Heat is not waste energy
As we move into the heating season here in southern Ontario, I have been thinking about a trend whenever evidence is presented for the promotion of a new “Green” technology, where heat is described as an undesirable “Waste” product. For example, it’s been long understood that the incandescent light bulb converts 5% of the energy it uses into light, and the other 95% is “wasted” as heat. The same is said about the internal combustion engine; that a lot of the energy is heat waste. It seems to me whoever came up with these conclusions is pretty ignorant of the reality of the world I live in. Perhaps these conclusions are of people who are fortunate enough to live in warmer climates closer to the tropic of Cancer than I do. I will now put a light on my own reality with some graphs.
What the above graph illustrates is that I live in a heating climate. On average, nine months out of twelve, heat is something I need. Climate change may push this down to eight months, but heat will still be necessary for me to live where I live for most of the year, which is considered one of the warmer areas of my province. Heat becomes even more necessary throughout more of the year further north in my province, as well as in some of the western provinces like Alberta and eastern provinces like Nova Scotia. The waste heat from the internal combustion engine in my truck is harvested in the winter and used to keep me warm and my windows clear of fog, ice and snow without negatively impacting my fuel economy or range. Waste heat from a light bulb inside my home contributes to heating my home during the months I need to heat my home, and so that heat isn’t wasted, making the incandescent light bulb 100% efficient.
This graph illustrates the average daylight per month where I live. Contrast this to the average temperature graph, and we can easily see that the months in which I do not need heat are also the months in which I receive the most amount of daylight. More daylight means I use the lights in my home a lot less. It also means that, combined with the warmer weather, I can safely and comfortably opt for other modes of transportation such as riding my bicycle. While I would agree that heat is an undesirable waste product of an internal combustion engine or incandescent light bulb, I am much less likely to use these things during times when heat would be considered a waste product.
People need to understand this before they decide it’s a good idea to ban things like internal combustion engines or incandescent light bulbs. These inventions revolutionized life for those of us who need to live further north of the tropic of Cancer than places like California. If the goal is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, it’s first important to understand the causes.
It’s pretty clear to me the majority of greenhouse gas comes from manufacturing, and it should come as no surprise to anyone that the biggest contributor to these emissions happens to be China. The country that makes our LED lights, electric car batteries, and other complicated disposable items. The solutions we have been told are the cure to the problem are actually making things worse. Compared to a modern LED light bulb, the incandescent is very simple and requires little in resources and energy to make. Compared to a lithium battery pack, an internal combustion engine can be cheaply rebuilt or easily recycled many times over without further destruction of our environment.
Something else that stands out to me is that greenhouse emissions from energy use in buildings accounts for 17.5%, while emissions from energy use in road transport is at 11.9%. When people start charging their electric cars at home, they will simply be shifting the greenhouse emissions from the road transport section to the buildings sector. With the added disadvantage of there being no waste heat to harvest; their emissions will go up in the winter to compensate for running heaters in their electric cars.
The climate change problems we are experiencing are not caused by the internal combustion engine or the incandescent light bulb; it’s our culture of disposable technology that is fueling this problem. We are at the point where we need to understand we have been sold a false bill of goods. Disposable electric cars, cell phones, LED lights, all designed to fail or become obsolete, are only going to make things worse; these are what actually drive emissions across the board, including road transport of the delivery and disposal of these “Goods.” Not to mention the energy hungry data centers that we are ever increasingly allowing ourselves to become dependent on. Rebuilding older cars, rejecting disposable technology like so-called “Smart” phones, and embracing simplicity with mindfulness is the only way I can see for us to combat climate change. Everything else is just greedy corporations using the problem to sell us a solution that actually makes the problem worse so they can keep on selling us those solutions, and that is the road to destruction.
The Raspberry Pi 4 that hosts this blog consumes between 3-5 watts of power and is not designed to become obsolete. The heat it generates contributes a small amount to the heating needs of my home.