Energy plants need to be efficient, it’s how they make profit. They also contain at least some effort at reducing emissions. Typical home stove were inefficient. Kerosene (paraffin in the UK) lamps? They _needed_ to be inefficient to make visible light (Aladdins and Colemans being a pricy exception)

How much energy went into distributing coal to houses and picking up the ash?

How dirty was urban life like in the coal furnace era? How many houses burned when a kerosene lantern was knocked over or a gas lamp blew out?

Ever used a Coleman clothes iron?

Nope, even for non-renewable distributed energy production is a big win economically and environmentally.

But much like the days in which they had to promote electricity, the country folk just don’t seem to have realised how important it is! Many of them are persisting without it!

This is the house with fast internet,
That I really wish you’d rush out and get.
I know you prefer outside to go,
But there’s tons of porn, and no one need know.

There are parts of the USA now where it is now cheaper (and maybe more efficient) to generate your own power on your own property, but only if you keep your system tied into the power grid in order to take advantage of the fluctuations in power supply and demand.

Completely separating your house’s power system from the grid is generally inefficient, and a waste of money and energy.

How that energy is generated in the first place is another question, but I’ll bet however it’s done now, it’s cleaner than running a wood stove in your kitchen. :)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sennir/454608924/

The benefits of easy energy and our screwed-up relationship with it are kind of a paradox. Obviously, electricity is a good thing. Don’t mean to imply that it isn’t. But, at the same time, it’s so easy that we forgot to pay attention to the downsides of the technology. The tech isn’t bad, you just can’t run around pretending that it’s perfect. Does that make sense?

I’m optimistic about optimism. I wish more people would join me.

DO NOT TAUNT EDISON ELECTRIC HAPPY FUN LIGHT
What a great reminder of when today’s intuitive technology wasn’t. :)

ASIFA Animation Archive:

I, too, am optimistic about optimism. So much so, that I may turn this into a T-shirt.

Interestingly, even the Wisconsin Historical Society (who really should know better) asserts copyright on this 1916 document. (No permalink possible due to *shudder* frames, but click “go” next to “document description.”)

The historical ignorance here is nothing short of appalling. Compared to the misery and filth of the early 20th century, every Edenic promise that pamphlet made has absolutely come true without requiring a trace of irony. You are more than welcome to turn up your greenie snoot at any aspect of modern society if you wish, but as you do so please take the time to frankly consider how far we’ve come.

Remind anyone else of the campaign to get people to wear seatbelts? “Click it, or Ticket”

Somethings really don’t change.

Electromechanical vibrators were first used in medicine in 1878 and were available as a consumer product by 1900. The vibrator was the 5th home appliance to be electrified. It was preceded by the sewing machine, fan, teakettle, and the toaster. It would be another ten years before the electric vacuum, iron, and frying pan became available as consumer products.

The dawn of a disconnect
between cause and effect.

My grandparents were a big influence on my life. They turned off lights like crazy, never bought a car that wasn’t at least three years old, and the biggest party they ever had for my parents and siblings was not a wedding, not a graduation…but the day my mom and dad burned their mortgage.

This upbringing has stood me in good stead while many of my friends and neighbors spent hundreds of thousands they didn’t have.

Woody Guthrie was commissioned by the Bonneville Power Authority to write songs about the electrification of the Northwest. “Grand Coulee Dam” is my favorite:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5vLZOKshJPs