Principle: lighter, simpler, less work

This post is part of a series on the principles of energy reduction.


Simple systems, that do less, and cause fewer changes from their natural state, use less energy.

Consequences

This is another argument against motor cars. Cars are

• large and heavy: compare the weight of the car with the typical weight of their occupants and cargo,
• complicated: these days, cars are not really serviceable or fixable -- replacement parts are ordered from the manufacturer and the original is thrown away

Similarly, air-conditioning is so expensive because it is artificially maintaining a space at a temperature different from its environment, which requires a lot of work.

Another way of expressing this idea is that human-built systems should work with, instead of against, natural systems as much as possible.


This post was written by Angus Wallace, and first appeared on guesstimatedapproximations.blogspot.com