If your interested - Electrician Talk - Professional Electrical Contractors Forum

hardworkingstiff · 12-04-2011, 10:59 AM

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FNKRoue, I second your comments. The fact that Chris does not come from an energy background (as far as I know) makes the Crash Course, when it came out, ever more visionary.

As another mech. engineer working in the field of energy, what I find interesting / astonishing / distressing is that the majority of even so-called "experts" in these related fields just don't seem to be able to put 2 and 2 together to grasp the predicament we are in. The answer to fossil fuel shortages? Dig more out of the ground! The answer to food shortages? Cut down more forest and throw more fresh water and fertilizers on it! Even amongst the hundreds of employees in my office, the greater picture of "where is all this energy coming from?" just isn't addressed. We need work, and we want to grow the company, and we get that work by building more machinery to gobble up more natural resources. We have our place in the overall machine of the neoclassical economics-modelled economy and even though the people I work with are fully capable of grasping these concepts if they decided to put in the effort, it is not part of our mandate and even if we did understand what's coming, what else is an engineering company going to do?

These issues are complex and it takes a sound understanding of energy, engineering, ecology, economics, and sociology to really come to grips with them all. And then on the other side we have the media .... The current situation is as much an education in how the human mind can be influenced in certain directions under the proper conditioning and suggestion (and television "programming"), even when undeniable evidence to the contrary is presented. I am sure we can alll speak to this from personal experience.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=8WBiTnBwSWc

This is deep stuff, and IMO, worth the 1 hour and 11 minutes of time.

Some very interesting comments on competition for resources at the 1 hour 8 minute mark.

wildleg · 12-04-2011, 11:05 AM

all caused by overpopulation and lack of forward thinking. standard fare for the human race.

Wirenuting · 12-04-2011, 11:28 AM

Keeping with the expert on energy concept.
Obama has ordered that 2 billion be spent doing energy conservation audits by outside companies. The savings offered by these companies will be used to upgrade federal buildings with the savings being paid back over xx years.

Ok so it worked for us like this several years ago.

The local Poco came in and did an audit. They claimed that to save energy and money the following work would be done by contract.

Change all light fixtures from T-12 to T-8
Upgrade the building automation systems and make them digital.

The money saved would be used to do further upgrades. These up savings needed to be done so that all monies were paid back thru utility savings within 10 years. ... They averaged it all out to make the savings. Bent the meaning of the law to do this.

Now had they just done the lighting retro-fits and building automation projects the money would have rolled on on a savings wave.

It didn't really work that way. But many companies made lots of cash due to the tax payers not knowing.

Of course there were several of us federal employees who tried for years to retro the lighting as we went along.. We asked for upgrades when they were needed. Heck we had to repair the equipment anyway.

We tried to do this long before the Poco's dud their audits.

These were all shot down. They claimed it was to expensive. What do we know right.

So soon there should be $$ available to get people back to work. Good luck hooking up with a local Poco or local building automation company. Ride the wave of energy conservation.

macmikeman · 12-04-2011, 01:57 PM

Why is it that all the deep thinking forward minded individuals who expound at great length on all the ills of mankind utilizing his environment to the maximum to satisfy his needs and pleasure, are usually the ones who do not bath regularly, nor dress well, nor have attractive looks, or success with social relationships?

Is it just me who notices these things? I'll be thinking about it during next months bath and shave...

hardworkingstiff · 12-04-2011, 02:01 PM

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Originally Posted by macmikeman

why is it that all the deep thinking forward minded individuals who expound at great length on all the ills of mankind utilizing his environment to the maximum to satisfy his needs and pleasure, are usually the ones who do not bath regularly, nor dress well, nor have attractive looks, or success with social relationships?

Is it just me who notices these things? I'll be thinking about it during next months bath and shave...

huh?

macmikeman · 12-04-2011, 02:07 PM

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Originally Posted by hardworkingstiff

huh?

Not you,,,,,, I'm trolling for OWS here.....