Our soon-to-be-junked Norseman oil-fired boiler

We are in the unusual position of having a nearly-full oil tank and only a few days to consume the oil in it. We have responded–not too responsibly–by cranking up the thermostat! But given the circumstances we don’t feel too guilty about turning our house, briefly, into a mini Alberta-tar-sands-style carbon emitter.

Next Tuesday, our low efficiency fuel-oil boiler will be replaced by a high efficiency natural-gas boiler. This boiler will also heat our domestic hot water. They will drain the oil tank, cut it up into pieces, dismantle the old boiler and take it all away, never to be seen again. Hooray! We anticipate that our total energy bill will be substantially reduced with this changeover.

I tried to find alternatives to moving from one really obnoxious hydro-carbon to one only slightly less obnoxious, but couldn’t find anything too appealing. Geothermal and solar were too expensive, hardwood pellets were not commonly available in our area. I didn’t want to lug firewood around (which I did when I was a kid but didn’t much enjoy).

Our old boiler had multiple deficiencies, including stinking up the place with its noxious fuel odours, eating through impressive amounts of cash during the cold winter months, and not having the capacity or efficiency to heat floors much higher than the basement.

It also had the annoying habit of popping off its damper flap regularly so it would become even stinkier and more menacing. At those times, when the flames of the old boiler were visible and the roar of combustion echoed through the room, our basement became like the boiler room of a mid 19th century battleship. It was a bit of Victoriana we could do without.

We saved money with this inefficient heating system by setting the programmable thermostat to low temperatures–to 17c (63f) during the night and 20c (68f) during the day. If we didn’t do this our fuel bill would be excessive during the winter. When the thermostat is set to these temperatures our second floor could be quite chilly, sometimes getting to 12c (54f) at night. Yikes! We soon got a bit tired of these uncomfortable, indoor winter temperatures.

Our main motivation for improving the heating system was that we wanted to be warm upstairs during the winter months. Reduction of our carbon footprint and fuel bills were also important considerations, but ultimately they became secondary to simple domestic comfort.

To us nothing spells poverty more than being freezing cold inside during the winter. I’m not saying we want to be excessively warm, just warm enough that we could conceivably do some work in a room without being under a duvet. Is that too much to ask?

Going to yet another non-carbon-neutral heating source was hard at first to accept. We intend to do penance for this by adding other green energy sources in future. These will likely include solar–our south-facing roof is ideal for this; hardwood pellets–they will eventually become common in our area, and normal firewood–there are lots of hardwood trees in this part of the world and efficient wood stoves are readily available. Heating with wood seems more sensible if it isn’t your primary heating source.

These, of course, would require additional investment in our creaky old house, but the payback in reduced carbon emissions and utility bills should make them worthwhile.

Fagor pressure cooker set

People might think that trading in their gas-guzzler for a Prius would be a good way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. However, there is a simpler and less expensive way of achieving similar reductions: eating less meat and using a pressure cooker to cook legumes.

Everyone knows that driving cars is bad for the environment, as is making oil out of tar sands and generating electricity using coal. Eating beef and other livestock is bad for greenhouse gas emissions because domesticated livestock eat a lot, belch a lot and create huge clouds of methane from their manure. They also degrade the land on which they graze and pollute water systems. Rearing cattle produces more greenhouse gases than driving cars, a UN report warns. Clearly, livestock are furry versions of the obnoxious SUV. It is time that people replace their meat with something more ecologically and nutritionally responsible.

One alternative to eating large quantities of meat is to eat legumes, a food category that includes beans, peas and lentils. It is what most of the world eats and what we in the West ate before we got on the bandwagon of eating unsustainable quantities of meat protein. Legumes are classic ingredients in any Diet for a Small Planet. Legumes can be bought in any middle-eastern food store for next to nothing and they are so colourful and beautiful you will want to keep them around just for decoration.

The problem with legumes is that they take a long time to cook — they usually require overnight soaking and then must be boiled on the stove, sometimes forever. This is inconvenient for many cooks, plus they can smell up your house. Solution: use a pressure cooker to cook them.

Modern pressure cookers are completely safe, relatively inexpensive and take only a short time to learn how to use. The advantages of a pressure cooker are many:

• They reduce cooking time
• They reduce energy used during cooking
• They increase the convenience of cooking dried, hard-to-cook foods such as legumes
• They ease dramatically the preparation of stocks and broths — essential ingredients in any good kitchen

I had to look all around the region to find where to buy them. I discovered that Macy’s in Buffalo — of all places — was the best and cheapest place for me to buy one. It may sound ridiculous but it was actually worthwhile for me to travel an hour each way and cross an international border to buy a pressure cooker set from Macy’s. Since then, I have discovered a basic eco-truth of which Al Gore or David Suzuki would be proud: every cook (even those with no interest in vegetarianism or legume-eating) should have a modern pressure cooker.

At first people ridiculed my theory of pressure cooking, sensing that it was yet another attempt to solve through gadgetry the burdens of helping to cook food for our family. That is until they witnessed the unholy speed in which I could convert an unimpressive pot of dried ingredients into a tasty pot of steaming stew or stock.

Note that pressure cookers are not slow-cookers. Pressure cookers use less energy while slow-cookers use more.

For those with the fear the their pressure cooker will blow up in their face you can be assured that modern pressure cookers appear to be foolproof (unless you are intent on creating an explosion). They have clever interlock mechanisms that prevent opening the pot when it is under pressure. The brand I bought was a Fagor, which is a Spanish company that I can highly recommend. They don’t make the most expensive cookers but also not the cheapest.

I would recommend stainless steel cookers over aluminium. Buying a new, modern one is preferable to resurrecting an older one.

Pressure cookers are not something you will use every meal, but I find I use it several times a week. I have been startled just how useful and basic a kitchen utensil it is.

In North America, choice is important. If you want breakfast cereal, then the consumer is given dozens of choices of cereal — all supposedly differentiated from one another. In the Aldi world, this pattern is reversed and consumers are given extremely limited choice. In many product categories, there is only one offering. For example, if you want a dark chocolate bar, then there may be only be one dark chocolate bar on offer. The brand of this chocolate may not be familiar to you but usually the quality would be comparable, or superior, to brand-name products.

Definition of the Aldi Idea

The Aldi idea is that when shopping for groceries you don’t need to have the choice of dozens of similar goods; all you want is one quality product of at a reasonable price. As a result of this restriction of consumer choice Aldi can discount their prices (and reduce their costs) substantially.

The amount of groceries we could buy for 50 euros at Aldi in Rotterdam was substantial. As a result, grocery shopping for many items at Aldi seemed much more affordable than here in Canada. However, at Aldi the quality of fresh produce was much less than what we find at Lococo’s (a local Hamilton grocer).

The Aldi approach to retailing:

• Shoppers don’t need a large choice within each product category; they just need one high-quality alternative at a reasonable price
• Excessive choice, when it comes to groceries, does not bring happiness or empowerment, it brings confusion and unhappiness. This aligns with what the sociologist Barry Schwartz calls the Paradox of Choice
• Brand-name products are no better than generic alternatives if the quality of the generics is equal or superior
• Shopping at a discount grocery store is acceptable to shoppers of various incomes if the quality of the goods is not compromised
• Rules of retailing common to North America can be completely reversed and yet still produce incredible profits for multinationals

Applying the Aldi Model to other areas

Here, More is Less

• Corn-puff cereals
• Formulaic pop songs
• Sitcoms involving blended families
• Cars on the road
• People living on earth

Areas where the Aldi Model works less well

Here, More is More (or, the more the merrier)

• Books, Ideas
• Consumers for your books and ideas
• Cool little shops in your neighbourhood
• Keys you can play the piano in
• Types of ethnic restaurants whose foods you enjoy

Quest Velomobile by Bluevelo.com

On Sept 19, 2009 the boys and I attended a gathering of the Human Powered Transportation Association (HPTA) at Reg Rodaro’s property near Niagara-on-the-Lake. Here we saw several velomobiles up-close, both hand-made and factory-built. The Toronto firm Bluevelo had an excellent showing of their wares. The crowd was extremely friendly and welcoming. We had to leave early but would have liked to have stuck around. In the brief time we were there I had several stimulating conversations, plus the barbecue scheduled later in the day looked very promising.

Velomobiles are fully enclosed bicycles, or more commonly tricycles. They solve two problems with cycling: getting wet and cold in bad weather, and falling over when you stop moving. Currently, they are still a bit of a fringe pursuit but I predict this will soon change, especially if they become a bit less expensive (they now cost about $7,500 CAD and up). Otherwise, they look and perform like something that many thousands would love to own. They are practical, green vehicles, especially in places with little snow and ice. Due to their aerodynamic shape, they make cycling much easier, especially at speeds over 25 kph. They require no license or insurance and are classified as bicycles in Canada.

The production costs of velomobiles would decrease if demand for them increased. If ten times as many people wanted them, then economies of scale would start to take over. Research and development in the human-powered transportation sector is important to giving this industry greater resources and industrial credibility. Governments should encourage such research. Another way to reduce costs is to support those interested in building kit bodies on top of factory-built recumbent trikes (which are more common than velomobiles).

Development of recumbent trikes (the inner workings of most velomobiles) is well advanced. It seems like it’s the bodies that need a bit of work (although the body on the Quest model by Velomobiel.nl is oh-so-gorgeous). Many of the technologies applicable in building kayaks are transferable to the building of bodies for velomobiles. Canada has a long history in the building of kayaks, and the velomobile market could conceivably be a larger market than that for kayaks. Kayak-building techniques such as molded fiberglass, Kevlar, skin-on-frame, and stitch-and-glue seem promising.

Possible business models for Velomobiles

• As mobile billboards: velomobiles generate considerable interest when driven around town: “Buy a velomobile. Lease out advertising on both sides <your web address here!> and cover the payments for the velomobile through advertising rents”
• As tourist attractions: “1 hour in a velomobile for only $25!”
• As amenities for green hotels: “Guests can ride our complimentary velomobile!”
• As attractions at street fairs: “See the amazing velomobile rodeo!”
• As basic, green transportation: “Carry all your groceries, laugh at the rain and smirk at the snow!”
• As an industry that might convince people that Canada actually has green aspirations: “Ontario, now with a velomobile industry second only to the Netherlands!”