[Greenbuilding] Energy Efficiency and Fossil Fuels: Isn't there a bigger picture?

[Mary Bull - Greenwood Earth Alliance]

Maize
Greetings, Greenbuilders,

In these various, interesting interwoven threads, fossil fuels (natural gas
& propane, at least) always rate "more energy efficient" than electricity
when it comes to supplemental (to solar) heat, supplemental hot water, and
cooking...

But isn't there a bigger picture that should be informing our choices at
this point? Should we buy fossil-fuel-powered appliances, when we are 1.)
polluting the atmosphere with them, and 2.)  running out of fossil fuels?

Also, isn't another good reason for going electric and connecting to the
grid that the source of that electricity can change from bad to good, and we
don't have to change all those appliances to accommodate it (assuming you
are pumping your solar-generated juice onto that grid)?

Can we ever anticipate a clean-burning gas that is viable (i.e., something
that does not rely on fossil fuels and that does not require ecosystems and
farmland conversions to grow it)? Methane, for instance--which now outweighs
auto emissions in its contribution to global warming. Does burning it solve
that greenhouse gas problem, and will we ever be able to bottle it like
propane? Other candidates in the fore-seeable future, so that we can view
our use of gas or propane as a temporary, stop-gap measure, and convert our
appliances to the new, clean source sometime in the foreseeable future?

Which is better: To go with the more energy-efficient propane for these
functions of supplemental heat, supplemental hot water, and cooking, or the
least energy-efficient solar-generated-but-through-the-grid electricity? Or
should I return to wood-burning, which becomes totally unviable if everybody
does it?

Anyone care to give an opinion or simple answer?


Cheers!

Mary Bull, Co-director
Greenwood Earth Alliance, Save the Redwoods - Boycott the Gap Campaign
252 Frederick, San Francisco, CA 94117 http://www.gapsucks.org
Chalice Farm and Sustainable Living Center, 748 Montgomery Rd, Sebastopol CA
95472
415-731-7924 - 415-509-1188 chalicenew at earthlink.net