Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I know you're joking but that is reality. Going back to Katrina when energy prices spiked the sale of wood and coal burning units spiked too. In the fall of 2007 when energy prices spiked again there was a waiting list a year long for new coal boilers and about 6 months for the smaller stokers. Used ones were snapped up as fast they put up for sale. the only reason you don't see the same thing right now is because NG is so low.
I know you're joking but that is reality. Going back to Katrina when energy prices spiked the sale of wood and coal burning units spiked too. In the fall of 2007 when energy prices spiked again there was a waiting list a year long for new coal boilers and about 6 months for the smaller stokers. Used ones were snapped up as fast they put up for sale. the only reason you don't see the same thing right now is because NG is so low.
Propane got to expensive for a friend out in the boonies and he now burns coal in the winter.
Some of my shanty's at work were so isolated coal and wood stoves were used.
If there is a more efficient fuel source that is cheaper to extract than coal (natural gas, maybe??), then what is the problem?
Doesn't anyone think that it's kind of stupid to use a primary energy source (natural gas) to produce another primary energy source (electricity)?
Quote:
Originally Posted by geofra
Not quite. New technologies and techniques, like fracking, for instance, can make an old fuel obsolete. You know this, come on.
Fracking has been in the natural gas extraction bag of tricks for decades, so it neither new nor innovative. Check out some of the "Fracking" threads in the PA, WV, and OH forums. Or read some news articles from the affected areas.
We'll just build many new nuclear electric generation plants down the street for those that want to do away with coal for generation.
Good luck with that we have been trying to get the government moving on the Piketon project for almost four years now...you know that easy grant money Obama always talks about only if it meets his agenda on energy.Now its election year and guess what more promises well he can shove that ~Hope & Change-Yes We Can ~ crap people here are on to this traveling snake oil salesman.
Doesn't anyone think that it's kind of stupid to use a primary energy source (natural gas) to produce another primary energy source (electricity)?
Since electricity can't be drilled or mined what else would you suggest?
Having said that there is better ways to utilize it as long as you have a NG source which many areas do not have. For example they are using natural gas turbines in many big buildings to generate power. The "waste heat" is used to heat the building. I'm not aware of anything like that scaled for the homeowner.
Electricity is NOT a primary form of energy. It is a manufactured product principally used to transport energy from where it is made by some form of engine or captured by hydraulic turbines to the consumers. Coal, Petroleum and Natural gas are primary sources of energy because the can be used to generate heat to warm things directly or creates steam to operate an engine to drive electric generators or other mechanical devices.
A poster mentioned a nuclear plant just down the block. I would gladly agree if the plant used the proper technology and was used to generate heat as well as electricity. I believe a well distributed system of self contained nuclear power plants providing energy on a local level and connected to a redundant grid is far more reliable and safe than any system, coal of nuclear, that consists of few huge remote plants connected with a minimal grid.
The major cost of large scale, not small scale consumption of hard coal to heat dwellings, consumption of soft coal is the damage done to the atmosphere and the ground that was over the coal fields. IMHO the “highest and best use” (from the watch word of the Forrest Service) of coal is to support the soil that grows the grass that cattle graze on.
I believe our energy future could be made far more secure, at substantial cost to the owners and producers of coal based energy, by developing a distributed system of h=High Temperature Gas Cooled Nuclear fission reactors providing steam to electric generators and district heating. These devices could be remotely operated and use a fuel cycle that created, by transformation of other elements into fissile materials, an endless supply of nuclear fuel that could only be used in these reactors and not be ever converted into weapons grade material. This system would them=n become an endless source of heat and electricity. The hiogh temperature gas developed by these reactors could also be used to transform coal to natural Gas and petroleum loke oils for uses as transportation fuels. Thus this system could make us independent of the rest of the world for our primary and secondary energy supplies.
This would be an expensive system to develop and build but far less expensive than our Forever War to secure other people’s petroleum. I suggest we divert our military budget from overseas adventures to domestic enhancement and security. We need better energy supplies.
Coalman - Honda makes a household size NG fired co-generation set up. There is also a Listeroid Diesel set up available from Central Maine Diesel that burns used or new vegetable oil to generate heat and electricity. There is another company that makes NG fired turbine units in the 50KW range for small to mid size commercial applications. Google a magazine called “Distributed Power” for more information.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
