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Comment by guerrilla | Hacker News Reader

> "energy crisis" and the upcoming winter,

Why do you put that in quotes?

> I've seen videos advertising magical electric heaters, which will "recycle" 85% of the energy used for heating and thus will save you lots of money. It's simple physics that warm air coming out at the front of such a device will be sucked in at its back again, but there's nothing to "recycle" here, to somehow save energy.

You sure they couldn't be talking about a heat pump which does have "above 100%" efficiency in a sense?

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> Why do you put that in quotes?

Because the "energy crisis" is actually a political crisis, i.e. the failure of governments to build enough alternate generators, like solar and wind power during the last decade or two.

> You sure they couldn't be talking about a heat pump [...]

I'm really sure, because the videos show people unpacking a small electrical heater after telling you that "a student" or "an engineer" developed this glorious device in their spare time, ... And last but not least because we built our house with a heat pump and heat exchanging ventilation[*] more than a decade ago, so I'm aware of the concepts.

[*] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plate_heat_exchanger

Edit: complete a sentence.

> Because the "energy crisis" is actually a political crisis, i.e. the failure of governments to build enough alternate generators, like solar and wind power during the last decade or two.

Aha, I see. A bit late for that now though, so now it's an energy crisis. I wish it were seen as a political crisis but pretty much everyone here just blames Russia and there aren't many (if any in some countries) consequences...

> I'm really sure, because the videos show people unpacking a small electrical heater after telling you that "a student" or "an engineer" developed this glorious device in their spare time, ...

Amazing that this shit is legal...

Certainly energy crisis is of political nature, but let's say Germany invested massively in the renewables. It's just not the best source of energy in most places in terms of return on investment. Not to mention the intermittency problem. If they just didn't close their nuclear reactors, Germany would be in much better position to weather off the crisis.

France and Germany recently agreed to help each other over the winter. While France will provide gas to Germany, Germany will provide electricity to France (the country with all these nuclear reactors ;-0)

https://www.business-standard.com/article/international/fran...

Regarding the "return on investment" nuclear power is way more expensive than other forms of energy, if you add the (hidden) cost of storage and disposal of nuclear waste. Which could have been known for a long time, cf.

The Hidden Costs of Nuclear Power (RICHARD W. ENGLAND, 1979) https://www.jstor.org/stable/40719811

The High and Hidden Costs of Nuclear Power -- An industry hooked on subsidies from governments (Henry Sokolski, 2010) https://www.hoover.org/research/high-and-hidden-costs-nuclea...

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