[extropy-chat] Pellet stoves

[Eugen Leitl]

On Tue, Aug 22, 2006 at 11:02:02AM -0400, Keith Henson wrote:

> Please resume this discussion when your pellet stove has been in use for a 
> year.

Who said anything about a stove? Are you perchance unfamiliar with
modern pellet burners? While I don't have one (my old apartment
is being connected to Kalina-cycle geothermal) and my current one is 
a new-ish methane burner I understand you only have to empty the ash 
bin every 3 weeks during maximal burn time (winter, in our latitudes). 
It's every 2 months in spring/autumn, and not at all during summer, if you've
got a solar thermal (i.e., not PV) system on the roof.
I also understand the current systems are clean and reliable.
The minus point is that the current pellets are 50% more expensive
than fossil for the same caloric value.
 
> >Living in style doesn't mean your environmental footprint needs
> >to be large. With nanotechnology, the footprint can become about zero.
> 
>      "Human relations with engineered "domestic animals" might get real
> weird.  Nomads in Africa drink the blood of their cattle.  A less messy
> method would be to grow plugs on the animals which could be connected to
> humans and supply energy and materials directly to the human bloodstream.
> Instead of killing the sheep, you bring in a batch and "recharge" from
> them.  A "lower on the food chain" alternative would be to have a
> "backpack" which would unfold when you lay down in the sun into a large
> photosynthetic area.  Assuming the nomads' sheep didn't trample you, a few
> hours a day soaking up rays on 30 square meters of surface would eliminate
> the need to eat animals or plants.  This is getting far afield from the
> simple uses of nanotechnology, but being modified this way would allow
> living the "simple" life par excellence.  Such people would really leave
> "nothing but footprints.""
> 
> http://www.alcor.org/cryonics/cryonics9101.txt

I'd rather prefer shading off a patch of circumsolar orbit, myself.


-- 
Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a> http://leitl.org
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