Future infrastructure for residential electric service?

[Doug Garson]

We don't need a lake, we already have an ocean that is covered by seaweed. The Caribbean Is Swimming in Seaweed. Scientists Aim To Turn It Into Jet Fuel and Batteries. Backed by U.S. Department of Energy Funding, New R&D Could Help Seed a Uniquely Caribbean Bioeconomy.
The global energy potential of Caribbean seaweed and wood waste is unmistakable. Up to 1.24 million dry tons of sargassum could be harvested annually near populated coastlines. NREL collaborator Fearless Fund has developed a novel process to harvest it at sea both to ensure quality biomass and to protect the coastal environment.
Blended with 75% wood waste, that resource could yield up to 78 million gallons of sustainable aviation fuel every year. (By my math that's about 0.5% of US airlines annual consumption) A commercialized process could also produce an estimated 61,000 tons of graphite annually—3.4% of global synthetic graphite production.

Every little bit helps but we need hundreds if not thousands of solutions to the climate change problem.
https://www.nrel.gov/news/program/20...que%20pairing.

[Stan Calow]

It's about meeting the peak demand, right? There's been some talk about using large in-home storage battery units to provide that bit of extra capacity as well.

But I think just finding new fuels to support our consuming lifestyle is not sustainable in the long run. And none of the alternative options are going to be cheap.

[Steve Demuth]

^​It's hard to imagine where that kind of growth could come from. If you ran all the big energy draws on my house simultaneously (Level II Charger, Electric Heat, Hot Water, Kitchen Range), you would max out the breaker nameplate capacity of a 200Amp service, although you'd still only be drawing less than 150Amps. The other uses of electricity in the house, although they use a lot of spaces on the panel, don't collectively add 20A actual draw on a 240V service - there are lots of loads, but hardly any of them is more than 10W individually. Granted I have a small house (1200 ft²), but it's hard for me to see how the numbers would even double for any single family residence that is well built, properly insulated, etc.

[roger wiegand]

A combination of air sealing, insulation, conversion to all LED lighting, use of deciduous vines and shrubs to provide seasonal shading, and upgrades to medium-high efficiency appliances allowed us to cut energy usage in our house by about 2/3 while increasing the size from 1600 to 2800 sf. No rocket science, and nothing stupidly expensive in the context of a rehab of a neglected 60 year old house, just care and attention to detail. The majority of the houses in our town could benefit similarly.

[Roger Feeley]

There’s a company called Plug Power that big in the fuel cell space. For a long time they kind of sputtered who’ll trying to figure out ow to sell fuel cell powered cars when there was no infrastructure. They got some new leadership and changed focus to forklifts and fleet vehicles. Now their big roadblock is eating enough H2. They have customers lined up to convert their material handling and delivery vehicles.

[Mike Henderson]

There’s a company called Plug Power that big in the fuel cell space. For a long time they kind of sputtered who’ll trying to figure out ow to sell fuel cell powered cars when there was no infrastructure. They got some new leadership and changed focus to forklifts and fleet vehicles. Now their big roadblock is eating enough H2. They have customers lined up to convert their material handling and delivery vehicles.

Right now, the majority of hydrogen is produced from steam reforming of natural gas. That's not very green. In addition to the feed stock of natural gas, a lot of gas is used for heat in the process.

But what can work on things like you suggested is a unit the produces hydrogen from electrolysis of water. The company could run the electrolysis unit over night to produce hydrogen for their equipment.

Mike

[Steve Demuth]

We started out with gutted one room schoolhouse over an uninsulated crawl space, heated entirely with wood . Not surprisingly it leaked like sieve and took cords of hardwood to heat at all. The same house today, wrapped, insulated, with the crawl space sealed and fully insulated, could easily be heated and cooled for $600 worth of electricity per year. We still supplement with wood, so our actual heating costs are lower.

And the floors are warm and the house comfortable.

The last jump in efficiency. however, even though it made the house much more comfortable, wasn't really cost-effective. We spent $50K to upgrade windows, tighten the crawl space, and upgrade to a very high COP air-source heat pump. That got us off propane and made the heat pump a sensible choice, but it probably would only save less than $1000/yr in energy costs, even if we weren't using our own wood and electricity. So, it'll never pay for itself. But it gets us one step close to carbon neutral by reducing our total fossil fuel usage by 50%.

[Jim Becker]

Steve, at least the upgrade costs are somewhat balanced by the increase in comfort, even if the financial payback isn't what it's desired to be. And as you note, there are other long term benefits, not just to the homeowner, but to society.

[Daniel O'Neill]

A combination of air sealing, insulation, conversion to all LED lighting, use of deciduous vines and shrubs to provide seasonal shading, and upgrades to medium-high efficiency appliances allowed us to cut energy usage in our house by about 2/3 while increasing the size from 1600 to 2800 sf. No rocket science, and nothing stupidly expensive in the context of a rehab of a neglected 60 year old house, just care and attention to detail. The majority of the houses in our town could benefit similarly.

I'd be interested in the vines your talking about. I haven't found anything great. IL zone 5. We have septic on the west front lawn so our west side gets blasted in the evening/afternoon and we can't plant any trees to shade the roof or walls.

This whole discussion is interesting. I work for a small electric utility and the plan is to almost replace pedestals with transformers due to increased load. The EV chargers can have a significant impact to load calculations (according to the engineers anyway). I think it's because you can't practically say that they are charged overnight. You have to calculate like they could be charged at anytime and during peak summer loading that's a problem.

No mention of small scale nuclear reactors yet. I find those super interesting in order to baseload and spread the grid out. Maybe some to for electrolysis of water to hydrogen and then use the hydrogen for peaker plants.

During California's last bought with drought, I would wonder what the effect would be if all of LA was running hydrogen cars. .... Water vapor is a greenhouse gas though....

[roger wiegand]

I'd be interested in the vines your talking about. I haven't found anything great. IL zone 5. We have septic on the west front lawn so our west side gets blasted in the evening/afternoon and we can't plant any trees to shade the roof or walls.

Wisteria growing on a pergola that sticks out about 3 ft above the window. Full southern exposure, we have to cut it back severely every year to keep it under control. It is in a bed that gets drip irrigation, though we didn't need to turn it on this year. Also zone 5.

[Doug Garson]

Wisteria growing on a pergola that sticks out about 3 ft above the window. Full southern exposure, we have to cut it back severely every year to keep it under control. It is in a bed that gets drip irrigation, though we didn't need to turn it on this year. Also zone 5.

We have a Wisteria growing up a tree down the street from us. The tree is about 40 ft high and the Wisteria goes all the way to the top. Looks gorgeous when in bloom but I wonder how much longer the tree will survive.

[roger wiegand]

We have a Wisteria growing up a tree down the street from us. The tree is about 40 ft high and the Wisteria goes all the way to the top. Looks gorgeous when in bloom but I wonder how much longer the tree will survive.

It's a borderline invasive around here, and something I would definitely not use further south where it is very problematic. Im sure DW would pick something different today, now that we've converted mostly to native species, probably the native trumpet honeysuckle or Clematis virginiana. As I mentioned the wisteria requires aggressive pruning to remain in control. Does look pretty in flower though!

[Tom Bender]

Elephant in the room - there are way way too many people on the planet for sustainability. Nature will correct this eventually.

[Edwin Santos]

Elephant in the room - there are way way too many people on the planet for sustainability. Nature will correct this eventually.

Fatalists have held that opinion for a very long time, including when the population was much lower than it is now.
One of the most famous was American biologist Paul Ehrlich, who has been mostly if not totally discredited. His book The Population Bomb from 1968 scared a lot of people because he predicted mass starvation in the 1970s. Various countries (unnecessarily) adopted population controls including sterilization due to his book and the associated predictions.

[Mike Henderson]

Elephant in the room - there are way way too many people on the planet for sustainability. Nature will correct this eventually.

When countries become wealthy, the birth rate declines precipitously. For example, the US birth rate is about 1.6. Japan is 1.3. China is 1.28. South Korea is 0.84!

The thing that saves the US is immigration. It's very difficult to immigrate to Japan so they have some serious problems with declining population and providing for their elder population.

The countries with high birth rates (above 2.1) are mainly in Africa and the middle east.

Mike