Comments on: The True Cost of Alabama’s Energy Dependence http://blog.locustfork.net/2009/02/the-true-cost-of-alabama%e2%80%99s-energy-dependence/ A Wide Open Weblog for Big News, the Big Picture Fri, 10 Feb 2012 00:37:39 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: SI Reasoning http://blog.locustfork.net/2009/02/the-true-cost-of-alabama%e2%80%99s-energy-dependence/comment-page-1/#comment-2474 SI Reasoning Fri, 06 Feb 2009 04:54:50 +0000 http://blog.locustfork.net/2009/02/05/the-true-cost-of-alabama%e2%80%99s-energy-dependence/#comment-2474 One of the biggest issues with energy policy in Alabama is that we waste so much energy here. A great portion of our wasted energy is in heating and cooling homes, especially the increasingly popular middle class mansions that have been popping up everywhere within the last few years. However, there is a solution that could radically reduce our energy use (both gas and electric) especially during the most extreme weather times of the year.... heat-exchange geothermal. The process is simple enough, we would use the stable temperatures underground and exchange that with the variable temperature above ground and create either heating or cooling within a building based on need. The process is very efficient and workable just about everywhere. It is also very common in the Northeast and even former President Bush uses this process on at least one of his houses. The biggest issue is cost of drilling and installation of the underground plumbing. This can make up half to 2/3rd's of the cost. However, with our current economic and environmental crisis. I can think of no better way to create jobs, encourage spending amongst the people who have spendable income, while at the same time creating a serious decrease in energy use (amongst those who are the most wasteful) than to create a federal program to offer free drilling and underground plumbing for anyone who wishes to convert their heating and cooling to heat exchange geothermal. If you couple this approach with deep discounts and tax breaks for the very efficient heating/cooling hardware, the cost/benefit of this approach will be quite appealing, especially for those with larger homes and for businesses. My understanding is that the efficiency of this approach should radically reduce the energy required to heat and cool buildings to such an extent that alternative energy such as solar power can become feasible for homes (as the biggest energy use would now be relegated to dryers and the heating element in dishwashers and the stove/oven.) Even without using clean energy, the amount of energy not used would drastically reduce greenhouse gases and toxic pollutants. All of this while pumping money into local economies by hiring and training people for drilling and giving a kickstart to a burgeoning green economy. One of the biggest issues with energy policy in Alabama is that we waste so much energy here. A great portion of our wasted energy is in heating and cooling homes, especially the increasingly popular middle class mansions that have been popping up everywhere within the last few years. However, there is a solution that could radically reduce our energy use (both gas and electric) especially during the most extreme weather times of the year…. heat-exchange geothermal.

The process is simple enough, we would use the stable temperatures underground and exchange that with the variable temperature above ground and create either heating or cooling within a building based on need. The process is very efficient and workable just about everywhere. It is also very common in the Northeast and even former President Bush uses this process on at least one of his houses.

The biggest issue is cost of drilling and installation of the underground plumbing. This can make up half to 2/3rd’s of the cost. However, with our current economic and environmental crisis. I can think of no better way to create jobs, encourage spending amongst the people who have spendable income, while at the same time creating a serious decrease in energy use (amongst those who are the most wasteful) than to create a federal program to offer free drilling and underground plumbing for anyone who wishes to convert their heating and cooling to heat exchange geothermal. If you couple this approach with deep discounts and tax breaks for the very efficient heating/cooling hardware, the cost/benefit of this approach will be quite appealing, especially for those with larger homes and for businesses.

My understanding is that the efficiency of this approach should radically reduce the energy required to heat and cool buildings to such an extent that alternative energy such as solar power can become feasible for homes (as the biggest energy use would now be relegated to dryers and the heating element in dishwashers and the stove/oven.) Even without using clean energy, the amount of energy not used would drastically reduce greenhouse gases and toxic pollutants. All of this while pumping money into local economies by hiring and training people for drilling and giving a kickstart to a burgeoning green economy.

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