[Greenbuilding] Debunking Energy Efficency + Thots on Microwave Ovens

[Corwyn]

On Feb 22, 2007, at 17:08, Mary Bull - Greenwood Earth Alliance wrote:
> I question the whole Energy Efficiency as God thing. Not wasting 
> energy is
> an appealing notion, but does it really come close to solving the 
> problem?
> Monbiot shows that energy efficiency historically leads to the 
> generation
> and consumption of more energy. There's actually a "law" named after 
> the
> researchers who proved this. So then, why should energy efficiency be 
> our
> primary (often stand-alone) criteria--? So what if a thing is not the 
> most
> energy efficient, if it does not destroy resources, generate CO2 and 
> other
> harmful bi-products, nor have other attendant detrimental effects, AND 
> you
> are left with enough renewable energy to cover your needs???

I agree for the most part.  Making cars more energy efficient means 
that some people will use them more than they did before, some will 
even use _more_ gas.  The economist term for this is elasticity of the 
demand curve.  However, some demand curves are more elastic than 
others.  If it cost 1/2 as much to heat your house would you double 
your heating?  No.

_We_ should be concerned with how much energy others are using, and 
what outputs they are producing.  _They_ can be concerned with getting 
the most out of it (efficiency).

> I know that microwaves are supposedly the most energy efficient way to
> heat/cook food, but the way they heat is by tearing apart molecules, 
> whereas
> conventional heating simply animates molecules.

I am skeptical of this.  Microwaves are just generators of 
electro-magnetic radiation (like light bulbs, or the sun)  They are 
tuned to produce it at a frequency which maximally excites water 
molecules.  If it were breaking that water apart into hydrogen and 
oxygen, there would be exploding microwaves all over (when they 
sparked).   And they wouldn't heat the food very well (splitting water 
up requires a lot of energy).  Other heating methods have various 
chemicals effects on food, microwaves might well  have the least 
chemical effects on food of any cooking method, I don't know.

Which is not to say, of course, that they are safe (as devices).  That 
is another topic.

Thank You Kindly,

Corwyn

-- 
Corwyn
Kermit didn't know the half of it...
http://www.greenfret.com/
corwyn at greenfret.com