What's not to love about Hawai'i? Well, Honolulu's a bit much, but the island state as a whole seems to understand what it's going to take to beat this whole global warming thing. It just put into a law a requirement that beginning in 2010, all new homes must incorporate solar water heaters.
In so doing, Hawai'i becomes the first state in the union to join the solar water heater bandwagon. It follows Israel, where 90% of homes already have them.
It turns out that, if you happen to live somewhere with plenty of sunshine, solar water heaters make so much sense you'd have to be an idiot not to have one. Israel's story is instructive:
These heaters were first installed when the country experienced a fuel supply crisis in the early 1950s. The government responded by severely restricting the times when water could be heated. Israelis in turn responded by purchasing huge quantities of solar water heaters. By 1983, 60% of the population heated their water with the sun. A law was eventually passed requiring the installation of solar water heaters. (ENN, June 20, 3008)
Spain followed suit in 2005, and now requires photovoltaic cells on new building, to boot. Gotta love the Spaniards.
OK, you don't have to. After all, Mediterrean climates and America's most southerly state are very different places from Chicago, Seattle or New York City, where the economics of solar water heaters aren't quite as attractive. Installing solar water heaters in Hawai'i is picking the low-hanging fruit of climate change mitigation. They still make sense for the rest of us, and if we convinced more utilities to lease them to us, or introduce rent-to-own plans, we'd still be able to cut our power bills significantly. But when you think about it, why didn't Hawaiians come up with this idea a long time ago? The state does use more imported oil than any other state, for obvious reasons, and it shouldn't have taken a planetary emergency to tip the scales. Not when it makes economic sense.
Hmmm. Maybe Hawai'i isn't so great after all. Besides, when the carbon taxes and peak oil crunch hit, island in the middle of oceans are going to find it awfully lonely.
Until the airships come back, that is.
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"But when you think about it, why didn't Hawaiians come up with this idea a long time ago? "
Based on watching my parents try to afford goods and services for the past 10 years, on Kaua'i, i'd say it's a mixture of all the usual reason: initial cost, slowness of bureaucracy, inefficiency of government, etc. Also, i think their current governor is pretty decent, but who knows how bad previous regimes were.
And lastly, i think mainlanders underestimate exactly how very un-American the islands are, becoming more obvious as you spend time away from Oahu. Not that that would slow the process away from what you predict, but merely pointing out that what is culturally logical here does not translate to there, and thus you can't map our cultural ideals onto the Hawai'ian residents like you can compare Colorado with Connecticut without too much cultural disparity.
Yes Hawaii is on the right track...but it can do much more.
I lived there for a year; my office was located at the Natural Energy Lab, which was a fascinating venture which piped in cold deep water, and various enterprises used its high nutrient value and large temperature differential to grow spirolina, maine lobster and shellfish.
One experiment used the temperature difference to generate electricity (OTEC). But once the experiment was finished, they dismantled the equipment. A little more seed money could have made this into a viable power plant. Instead, there's a new visitor center with solar panels and air conditioning cooled by the deep water, telling visitors about how wonderful the experiment was. This location also has the highest US coastal insolation, making it ideal for full-time large-scale photovoltaic generation.
In addition to OTEC and PV, the constant ocean breeze make some parts of the island ideal for wind turbine electric generation. Two areas I knew about with towers are near Waimea and South Point. Sadly, the South Point towers were rusting away and mostly unused with cattle grazing underneath. There is however an active geothermal plant near the volcano.
I was there three years ago so maybe things have changed since then. But I was still dismayed and saddened that people drove their really big rock-hopper trucks and pay $1-$2 more than the rest of the US, rather than try harder to lead the nation in self-sufficiency.
"The state does use more imported oil than any other state, for obvious reasons, and it shouldn't have taken a planetary emergency to tip the scales."
How much of this is used by the U.S. military presence on the island? If the answers a lot, which I suspect it is, there's your answer...the military doesn't give a crap about climate change.
Well I'm not sure this is a valid point...
After all, Mediterrean climates and America's most southerly state are very different places from Chicago, Seattle or New York City
According to the Altlas query web site http://www.astro.com/atlas/horoscope?country_list=&expr=rome the latitudes of some cities is as follows (from closest to the equator to most Northerly.)
Madrid, Spain 40'24"
New York 40'43"
Chicago 41'51"
Rome, Italy 41'54"
Thus I suspect if we got our collective heads out of the sand, we would find solar water heating effective almost anywhere in the lower 48 states. Interestingly, Moscow, London and Newfoundland are pretty much at the same latitude, it is a popular miconception that Moscow freezes because it is close to the Arctic circle, that is more a function of its continental location.
Well I suppose that explains why the government has to force people to install them (under threat of fines at the least, and presumably prison if the fines are ignored). Why must every good idea be implemented at the point of a gun?
I have lived in South Florida for the last 12 years and have still been unable to figure out why passive solar water heaters are not ubiquitous.
Even after your typical hurricane comes through and knocks out power for extended periods people seem to prefer to sit in long lines idling their ICE engines to get gasoline to run their generators?! Often to find that the gas station can't pump the gasoline even if they have it because they don't have electricity for the pumps. I've often found that to be the ultimate irony. Though the powers that be in their ultimate wisdom have deemed to solve this problem by mandating that gas stations be equipped with generators for emergencies, go figure.
People do not want to change their ways. Well I think that most of them are just plain ignorant of the fact that solar hot water is a viable cost effective alternative to heating water. I believe that as the reality of peak fossil fuels continues to have an ever greater impact economic impact at least a few of them will begin to change their ways, but probably not a moment sooner.
Fernando wrote:
"People don't want to change their ways." Including Fernando?
The only posts on an issue like this that matter are those that consist of, "Here is how I am helping my fellow citizens improve their situation..." and asking for input on how to make one's eforts even more effective.
So my question to Fernando is this: Since most people *do* want to change, when they get enough reason to do so, how do we help them see reason sooner rather than later?
Ok that is a valid question. In my case I do what I can whenever I find the opportunity to make my case, sometimes by example.
I recently set up a PV panel attached to a battery with a small 12 volt dc fridge and a modified 12 volt car radiator fan. I sat in a beach chair drinking a cold solar cooled beer by the front door of my condo and greeted my curious neighbors with an offer of a cold one and an explanation that I was practicing for the future. I also walk and bike when ever possible sometimes risking my neck in traffic.
I don't live in a very bike friendly place.
I also scuba dive by kayak on my local coral reefs and am active in a club and participate in public education to protect our reefs among other things. I could go on and on about the many things I do but I don't think I owe you or anyone else a full accounting.
The fact remains that even my closest friends and immediate family and loved ones still look at me kind of strange. That's ok I understand and it goes to the very point I was trying to make about people not being willing to change until something affects them personally.
F -
But something made *you* change. You came from the same family as your siblings (if any) and you were educated by your parents. If nothing has yet affected them personally to make them change, why did you?
I'm not being coy or anything,in casemy tone seems so. I'm honeslty trying to figure out how to get people to change their ideas before it becomes more costly to do so.
I go in fits and starts. Some things I'm very proactive about and have plans in place for nearly every contingency over the next 20 years. Some things suffer from inertia. I still haven't figured out what the difference is between those things on which I take action and those on which I don't.
But one thing is certain - people who believe that *their* priorities should be my priorities and expect me to march to the beat of their drum without having first gone through the effort to repectfully show me what the benefits are of their position are in for a rude awakening. And if they want to wag their finger at me and hurl ad hominems, then the conversation is over, at least with them.
Marketers spend billions of dollars trying to figure out why people choose what they choose so the marketers can help get their client's products into the hands of consummers, or get their candidate elected or get their initiative passed.
99.99% of why people do what they do is emotional. Reason comes into play post hoc as a way to justify the decision. Those who are most effective at getting people to change usetheir rational tools to craft the most emotionally appealing argument possible, tailored to the ears of the listiner.
One way to help people change it to shwothemwhat the change will look like, as Fernando describes with his solar beer cooler.
You and ought to take out a patent on that, Fernando, ASAP and get some kind of 24 to 48 can cooler on the market, because another way to help people change on the big ideas is to help them change on the little ideas first.
My email is
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Well, someone has a patent for external desing of such a cooler: United States Patent USD502059
But I havent been able to find anyone marketing such a product yet.
LOL!
I'm afraid the patents are already owned by others. Everything I used is off the shelf technology. My solar panel was purchased at a local store http://www.energystore-usa.com/
The battery is a deepcycle 12 volt battery purchased at Wall Mart, the cooler/freezer is a 12 volt cigarette lighter plugin from a local auto parts store.
Why did I change and how do you change other's thinking about anything? That is probably the 64 trillion dollar question and I sure wish I had the answer to that one.
This happens to be a good post and it addresses some of the issue you touch upon with regards to changing peoples minds. http://www.theoildrum.com/node/4287
They have been at it a lot longer than I have, check it out you might find some good ideas there along with the chaff.
BTW in case someone should get the wrong impression I didn't design and build the cooler from scratch.
The modified radiator fan was to blow cool air over me, it isn't part of the beer cooler.
There are many 12 and 24 volt refrigerators and freezers already on the market, the store I mentioned above also sells a good selection of these. Disclaimer I am not affiliated in any way with this store and a quick search on Google should lead to many other venues that sell these items.