by Daniel Brouse and Sidd Mukherjee
At the beginning of a this experiment, an economist
said using water was cheaper than using electricity
to control our environment. A scientist said
it couldn't be done. So, the economist set-up
the
scientific experiment.
After several months, the economist was pleased that
the scientific experiment was a success --
cooling a home with water is much cheaper (more economical) than
with electricity.
Independently, the scientist happened upon an economic
theory -- cooling a home with water is much cheaper than
with electricity.
This confirmed a major breakthrough. Substituting
water for electricity had not been done before. It
was like comparing apples to oranges. Now, it was
like comparing apples to apples... or, perhaps like
turning water to wine?
Sidd said:
when I began to tink...
the aircon was humming ...
now lets think about aircon efficiency ... the aircon was put in
in 1992 .. that year the feds mandated SEER ratings of 10
that means the aircon had to move 10 BTU of heat outta house
for every BTU of electric that it ate
of course after 10 yrs the aircon is not as efficient ... but lets
use 10 as a bestcase...
so every cubic foot of water evaporating off the side of the house
makes the aircon eat 61000 less BTU of electric ... that's 1.78 KWh
electric is approx 8.5 c/KWh here ...
so evry cubic foot of water that evaporates saves 15 cents of electric
water is 4c/cubic foot here
u can do the rest of the math...
there are worse ways to spend the afternoon...
and seeing that today is another nice hot sunny day...
the first thing i thought of was a cold beer
that taken care of, i set it down and crawled behind the groaning
aircon compressor in back
i see a 15 amp 220V circuit, actual running rating is 12 A (with various
fusing options for startup current...and does not include fan motor
indoors... so i will use the 15 A number...)
that works out to is 3.3KW unit .. eats 3.3KWh per hour
1 cubic foot of water saves 1.78 KWh
so evry cubic foot evaporated shuts my aircon off for 32 minnits
so i crawled out, took a deep swig, smiled broadly
and set the hose on 'kill'
of course... this is an experiment... so i need to keep trak of indoor
and outdoor temperature and humidity, and water usage and a buncha udder
stuff like aircon running time ... and utility bills ...
in my copious spare time ... watch this space for further details
I reply:
That is why I insist on using rain, waste or re-cycled water.
Because if everyone starts using tap water, the price of water
and of electricity will likely strive for equilibrium (price parity).
(This is a great
example of The Golden Rule of Social Justification.)
What would that look like? An almost 400% increase in the price
of water?
Of course, that assumes the supply of fresh water won't decrease.
It will be a businessman's dream come true... increase in demand while there
is a shortage of supply.
As an example, I expect that water will pass the price of gasoline/gallon.
HOSES & HOSERS
By 2023 in parts of the USA, water and electricity have reached, or are reaching, price parity. Beyond reaching the same price, water restrictions are becoming common in parts of the country making water unavailable at any price.
Sidd added, "It depends on how much water costs if you haven't collected enough rain.
So Arizona, Colorado, California... might be a problem."
In addition, many states have "prior appropriation water rights" where the rights to impeding the flow of water
off the property are limited. For instance, you may not be allowed to collect rainwater in Colorado. These states include:
Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming. Make sure you own your water rights prior to implementation.
Summer of 2003
yesterday I was outside hosing down the windows
(yes I checked to see they were shut first...)
the sun was shining bright ...
and the water dried rapidly ...
every cubic foot of water that evaporated took 61000 BTU with it
(about a 1000 BTU per pound, and about 60 pounds in a cubic foot
of water)
and that i have to hose out my recycling trashcans...
i broke the hose out and thought some more
SHHHHH! Don't tell anyone!
This is what I was afraid of... what happens if everyone
starts doing it?
(water companies will be able to demand a higher price
from you... what would you pay up to... 14.995c/cubic?)
(water supplies will decrease as we won't be able to
manufacture fresh water fast enough)
I put a sump pump into a 5gal bucket of collected greywater (from showering), hook it
up to a hose, and pump it to the roof. A 5gal bucket of recycled
water usually covers a complete section of roof. During intense heat, I stick the pump in a
44gal garbage can full of collected rainwater. Our experiment uses only rainwater and greywater.
Don't be a hoser and deplete the groundwater supply. Use only recycled water.
2023 Update
During the last twenty years since we first conducted the "Turning Water Into Electricity Experiment," global warming has accelerated at an exponential rate as we had forecast back in the 1990's. "Human induced climate change is an exponential component of an unordered system (chaos theory). That means global warming is accelerating at a rapid rate in a complex way."
The expression of these ideas by others is strictly for non-commercial use. Written permission is required prior to any commercial application.