Rethinking Lifestyle

Last week I considered solar heating as a way of heating our homes applying the usual economic grid. Solar heating makes sense economically, but its economic viability is affected by projected energy prices, the ability to add extra heat on the coldest, shortest days of the year, and perhaps a willingness to modify lifestyle, that is, to demand our hot water when the sun shines. Economics may be one reason to choose solar.

But a more powerful reason to choose solar is that a well planned solar installation decreases vulnerability. There is a vulnerability inherent in a dependence on energy generated or extracted thousands of miles away, whether that is hydro from northern Manitoba or natural gas from Alberta. One hardly needs a vivid imagination to envision an electrical power disruption. We experience some every year. The ones we have experienced always are short, but what assurance is there that they always will be?

Similar things could be said about our supply of natural gas. How many vulnerable spots are there along that pipeline from the gas field in Alberta to my house? I may not know what they are, but we all know they exist. That is simply the nature of any constructed system.

Solar thermal panels on a south facing roof may not keep us toasty warm on the coldest days of the year, but when used on a well insulated house, solar panels will maintain an adequate temperature even on the coldest days. Although a solar heating system is dependant on pumps to circulate the fluids, but the system can be designed with a special photoelectric panel on the roof to power the necessary pumps.

Perhaps the strongest argument for solar heating is that it simply is the right thing to do. It is gentle, it does not require a huge infrastructure, it affirms our link with the environment around us and it is sustainable on the long run. Heating with natural gas is not sustainable because natural gas is a fossil fuel. The amount of natural gas available is limited. Although fracking technology has made it possible to access natural gas today that was not available just twenty years ago, and although it may be that after we have exhausted the shale gas deposits, other gas may be found, we have no assurance of that. To live a lifestyle that conserves scarce resources for future generations is living responsibly.

Getting the heat we need from electricity, whether it be through direct heat or through a heat pump system does offer some sustainability here in Manitoba, where our electricity is hydro generated. However our supply of electricity is dependent on the flow of water through the Lake Winnipeg system, and who knows what impact climate change will have on that. Furthermore, we now know that building dams in northern Manitoba has an impact on the environment and the people there that has not been considered by Manitoba Hydro.