Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Everyone need to get a hold of a copy of this movie!

Suburbia, our reliance on energy, and peak oil. Also give a view on the "bigger picture" drop in oil supply doesn't just mean no petrol, it hearlds an almost total collapse of society due to it having been built around "limitless" energy supplies.

I reached a great milestone tonight by watching a DVD powered completely from power collected from solar during today. I didn't get to see the end because the power ran out, but it was worth it. Everyone else didn't share as much excitement as I did though. You can match the satisfaction of using a clean energy source, the irony is it was The Matrix that I was watching. Fans will get it!

The Matrix a really good story of the second comeing of Jesus some say.

lol TimC that made my day. Kinda like the 'taste' of home grown veg compared to store purchased. I bet the DVD had a certain shimmer knowing it was home grown!

Well there was the interference as the batteries started to die and the inverter had troubles keeping the 240V going, but yes I was quite pleased. I only have 36AH of old batteries atm. Get 200AH on the weekend. That should do it.

was there spare capacity from the solar cells not able to be stored tim? how many watt/hrs can you get from the setup you used? (solar cells)

I only have 160/650 W up already, with only 36AH storage so a lot of it was wasted. An inverter has about 10-15% loss, plus the batteries were from an old UPS, so I think they might be buggered. I was maxing out the 300W inverter with a 200W TV & 80W DVD player.

Getting 8 x 26 AH batteries tonight, on special @ altronics...

I haven't seen it, but the reliance on energy for everything we do certainly worries me. I am hopeful that Peak Oil won't lead to a complete collapse of society.... hopefully it will be limited to a severe economic downturn (comparable to the immediate post-Soviet Russian experience).

There is an important (and worrying) difference between our Western society and Russia in the Post-Soviet period - Russians had extensive vegie gardens, so they rarely went hungry after the fall of the Soviet economic system. With the exception of strange people (such as my Aquaponics buddies), most people in Western society do not have a vegie garden..... so a downturn of post-Soviet proportions might leave a lot of people in trouble.

As for when Peak Oil will happen.... I think the economic indicators indicate sooner rather than later. A CSIRO study suggested that there might be a preliminary "Oil Shock" by 2010 (see page 11 of this report from the CSIRO Web site: http://www.bml.csiro.au/susnetnl/netwl62E.pdf ). Some authorities suggest even sooner. Hopefully it won't degenerate as far as some people are suggesting.

The US Dept of Energy commissioned 2 reports that outline how the worst of the collapse can be avoided:

The first report (dated 2005) is at the US Dept of Energy Web site:
http://www.netl.doe.gov/publications/ot ... g_NETL.pdf

A later update (dated Feb 2006) is at:
http://www.odac-info.org/bulletin/docum ... UMMARY.pdf

Some of the necessary actions are already being taken. It probably won't be enough to completely solve the problem - but hopefully it will be enough to avoid complete end-of-the-world collapse.

MMMM...

I've caused quite a stir with a few friends and end of suburbia!

Lost of research has come out of it. Apparently CUBA was areal life test case for peak oil, http://www.globalpublicmedia.com/articles/657

Very interesting

Steve

Excellent article Steve... Some amazing facts towards the end about how well they are doing in relation to other countries, as well as now compared with before when they were supposedly better off..

Thanks

no worries!

That vid messed with my mind a bit! I have no radio in the car, which gives me far too much time to think when i'm averaging 100+ kms per day. Every where i look, and everthing i see, i think "nup, that'll be gone" "nup, they won't be doing that" its surprising how CRITICAL oil and thus energy is to the society we have created. One of the manufacturing plants i wnet to today had a gas meter the size of a small car "nope, won't be making that any more"

Great article Steve! Given a choice between community action and Mad Max, I'll take community action every time!