[Greenbuilding] ENERGY STAR Clothes Dryers Program Launch

Tue Jul 24 18:05:04 CDT 2012

This has been a funny conversation. I am surprised at the defensiveness in
the reactions. This is just a discussion - the reality is that everyone is
just part of their community and are not likely in their lifetime to step
very far outside of what is acceptable and normal (unless they want to be
medicated or sanctified or both) and being green at this point is considered
acceptable. 75% of American households use dryers and that percentage goes
up by income so I take it for granted that the majority of this list is
happily using dryers as 82% of consumers are green consumers.

The discussion though is interesting (if fewer people would take offense).
Only 50% of Europe use dryers and why is that? Are their houses more mouldy
as a result? So lets talk about moisture load as that seems to be the popes
nose for some. A dryer costs roughly $.30 per load and and 200 cfm fan
running continuously for 8 hours (probably the time to take care of
exhausting an 8lb of laundry moisture load in a house) would cost roughly
$.03. So putting a rack in the bathroom and cranking up the fan is not a bad
scenario. Perhaps that is what Europe is doing. That gets interesting when
you look at electrical consumption per person per year for the us and
Europe. US is 1363 watts per person (2011) European union is 689. 

-----Original Message-----
From: greenbuilding-bounces at lists.bioenergylists.org
[mailto:greenbuilding-bounces at lists.bioenergylists.org] On Behalf Of Gennaro
Brooks-Church - Eco Brooklyn
Sent: July-24-12 12:43 PM
To: Green Building
Subject: Re: [Greenbuilding] ENERGY STAR Clothes Dryers Program Launch

Steve,
Check out many parts of South America, Central America, Africa and Asia to
find the people you are talking about. They may not be lucky enough to have
a cave for shelter or nutritious grubs and roots for food so they make do
with cardboard for housing and garbage for food.
Those lucky enough to work may make as much as a couple dollars a day, which
is their contribution to the cheap and opulent standard of living we have
gotten used to here in the Northwest.
You are welcome to feel guilty about this global arrangement, I don't mind,
but it is important to me people are honest about it.

Gennaro Brooks-Church
Director, Eco Brooklyn Inc.
Cell: 1 347 244 3016 USA
www.EcoBrooklyn.com
22 2nd St; Brooklyn, NY 11231

On Tue, Jul 24, 2012 at 12:53 PM, Steven Tjiang <steve at tjiang.org> wrote:
> We need more people who live in caves and eat grubs and roots, don't 
> bathe or do laundry.  Their carbon footprint would put all of us to 
> shame.  We need the example of the cavemen to shame the righteous on 
> this list.  After all, houses and clothes are just "social constructs" 
> and really not all that necessary.
>
> ---- Steve (KZ6LSD)
>
>
>
> On Tue, Jul 24, 2012 at 7:18 AM, Paul Eldridge 
> <paul.eldridge at ns.sympatico.ca> wrote:
>>
>> Hi Grace,
>>
>> I live in a Maritime climate which means that our local weather is 
>> dominated by rain, fog and high humidity; consequently, line drying 
>> can be a challenge at the best of times. And to keep our home from 
>> turning into one giant mould box, I run our dehumidifier almost 
>> non-stop five months of the year, so I'm not going to rack dry our 
>> clothes and further add to the moisture load.
>>
>> I've taken several steps to reduce our home's environmental 
>> footprint.  As mentioned, I purchase 100 per cent renewable 
>> electricity from Bullfrog Power (wind and low-impact hydro) that 
>> covers off 130 per cent of our household needs.  I've also converted 
>> our home to electric heat and in the process eliminated some 5,700 
>> litres a year of fuel oil demand; even so, our total consumption -- 
>> space heating, domestic hot water, cooking, major appliances and all 
>> plug loads -- is a little over 9,000 kWh/year, and falling.  This, 
>> for a 44 year old, 2,500 sq. ft. home in a climate that is colder than
that of Buffalo, NY.
>>
>> We buy much of our food from local producers, recycle diligently, all 
>> of our clothing is purchased at second-hand shops, even the ThinkPad 
>> that I'm typing this on is seven years old and was three years old 
>> when I acquired it.  We walk or bike just about everywhere we can and 
>> have stopped taking holidays.  Our water consumption varies between 
>> 100 and 130 litres a day 
>> (http://i362.photobucket.com/albums/oo69/HereinHalifax/WaterHistory.j
>> pg). We use so little water that the city replaced our meter thinking 
>> it was defective and have been back twice looking for signs of 
>> tampering.  In addition, the work I do professionally eliminates 
>> about 15,000 kWh of incremental customer load per day, seven days a 
>> week -- that's over twelve tonnes of incremental CO2(e) that's eliminated
each and every day of the year.
>>
>> So, you'll have to forgive me if I sound a little testy about having 
>> to defend the use of our dryer, but I feel that I've more than 
>> carried my weight.
>>
>> Cheers,
>> Paul
>>
>>> On 07/22 at 22:46 PM, Paul Eldridge wrote:
>>>
>>>> /  I've line dried in the past, but have come to appreciate the 
>>>> convenience
>>
>> />>/  of tossing everything into the dryer, twisting a knob and 
>> pressing a />>/  button, and it seems that I'm far from alone in 
>> this.  And if someone />>/  disapproves of my choices or finds my 
>> behaviour morally repugnant, I'm />>/  OK with that too.
>> />
>>>
>>> I agree that it's convenient.
>>>
>>> If our energy prices reflected the actual externalities - 
>>> incrementally depleted resources, added pollution in emissions and 
>>> PVC-covered wire in landfills, etc - then I would have no problem 
>>> with your choice.  You would be paying for it.
>>>
>>> The problem right now is that we're NOT paying for our choices as we 
>>> should be, and so the feedback loops which influence our behavior 
>>> are weaker and longer than they should be.
>>>
>>> When someone puts his used motor oil down the stormwater drain, 
>>> that's convenient, too - so little of the impact comes down on him 
>>> as an individual, while ALL of the benefit accrues to him.
>>>
>>> Grace
>>
>>
>>
>>
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>
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