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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=4>I am always struck by the "feebleness" of
human-harnessed energies when confronted by extreme
weather.</FONT></DIV></FONT></DIV>
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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=4>In my 11 mile, 2 hour trek to work during the 2009
Christmas Eve blizzard here in Okie City, I had to stop three times to break ice
off the windshield wipers and scrape the windshield. I had the
defroster running on high, but it could not keep up with the snow and ice even
though it was pulling heat from 8 cylinders of internal combustion, which has to
be a lot of btus.</FONT></DIV>
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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=4>It took a lot of gasoline,
diesel, propane, natural gas, and electricity generated with nat
gas and coal, for OKC to survive that winter blast. The heating in the church
at Epiphany, which has a lot of glass, was running constantly on Christmas
Eve, and those are some powerful heaters, the room is designed to seat
800. My Chevy silverado pickup was barely adequate for the task of
navigating the blizzard, and as of yesterday remained stuck in a snow bank in
the Epiphany parking lot. My Geo Metro, on the other hand, seems pretty
nimble getting around in the aftermath, even though it has only 3 cylinders to
the Chevy's 8. My house did not take any natural gas, and only a little
electricity, and later once I was home some wood, to make it through just fine
thanks to extreme insulation and the sun.</FONT></DIV>
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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=4>This experience reminds of the permaculture
strategy of designing to meet the extreme. One of the things necessary to
do permaculture design is adequate climate records. In compiling
such, "average" data is not as useful as the monthly minimujms and
maximums. That tells us over time what is needed to deal with the climate
extremes. I suspect that is another problem with gov-recommended levels of
insulation. They aren't designed for extremes, they design probably for
the means or maybe even the averages. The unstated assumption is that
there will always be plenty of fossil fuels to "make up the difference when
(e.g.) in central Oklahoma, instead of temps in the mid 30s or mid 40s, the
temps decline to the single digits or mid-teens. So far so good a strategy
for the "Ascent" face of tech civilization, not a very good bet on the Descent
side of the hill.</FONT></DIV>
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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=4>Going forward, yesterday's extreme may very well
become the next decade's "new normal" or "mean". That has implications for
all of our design decisions during the "Descent" years. </FONT></DIV>
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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=4>One final note -- really cold weather is a GREAT
time to look for air leaks. I found two BIG ones on my sun porch before I
left on Christmas Eve. We used a lot of caulk and foam on the sun porch
but as local sustainability-oriented builder Tom Temple said to me when I asked
him about some cracks in the brick exterior of my home, "Nothing stays where you
put it." Last year's nicely caulked seem can become this year's air leak.
Yes, the tube says "20 year caulk", but "nothing stays where you put it".
Everything moves around a bit, and it doesn't take much to open up a new air
leak. Not coincidentally, both were under the doors (under the frame, not
the seal between the door and the frame). "Eternal vigilance is the
price of internal comfort in your home." Which is to say, "you're never
finished," when it comes to weatherization and etc. </FONT></DIV>
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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=4>Bob Waldrop, OKC</FONT></DIV></DIV></BODY></HTML>