Many good discussions on energy and CO2 cuts

Event 1:  "The great climate change retreat?"The Daily Express has led the way in exposing flaws in the arguments supporting global warming and today they published another article that will be seized upon by sceptics as fresh evidence that the science of global warming is flawed and climate change is not man-made. (link).

The result is many conspiracy theories - like ""the governments are only using global warming as an excuse to.....":

• "put their clammy hands on more of our money". Do the climate sceptics think that we should drop all efforts to make our houses more energy efficient and perhaps buy more SUVs?    
• "force the transfer of wealth from developed- to developing countries": in the west we have occupied all of the available "CO2 space" (they say) as a result of our transformation to developed countries. Now that developing countries want to go through the same process - there is no more CO2 space availble, and they therefore say (and who can blaim them?) that the developed nations should finance their extra cost of transformation to developed countries.

Comments: "Call to action"
In two previous blog posts I argued that even climate sceptics should agree to the fact that we, regardless of global warming, need to do something with our demand for energy (not only fossil fuel):

• "Errors and lies thrive in cold weather": comments on the warming or cooling of our planet (link)
• "Energy for the Future": minutes from a presentation by Helge Lund CEO of Statoil. (link) 

Why will the demand for energy increase by almost 50% by 2030 (fossil fuels included, both for transportation, heating and for generating electricity) ?

• The people living on this globe will have almost doubled (to ca 10 billion) 
• More of the developing countries will "develop" and their people will get:
• access to electricity: there are 1.6 billion people without electrical power today 
• own a car
• buy "more stuff"

You may also find inspiration (like I did) in David MacKays book “Sustainable Energy without the hot air”. This book estimates this planet's demand for energy in 2030, and looks at ways to fill the gap between projected energy generation and energy demand. It can downloaded free of charge from
http://www.withouthotair.com/.

Event 2:
The report "Klimakur2020" was handed over to the Norwegian Minister of the Environment and International Development Erik Solheim yesterday. When giving his "thank you" speach afterwards, he said that this 300+ pages report is probably one of the worlds most comprehensive studies of efforts to reduce a country's emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG=CO2, methan etc.).

It came as no surprise that increasing fuel prices and road toll by 100% triggered the most discussions. People do not have to agree with the suggestions in this report - but by triggering many discussions around coffee machines and in the media they have already reached one of the goals for their work (raise awareness and get people to discuss pros and cons of the different measures).

Comments:

Pluses

• It's provocing suggestions has already made this report an important happening in our efforts to ajust to the new reality - with threats of global warming and energy shortages looming in the not so distant future. 
• The way they have put a price on CO2 cuts for each sector should provide the politicians with excellent guidelines as to which efforts give "the most bang for the buck". Politicians also have to fight over side effects such as:
• Higher fuel prices: forcing people to move from the countryside to the cities
• Higher price of electricity: will result in fewer jobs in industry with high demand for electrical power (forcing Norsk Hydro to move aluminum production out of Norway), but it will also accellerate home improvement programs...   

Minuses

• I had hoped that the report would put more emphasis on the efforts "you and I" can do today, but I fear that the key message that most people get from this report is that the ball is now in the politicians' court. ("I'll just have to wait for the government to introduce the appropriate new laws and regulations")
• One of the cheapest ways to reduce our energy usage is by making our buildings more energy efficient. Sintef Byggforsk has estimated the potential savings in this sector to 12 TWh per year by 2020. Because most of these savings come from clean energy sources (hydro electric power) - the importance of these efforts came in the shadow of doubled fuelprices for cars etc. This is very unfortunate because a 12TWh per year cut is important in the efforts to reduce the total energy demand in Norway, and it can lead to the following CO2 cuts (copied from yesterday's blog post): 
• Electrifying the transport sector: providing the required energy for CO2 cuts in the transport sector
• Replacing heating based on fossil-fuels: driving heatpumps, balanced ventilation and even traditional electrical ovens
• Producing aluminum with electricity in Norway rather than with coal in other countries: is good for the planet even though it might not affect the CO2 numbers for Norway
• Establishing Norway as the "green battery" of Europe: when renewable energy sources such as wind and sun stops producing electricity (cold, cloudy and no wind), the powergrid in Europe will need electricity from other sources - and Norway can fill this temporary gap between supply and demand. The alternative for Europe is generating nuclear or fossil-fueled electricity (=CO2 emissions).
• A welcome side effect is also the ability to store excess energy in our "green battery" when Europe generates more electrical power than it can use (a sunny and windy day in July when the demand for heating is at it's minimum): it can be exported to Norway and used for pumping water from sealevel to the dams high up in the mountains (to be released through our turbines when the supply-demand situation has switched as mentioned above).                  
• Export of clean electricity to countries where they use coal and oil for the production of electricity. Replacing 1 KWh of coal-based electricity can save almost 1 kg of CO2 emissions. If we could save 12 TWh of electricity per year in the building sector like Sintef Byggforsk has claimed, and all of this energy replaced coal-based electricity in EU - then theoretically our efforts here would save almost 12 megatonnes of CO2 per year in EU. We loose some of the energy while sending the electricity over cables to EU etc, but still... 

Progress:

The project leader came to our "Jahus" yesterday and we discussed the remaining tasks.

1. Heat loss in the attic (and thus problems with icicles): "We will improve the isolation of all the pipes in the loft. John M agreed in the fact that there is heat loss from the pipes in the attic. The attic will become cooler and the livingroom warmer! (Icicles will not return)" said the Project Leader.
• I agreed with the engineers on Friday that the measurements of heat loss must be performed when the ventilation system is in normal operation - ie minimum 20C supply air in the livingroom (farthest away). My point is that they can not come up with proof that there is no heat loss if they turn off the supply of hot air from the heat pump (the air transported through the attic and flowing in to the living room will be well below 20C).
• The Project Leader saw with his own eyes that the surface temperature of the ventilation pipes which have yet to get extra isolation are well above 8C (see attached picture). He agrees that this must be fixed to get rid of the icicles problem (and improve the energy efficiency of the solution by reducing the heat loss between the aggregate and the livingroom).     
2. Problems with the regulation and noise from the fans: "There was talk about looking at the fans possibly be replaced with slightly smaller fans, with lower power (thought this was completed)".  
• On Friday, the engineers said that howling from the fans could be stopped by the electrician (something that must be adjusted inside the dimmer).
• "We should try to reduce the fan noise today with rubber bushings so that there is no direct contact between the fan and the channel network"
• Yesterday they said that they had decided to replace the fans (with smaller fans) 
3. Problems with noise from the outdoor part of the heat pump: "We came to much the same conclusion as P E Hansen (the heatpump distributor). It might be that it should be free-standing. In addition, it stands too close to bedroom wall (the wall is far from soundproof). It is possible that it should be moved" - said the Project Leader. 
• I mentioned to the Project Leader yesterday that the Installation Manual clearly states that care should be taken when installing the heatpump so that it minimizes the noice problem for the neighbors. The current location of the heatpump is THE place on our house which is the closest to our neighbors (less than 3 meters from our border and ca 10 meters from their house.     
• The noise would have been much less of a problem if it was placed outside the new bathroom. There is no sleepingroom nearby and it is further away (and partly shielded) from our neighbors.
• The Project Leader agrees that it shouldn't be a technically challenging project to move the heatpump (shorter distance between the outdoor- and indoor parts of the heatpump). He indicated that a solution could be to split the bill in 3 - one for us, one for them and one for the subcontractor who placed the heatpump where it is today.   
4. One of the two entrypoints for fresh air from the ventilation system to the livingroom (over the stove) is positioned incorrectly in relation to the hole in the roof: "Should be rectified!" 
5. The heat exchanger inside the ventilation aggregate has stopped working a number of times when the outside temperature was below-13C: "....is in dialogue with the supplier. There's no explanation yet as to why this happens. Once you find an answer / solution will let you know".
• This has not happened after they used the thicker insulation on the supply- and exhaust air, but I do not know if the problem therefore has been fixed. 
• Yesterday we agreed that we just leave it as it is, and if it happens again I will contact them.