Ruminations on energy efficiency, hedonism, and beer

Aweh dearly beloved fellow ruminants & groupies

This week I am back on the topic of energy and electricity and how this applies to cold beer and hedonism. In 2010, back in the days when there was much more reliable and cheap electricity, I made a hedonistic purchase when we moved into our current house. It had always been my wish to have a bar fridge in our house stocked with cold beer so that if I wanted a cold beer at 03h00 on a Monday morning or any other random time there would be cold beer. Haven’t had a beer at 03h00 yet but I can. Despite any rumours you may have heard to the contrary I do not drink that many beers, some weeks none, and on a good week three or four mainly over the weekend. I have developed a fondness for Mad Giant Indian pale ale which is a craft beer brewed in central Johannesburg. It is delivered in crates of 12 in recyclable glass bottles on Thursday ready for the weekend. Hedonistic bliss. Surprisingly, my two adult sons, Oliver and Connor have also discovered the fridge and have been known to help themselves to a beer or three. Is continuous access to quality cold-free beer a basic human right? I will be making submissions to the United Nations requesting that this be added to the sustainable development goals. Perhaps it also needs to be added to the constitution.

Now that I am teaching sustainability and becoming more conscious of my environmental footprint, I have done some rumination regarding what my hedonism has done for my carbon footprint. In South Africa, most of our electricity comes from burning coal so my cold beer fetish causes carbon emissions.

Now I need to do some nerdy stuff regarding energy efficiency and how you calculate that and this week I am even going to resort to having to use an equation. Fortunately, it is not a very complicated equation and even a lawyer might be able to understand it. So here is the equation for energy efficiency and how it applies to my bar fridge.

Overall Energy Efficiency = E₁xE₂xE₃xE₄xE₅

E₁: The efficiency of converting the fuel from the source (coal in the ground) into primary coal energy delivered for use. About 95%

E₂: The efficiency of converting coal energy into secondary energy, electricity. About 33%

E₃: The distribution efficiency of delivering the electricity from the power station to my house. About 95%

E₄: The end-use efficiency of converting the delivered electricity to cold beer. About 300% because it is a heat pump that has efficiencies higher than 100%. Perhaps I need to give more thought to this one. I look forward to corrections from my readers.

E₅: The hedonistic efficiency of converting delivered energy services into human welfare. What can I say? How much welfare has my bar fridge delivered to me? Let’s say 100%.

Now you need to multiply all these numbers together and you get 89%. Not too bad. The hedonistic efficiency which is related to human behaviour has traditionally received little attention or critical thought and has a large multiplicative effect. Do I really need cold beer 24/7? If I were good at planning or not impulsive I could switch on my bar fridge a few hours before drinking a beer and reduce my carbon footprint. Unfortunately, I’m impulsive and I suck at planning. What about the spontaneous beer at 03h00 if a friend pops around?

My bar fridge consumes about 85W of electricity and runs for about 8 hours a day. So, it only uses about 20 kWhr of electricity a month. This is just over 2% of a 900 kWhr monthly consumption. This works out to roughly 290 kg of CO₂ emitted per year for cold beer. If energy is cheap and abundant there are no limits to human hedonism, needs, and wants. I confess we also have a wine fridge.

Is cold beer a climate sin? Fortunately, for those who can afford it, if you install a solar electricity system in your house you can drastically reduce your cold beer carbon footprint. I am happy to report that our solar installation is almost complete, and my bar fridge is now being powered mainly by the sun except perhaps when it rains for a few days. Now I no longer need to feel guilty about my hedonism except when it rains. Virtue signalling is in order.

What about people who can’t afford solar systems? In England, they serve warm flat beer. Perhaps cold beer should only be allowed for those who can afford solar systems. Maybe there could be an advertising campaign about how warm flat beer isn’t so bad.

By far the cheapest way for us to reduce our carbon emissions is to become more conscious of our consumption, hedonism, and what we really need. What is your carbon footprint and what is causing it? What do you really need and what could you easily change without affecting your life too much? There are those who might see the opportunity for more government regulation here. Certainly, in the case of South Africa a government that tried to regulate the sale of hot chickens and T-shirts during the Covid-19 lockdown cannot be trusted with regulatory intervention. Across the world, too much regulatory intervention which could directly impact your lifestyle is not likely to work in a democracy.

Will human behaviour and hedonism change voluntarily in the interests of carbon emissions reduction? Of course not. Cold beer will rule, except perhaps in England.

Thank you for all the ideas and comments. I really appreciate them and please keep them coming.

Regards

Bruce