does India or anywhere in Africa. The illusion is sustained in the west by ever increasing reliance on China.
All the stuff needed to get free energy from wind and solar into a home would need to last more than 200 years to get a net energy return.
No politician that has passed grade school maths would support NutZero if they spent a few minutes with a pen and paper doing some basic sums.
It takes a lot of energy to make concrete. The cement is cooked in kilns and then ground to a fine powder. If you add up the total energy required for the concrete in a typical windmill base support, it would take from 10 to 20 years for the windmill to pay it back. That’s if the windmill was producing 24/7. Instead, it appears that the current crop of windmills last fewer than a couple of years and don’t produce 24/7. So, there’s really no payback–it’s a total loss energy-wise.
I am sure some brain child would counter with since cement is exothermic we get some portion of that energy back as it dries.
We get the energy back, just not in a usable form.
Won’t be made in USA.
I love my two Nuwave induction cook-tops. However, when I’m cooking popcorn or pasta, I need to use my gas stove. And my gas oven is simply great.
Jim ==> Yes, induction stovetops are very neat if you use the correct type of pots. I’m a little leary of all that EMF so close to my wife though. Hasn’t really been investigated closely. Yes, it is not “ionizing radiation” but it is not nothing and it has not been studied nearly enough to determine its safety (in my opinion).
Heating the pot directly is the InstaPot idea — no heating a lot of air along with it. Just heat the pot! Even better if you allow the pot to pressurize. Not good for everything, but my wife loves her electric pressure cooker.
It is the reason behind the switch that is kooky: that natural gas is bad “because fossil fuel” and “global warming”. Utter nonsense.
I’m sorry, but it’s not radiation that is cooking in induction cook-tops; it’s magnetic fields mostly contained in the magnetic material in your cookware. I would fear your microwave more–because that is radiation. However, the shielding around microwave ovens is reasonably good.
Jim ==> There is a lot of data on research on EMF and induction cooktops.
EMFs are “Electric and magnetic fields”.
Try this one: “Effects of electromagnetic fields exposure on the antioxidant defense system”
EMFs are why we had to shield microwaves—-where are the shields on induction cooktops? Are we operating on “hope”?
Best stick to science — and so some real serious testing. “Electrify Everything”-bias could lead to giving induction stoves a pass on ideological grounds.
Just saying I don;t think they have done the real world testing — just plain haven’t done it.
I’m a retired Navy pilot. I bet I got more radiation exposure (the ionizing kind) flying at Flight Level 250 than most people get from microwave ovens or induction cook-tops in a lifetime.
Getting a tan is far more dangerous because of the ultraviolet radiation. And the radiation ages your skin–lots of wrinkles and age spots.
I do all the cooking. I don’t have to endanger my wife.
Jim ==> Love to see a man who is good in the kitchen. Not me. though, if you value your life.
My wife has run kitchens all the way from feeding a single family of a very rich and eccentric fellow to running a kitchen that fed 400 people four meals a day. Now she just feeds the two of us.
Yes. Anyone with a pacemaker needs to stay well away from an induction hob. Need to be wary of microwaves also, but they are shielded and you will normally be a meter or so away while they are going, so I don’t think they are a real problem in normal use. But induction hobs definitely are.
Kip, if your wife likes the Instant Pot, get her a stovetop pressure saute pan. Kuhn Rikon makes one, not sure if they sell it in the US. Also I see, looking them up on Amazon, that the K-R is now ridiculously expensive in the UK.
Otherwise Fissler or Prestige sell them in the US. Its not obvious at first glance why you would particularly want one, and the Fisslers seem rather expensive, but when you have one you will find yourself using it every day and wondering why you didn’t get one sooner.
michel ==> Thanks for the tip! I’ll check it out.
In this locality the temperature is now 27F. The low tonight is forecast to be 21F. Tomorrow’s high is likely to be 26F and the subsequent low 16F. If we imagine that the coming low will be 23F, the following high 28F and the next low18F will anyone here be surprised or astonished? Will it be worthy of remark? Will it be a threat to humans or any other organisms? Will tornadoes or tidal waves result?
general ==> Well, you know many experts say that weather is dangerous and is getting worse because….but I do hope you don’t have to stay warm with a heat pump….
Do you live on Cedar Mountain in Utah?
The first 4 temperatures are almost exactly what are predicted for us. With a couple of inches of snow thrown in tomorrow night.
A person can’t be outside in those temperatures for long without protections or they will die from hypothermia.
It seldom gets so hot that a person can’t got outside without protection.
By protections you must mean clothing. Clothing has been in use for some time. People have been living outside in temperatures far below those for millennia and do so even today. Those that are unable and perish are simply ignorant of normal behavior in such an environment. People are so acculturated to living indoors with central heating and AC that conditions that were once accepted as normal are now matters of survival. Maybe a slight change in climate actually will spell extinction to a population of sissies. Many people will get along just fine.
” … to install an EV fast-charger or two in your garage “
If you found someone to do that, I’d get a 2nd opinion.
Place I bought had an outlet for a welder. I think that would do.
As of two years ago, it is safely disconnected. By a licensed
electrician.
That said, my house is all-electric, except for a modern wood stove.
The “temp” is expected to be in the low single digits this week.
Firewood is on the deck, and some inside.
Seattle just had a bunch of lines come down and downtown is
expected to be in the low to mid-20s. There will be a scramble
to get the folks off the streets.
Pres. Joe Biden Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde crashes and burns own climate plan in five months
https://dailycaller.com/2023/05/29/biden-critical-minerals-green-energy/
1. Inflation Reduction Act Aug 16 2022 – $369 billion to clean energy
2. Pres. Biden and his ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY outlaw copper to build renewables from the Pebble Mine in Alaska – https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/supreme-court-shuts-down-alaskan-pebble-mine-ambitions
3. Pres. Biden and his INTERIOR department outlaw copper, nickel and cobalt from Twin Metals mine in Minnesota to build renewables and EV batteries – That’s 95% of the nation’s nickel and 88% of nation’s cobalt to build batteries for EVs https://www.instituteforenergyresearch.org/renewable/biden-administration-blocks-minnesotas-twin-metals-mine/
4. Pres. Biden and his ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY cancel NorthMet copper-nickel-palladium mine in Minnesota by reversing March 2021 approval of Army Corps of Engineers’ Section Clean Water Act permit – 71.9 billion pounds copper – or 1.8 million wind turbines that Biden doesn’t want. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/biden-admin-blocks-mine-just-one-week-after-company-announces-plan-to-invest-millions-in-local-economy
5. Pres. Biden and his JUSTICE and AGRICULTURE Departments block opening of the Resolution Copper project in Arizona by dictating condition, and prevent opening of North America’s largest copper project containing 40 billion pounds of copper May 22 2023… https://www.eenews.net/articles/biden-admin-hits-pause-on-ariz-copper-mine/
6. Pres. Biden critical “green metals” required to build just one generation of stuff to phase out fossil fuels and electrify everything requires more than 16,000 million tonnes of finished cobalt, manganese, vanadium, nickel, cobalt, copper, lithium, and graphite yet the global supply can provide only 8% of this amount, with the same additional quantity needed every 20 or 30 years…..
..https://tupa.gtk.fi/raportti/arkisto/42_2021.pdf
The Pebble, Resolution and Twin Metals mines combined contain enough copper to build 24.6 million wind turbines or 68 million tons copper and 9.8 billion tons cobalt-nickel sufficient to build 75 million batteries for electric vehicles
Yup the message is clear – keep it in the ground, buy Chinese (no, we don’t know where they get theirs from).
Once again the solution is Trump 2024.
Just say no.
One problem with this electrify everything is that renewables can’t increase output to meet extra load on the grid, and nuclear is normally run at maximum so that can’t meet it either.
Few countries have significant hydro capcity so the extra demand is usually met by an increase of fossil fuel generation. (Demand and supply must match on an instantaneous basis in grid operation)
So essentially these elctric cars and heat pumps are fossil fuelled anyway. Factor in all the losses from generation and distribution to the consumer, about 60% or so, maybe more, which means a large input of fossil fuel to power thes electrcial devices.
The only caveat to that is if renewable average (Approximately 1/3 of installed capacity) input to the grid increases because more capacity is built, but that is an uphill struggle and factor both the relatively short life of renewables and that the output deteriorates by about 3 % per annum of existing wind farms due to blade erosion.
Yes, very valid point.
You can see the same problem that Kip describes unfolding in the UK with the same issue and the same difficulties. The UK is trying to convert power generation to wind and solar at the same time as it converts cars to EVs and home heating to heat pumps.
Both of these conversions increase demand. Estimates are at least double it. It is obvious to anyone who has inspected local infrastructure that it cannot supply the extra demand, and its not being upgraded. The national transmission is being upgraded at huge expense. But that will be only the first stage of the bottleneck, getting the current from Scotland or the North Sea to the south. Next you have to get the capacity to the houses, and this means, as Kip points out, all the thousands of small transformers.
Its obvious you cannot supply even present demand from wind and solar, and to supply twice as much or more is just not going to happen.
Then if you look at where that power will really come from, if they persist in the conversion to heat pumps and EVs, at the moment (9am) in the UK demand is about 40GW of which 60% is being supplied from gas.
So what they will be doing is taking the gas and using it to generate electricity for the heat pumps, rather than just burning the gas locally in houses when its needed. I doubt there is any net fuel savings. Most people in the UK seem to turn their gas heating off or at least way down during the day, turn on first thing to take the chill off, then off until the evening. Can’t do this with a heat pump because lower temperature of the working fluid, so you’ll be using them 24 x 7. Also when it gets real cold their efficiency will fall. And they won’t heat the water anyway, that will be resistive heating with a high draw.
It cannot be done. You can convert to heat pumps and EVs, if you ration power usage via smart meters and upgrade the local networks where that causes a crisis. But you cannot do this at the same time as moving to wind and solar.
I suspect what is going to happen in the UK as they persist in this craziness is blackouts and economic collapse.
If Starmer gets in the craziness will increase, we’ll have blackouts and rising prices/shortages. Likely we’ll lurch along for a little while without hitting full economic collapse but it’ll be close. If Sunak get’s back in by some bizarre chance expect much the same except more squabbling and probably him being replaced by one, maybe two others of varying degrees of craziness and stupidity. Either way the next few years won’t be particularly great in the UK.
Following the recent UK Ofgem agreed price rises gas costs 7.4p per kWh and electricity costs 28.62p per kWh. In addition there is a standing charge of 29.6p per day for gas and 53.4p per day for electricity.
Over 22m of the UK’s 28m houses are on the gas network. Moving everyone on to electricity is obviously going to make their bills go up, and heat pumps will increase this further whilst leading to colder homes, yet the mantra is still “wind is x times cheaper” (used to be 9 times but seen a few 3 times recently – even by crazy Miliband!)
For our friends- Ofgem is the Office of Gas and Electricity Markets
michel ==> Yes, even tiny little minuscule UK has transmission problems. Imagine the USA!
UK land area = 94,058 sq miles USA = 3,119,884.69 sq miles
“we don’t have sufficient quantities of transformers or the manufacturing base to make sufficient quantities our own”
General Electric used to make transformers in Pittsfield, Wokeachusetts. The company once had 12,000 employees in that city. It’s all gone now- thanks to “free trade”. The city is barely surviving and looks down and out like the rest of the rust belt.
Those transformers had PCBs in them- some of the PCBs were dumped in company owned landfills- which polluted much of the city and the nearby Housatonic River. I don’t know if transformers made today still need PCBs?
The transformers used oil for cooling. That oil was contaminated with PCBs. The solution was to clean the oil before using it.
There is a major omission in the diagram. It is assumed that the power generating station will always be up and running. But what happens when that station is not functional due to damage from weather events, as will happen with solar and wind generating stations. Without the ability to initially generate power, all the rest is moot.
After Hurricane Ian, I lost power for 9 days. It was a matter of so much damage to transmission lines that it took time to get to my area. But the generating stations were intact so that when the lines were restored I had power. If windmills and solar arrays get damaged, it could be months, or even years to restore power to a large area.
Tom ==> It would have been better with lots of generation stations of differing kinds on the left — but it is only cartoon.