Common sense battles unreasonable expectations

I've done energy surveys on hundreds of homes to determine their suitability for renewable-energy systems. One thing that I've learned is that many people are out of touch with energy reality. This is especially true in the U.S. where we've experienced more energy abundance (and waste) than any other generation that has ever lived. We want our power all right, and we want it cheap and unlimited.

To see what I mean, just read the online comments posted below any story pertaining to energy-rate increases. It's understandable that people are frustrated with rising costs and that they will complain about it. But complaints don't accomplish much.

At the home of one of my survey clients, the owner never stopped berating the power company, telling me how much they were "ripping him off." He was hardly using any energy -- in his mind anyway. In reality, the home was a poorly insulated sieve, leaking cool air on a very hot day. The curtains were drawn in an effort to keep out the heat of the sun. The lights (each of them a significant heat source) were on because the curtains darkened the rooms. Multiple fans were blowing in unoccupied rooms (they only cool if blowing directly on one's body). A room addition behind the garage was as cold as a meat locker, and an owner-installed air conditioner vent blew air into the uninsulated garage in an effort to "keep it a little cooler in there." To that customer, it all seemed perfectly reasonable in the profligate age of energy entitlement -- except that his power bills were a rip-off. In the end, he chose not to embrace efficiency or a renewable-energy system, because it was "just another way to pay more for less." Hmm, you can't have it both ways.

Not everyone is that extreme and there are people like Jane Feldman, whose story was featured in my last column, who are quite the opposite, having taken serious responsibility for their energy future. With society depending so much on energy, it's only logical to use it wisely. But we're also a society that values aesthetics to the point that it has become detrimental in some ways.

In an effort to promote the use of renewable energy, Chapter 278 of the Nevada Revised Statutes mentions solar and wind energy dozens of times and specifically states that no governing body can restrict citizens from "using a system for obtaining solar (or wind) energy on his or her property." There is one solar/wind energy system that everyone can afford but that hardly anyone uses: a clothes line.

How ridiculous is it that? We could get a bit of exercise and fresh air to dry the laundry naturally. Instead, we prefer to mine the earth for ancient sunlight, transport the fossilized fuel thousands of miles, burn it to heat water into steam to turn a turbine (creating pollution all the while), then send the resulting electricity often hundreds of miles further to roll our clothes around in a drum that we fill with air heated by electricity or more ancient sunlight (natural gas). And then we complain that we have to pay for it. This Rube Goldberg approach to life is about as efficient as using a knife to eat soup. If that's not crazy enough, we actually have local governing bodies that prohibit the use of natural solar and wind energy for this purpose.

If you are concerned about energy-rate increases, attend a Public Utilities Commission hearing where your input can make a difference. If you're the proactive type, make a plan, save your money, embrace efficiency and ultimately look to generate your own power on the roof. If you're a rebel, put up a clothesline and stand for your right to use affordable renewable energy. If we're to survive and progress as a society, we must choose between common sense and unreasonable expectations that put us between a rock and a hard place. After all, we can't have it both ways.

Steve Rypka is a green living consultant and president of GreenDream Enterprises, a company committed to helping people live lighter on the planet. For more information and links to additional resources relating to this column, or to reach Steve, please visit www.greendream.biz.