Saturday, May 31, 2008

Refrigerators make me mad.

Continuing Emily's battle against resource waste.....

Once heating & cooling is taken out of the picture, I'm taking a gander that a household's major energy consumption comes from major appliances such as the refrigerator, hot water heater, oven, and washer / drier.  However, with all the energy that goes into manufacturing these appliances (or cars or houses or ...) it probably doesn't make sense to just go about replacing perfectly working appliances with ones just a little bit more efficient.  A NYT article earlier this month delved into this topic
I don't know about you, but I’m a little tired of the whole green thing. Not the idea that Americans need to sharply cut their energy use (the words carbon footprint will not pass my lips). And not the idea that there are some relatively painless actions we can all take that will help — although I know real change will not be made without real sacrifice.

But I am growing a little cynical about the consumption-oriented part of the movement, the urging to buy our way out of environmental problems. From organic jeans to compact fluorescent light bulbs, it is getting harder and harder to know what represents genuine progress and what is a marketing gimmick.
We have a really cool chance this summer since we'll be purchasing new (or perhaps acquiring used - this may be a better, more efficient use of our planet's resources) appliances. A few thoughts:

1) We probably need a washing machine of some sort. Inhabitat has a few interesting ideas & recommendations about efficiency.. Perhaps most intriguing is the Cyclean, a bike powered washing machine made almost entirely out of parts from the landfill! Oh yeah. Seriously - we should look into this - this would really make you think twice about just washing clothes because you can. We could have a whole fleet of bikes powering just about everything in the house.

Or do we just do our laundry across the street at McCrady? We're spoiled at Sewanee - at many schools it'd be the norm to walk into another dorm to do laundry.

2) Do we really need a refrigerator? Although it's a nice thing to have, it's a massive energy sink. There are certainly benefits to having one, especially if we are going to be cooking a lot, but perhaps we could put our stuff in McCrady's or the new Scholar/Research house going in across the street.

3) Hot water heater ... maybe we look into either reusing the one currently in the house OR perhaps getting the most efficient one we can find - maybe one of those newfangled tankless water heaters?

What do y'all think?

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think that doing laundry in McCrady would be alright-- and it might be good to start that initially and then decide whether we should continue or look into an energy efficient washer (or a bicycle powered one :-)

Who do we talk to about choosing appliances and things like that? If renovation of a house is planned for this summer, then we'd probably want to find out who to contact about what appliances are being installed-- maybe they already have plans for energy efficient ones.

Unknown said...

I like the laundry across the street idea. And the bike idea is great too. I thought Helen would like that one. I'm not sure about the refrigerator one though. I'm sure we could get by without one, but if we are cooking it would be really nice to have one. But, yeah, sacrifice is a good thing..

Elspeth said...

I think this is a matter of finding a balance. We should be willing to make sacrifices, but we don't want to be so extreme that people feel that our lifestyle is too complicated to try.

Refrigerator: If we're going to cook at any time...we need one. Things in normal dorm kitchens disappear quickly, even when they're labeled. Maybe we could find a smaller than normal fridge.

As for a washing machine, I think it'd be fine to use McCrady's washing machine for a while and figure out what we want to do. I like the idea of having a bike powered washer and no dryer. (Permission to put up a clothesline might be tricky, but we can work on it.

I started making a list yesterday of what sorts of things we need to request to have or not have in the house. I think it would make sense to submit the request to Marvin Pate and Eric Hartman. Is there someone else I'm forgetting?

Paul said...

Good points. Balance is crucial.

I like the smaller than normal refrigerator idea. How small is too small? Is there something inbetween a minifridge and the normal size ones? Are minifridges efficient, anyways?

Do we need a freezer? The only use I can think of would be for ice cream, which is important...

Laurie Kianka is crucial. She's the one who will actually be co-ordinating the purchasing (I think).

Unknown said...

hey, if we go with a mini-fridge, then take mine... I'm trying to find a home for it anyways

Steve Johnson said...

Hey,
Here is my two cents.
I think we should have a fridge. I think it is important for us to realize that although there are energy uses that may be wasteful, they are nice. I think that by not having a refrigerator we are missing the point of sustainable living. We should be an example for everyone on the campus. That means providing environmentally-sustainable modern day luxuries.
But I think using McCrady's laundry machines is a killer idea. It would be pointless for us to have even one washer if there are only 10 of us.

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