Posted on 11/26/2008 9:25:04 AM PST by governsleastgovernsbest
Some wag dubbed the Prius the "Pious," for the smug self-righteousness of its greener-than-thou owners. CNBC ran a segment this morning highlighting an even pricier form of conspicuous green consumption: the installation of geothermal wells in Manhattan as an alternative form of HVAC.
Narrating the segment, CNBC's Bertha Coombs observed "for many, it represents bragging rights in the pursuit of green luxury." That segued to a clip of New York magazine's Jesse Oxfeld explicitly making the conspicuous consumption point.
View video here.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsbusters.org ...
I’m richer/greener than you are ping to Today show list.
Geothermal power plants are actually a good idea out west where the ground is hot. The idea is pump water through pipe under ground to heat the water and you create steam like a nuke power plant. It is even better now because they can use a gas (not sure I think maybe helium) instead of water.
Areas out west in CA, NV, TX, and many othr spots have hot ground because Yellowstone Park is a huge caldera (sunken volcano).
pious. lol. perfect!
***Some wag dubbed the Prius the “Pious,” for the smug self-righteousness of its greener-than-thou owners. ****
This reminds me of the South Park episode about the drivers of the hybred autos creating too much SMUG which was going to collide with Hollywood SMUG from Alic Baldwin’s Oscar speech. The Smug farts did not stink either.
Soylent Green is made of people. Soylent Green is people!
About thirty years ago a planned geothermal well was drilled in NM. Parts were already on hand for the steam, turbine, generator, ect. There was not enough steam produced to roll the turbine. The parts were on sale in the Power mag classifieds a year later.
However, this is only practical for whole office or apartment buildings, because deep drilling is never going to be cheap.
How much something costs, in dollars, is an indication of how many resources are needed to make the project happen.
Geothermal isn’t cheap.
Not that I mind that they do it. If they have the money, more power to them. Just don’t try and tell me it’s ‘green’.
“pious”... It is perfect!! I was shaking my head two days ago as a prius passed me on I-55 doing at least 10 mph over the speed limit with a passenger smoking a cigarette. My thoughts: what pack of hypocrites; I bet those people voted for Obama.
Geothermal is great—we have it in our house here in southwestern Illinois. It is essentially a ground-coupled heat pump. Saves us at least half of the heating and cooling cost as a high effiency propane or gas furnace, and our electric rates here are not that low.
We have a Prius, and we didn’t vote for Obama. My husband also didn’t get one to be environmentally friendly. He likes the way the drive: quiet & smooth. He also loves that he only goes to fill up a tank of gas maybe twice a month.
Right, not cheap, but not too bad. See my post 11. Payback we calculated to be about 4.5 years back when propane was under $1.00 per gallon.
I was referring to way-over-the-speed-limit and smoking part. My husband has a Honda Insight. Prius’s are much nicer than the Insight, but my spouse—being basically a very tight-wad engineer—was going for the fuel economy since we have a long commute. No intent to insult Prius drivers.
Geothermal usually refers to heat from the ground.
The system you describe is not new, though it is efficient. A little over a decade ago the Reichstag was outfitted with a new HVAC system and it utilized deep-well heat pumps.
That’s exactly how it works—heat from the ground. and it is called geothermal. Google it.
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