
How I Gave Up Alternating Current - ropiku
http://robrhinehart.com/?p=1331
======
luso_brazilian
The author seems to be conflating two different things in his choice of
lifestyle under the same umbrella, one being energy conservation and the other
a form of secular asceticism with the purpose of saving time and reducing life
complexity.

Some of his more controversial choices (based on the comments in this article)
reflect more the later than the former.

It is possible both to prepare (delicious) meals using barely no electricity
(and even without burning any fuel), to do the laundry by hand using nothing
but water and soap and to dry it at the clothesline. The drawback is that
those are very time consuming tasks.

The choice to eat only Soylent and to buy cheap clothes for single use seem to
be motivated more by the desire to save time than by the idea of conserving
energy.

Both are worthy goals, to save time and energy but IMO it is very important to
know how to strike a balance between efficiency and enjoyment. Otherwise we
become the very robots we are trying not to be.

~~~
ChuckMcM
I was thinking the same things. When camping we use a simple water agitator to
wash clothes, and we can bake bread in the noon day sun and a solar oven. But
it does take time, but if that is how you choose to spend it (as we do while
camping) then its great.

------
justinph
Interesting, but it seems like a lot of the lifestyle choices are just pushing
the carbon/climate impact to someone else where the author doesn't have to
think about it.

Getting custom clothes made in china and shipped frequently is certainly far
less environmentally friendly than simply re-using the clothes you already
have.

Taking an uber still burns gasoline. A bike would be better.

~~~
david-given
Hmm.

A washing machine consumes about 100Wh == 360kJ for a load (ref:
[http://www.rpc.com.au/information/faq/power-
consumption/wash...](http://www.rpc.com.au/information/faq/power-
consumption/washing-machines.html)).

The Emma Mearsk, one of the largest container ships around, uses 13 tonnes of
fuel an hour to transport 18000 containers, over a distance of (say) 20000
kilometres, which is 1kg of fuel to transport one container 45km (according to
Wikipedia:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_efficiency_in_transport...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_efficiency_in_transportation#Ships)),
or 450kg for the whole distance.

A 7.5kg washing machine load occupies about 0.00025 of a container, so the
fuel requirement to transport that washing machine load is 0.1kg.

The ship's engines use 0.163kg of fuel to generate one kWh, so the energy
consumption for just the transport of our washing machine load is 0.6kWh, or
2200kJ.

360kJ of USA residential electricity will cost about $0.015. (Pulled randomly
from:
[http://www.eia.gov/electricity/monthly/epm_table_grapher.cfm...](http://www.eia.gov/electricity/monthly/epm_table_grapher.cfm?t=epmt_5_6_a))

0.16kg of heavy fuel oil in Singapore will cost $0.05. (From:
[http://shipandbunker.com/prices/apac/sea/sg-sin-
singapore#IF...](http://shipandbunker.com/prices/apac/sea/sg-sin-
singapore#IFO380))

This is, of course, horribly simplified --- e.g. I'm not calculating the cost
of washing water, or transport from the container port to the owner's house
--- it does at least show that big ship shipping is really, really cheap.
While I still think the original author is wrong, they are at least
_plausibly_ wrong.

~~~
dragontamer
Shipping is always surprisingly cheap.

But manufacturing new clothes every time you need new clothes? In China, land
of the "who cares about the EPA" coal-laden environmental almost-slave-labor
disaster?

Built from synthetics (which are Petroleum-derived) ?

To add insult to injury, he talks about injuries / deaths from HEPPA-regulated
American Power Plants without giving a damn about the suicide nets placed
outside of Chinese Sweatshops that builds his clothes because he's too lazy to
wash them.

~~~
david-given
I don't know, how much energy _does_ making clothes in China consume? You're
more than welcome to go find out and let us know...

~~~
dragontamer
My post was less about the energy usage and more about the Sweatshop workers's
working conditions.

He seems concerned about highly-paid Energy Workers in the US who are required
(by law) to have safe working conditions (or at least, safe as defined by the
law. People still die on the job but at least we try to keep them safe).

And then he turns around and brags about using cheap Chinese workers to sew
him new clothes every week. Hypocrisy at its finest.

~~~
david-given
So what _are_ the relative safety rates of textile workers in China vs energy
workers in the US? I would be genuinely interested to know.

~~~
dragontamer
[http://www.theguardian.com/business/2005/apr/14/ethicalbusin...](http://www.theguardian.com/business/2005/apr/14/ethicalbusiness.money)

> Between 25% and 50% of the factories in the region restrict access to
> toilets and drinking water during the workday.

> The same percentage deny workers at least one day off in seven.

> In more than half of Nike's factories, the report said, employees worked
> more than 60 hours a week. In up to 25%, workers refusing to do overtime
> were punished.

Gotta keep those margins. You aren't allowed water because that'd cost the
company too much.

[http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1285980/Revealed-
Ins...](http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1285980/Revealed-Inside-
Chinese-suicide-sweatshop-workers-toil-34-hour-shifts-make-iPod.html)

> Steel wire meshes have been fitted to windows at Foxconn's factory to stop
> workers jumping after a rash of suicides believed to be due to harsh
> management practices

\-------------------

The worst issue is that Chinese media restricts free speech and labor unions,
making it hard to gather statistics of any kind.

In the US, we are required by law to report injuries and accidents on the job.
China... not so. And since these injuries are embarrassing to state-owned
companies, government censorship exists to cover-up these sorts of accidents a
lot. Non-government organizations are subject to crackdowns of course.

When a country doesn't have labor unions fighting for workers rights, these
sorts of issues happen.

>> “I work on the plastic molding machine from 6 in the morning to 6 at
night,” said Xu Wenquan, a tiny, baby-faced 16-year-old whose hands were
covered with blisters. Asked what had happened to his hands, he replied, the
machines are “quite hot, so I’ve burned my hands.”

------
pavel_lishin
> _I have not done laundry in years. I get my clothing custom made in China
> for prices you would not believe and have new ones regularly shipped to me.
> Shipping is a problem. I wish container ships had nuclear engines but it’s
> still much more efficient and convenient than retail. Thanks to synthetic
> fabrics it takes less water to make my clothes than it would to wash them_

I'd like someone to run some more numbers on that. He already addresses the
shipping costs, but what about manufacturing as well? I'm not entirely sure I
buy that the _entire_ manufacturing process takes less water than laundry,
unless he's wearing the same clothes for a very long time before donating
them.

~~~
danielweber
It's crazy. If you were really committed to not using AC, you could still put
some bleach + detergent + cold water in a basin with your clothes to manually
agitate, and then air dry.

~~~
mortenjorck
You can do even better than that. For $129, you can get a pedal-powered mini
washing machine: [http://www.gizmag.com/yirego-drumi-foot-powered-
washer/37586...](http://www.gizmag.com/yirego-drumi-foot-powered-
washer/37586/)

------
wklauss
I have long wanted to fully switch to DC in my life and would love to see
common appliances designed for a DC world. It's a shame that the opportunity
to discuss this is lost in this post because of the pedantic tone of the
author.

Phrases like "I think it was a bit presumptuous for the architect to assume I
wanted a kitchen with my apartment and make me pay for it" or "I don’t want to
live with red hot heating elements and razor sharp knives. That sounds like a
torture chamber" are ridiculous, even if you really try hard to see them as an
attempt of making a joke. The continuous references about how many books he
has and reads also threw me off.

The best part, so far, is the first Discus comment at the bottom.

~~~
teamonkey
Just what practical options are currently available? With roof-mounted solar
panels becoming commonplace (at least where I live) it seems like 12V DC is a
practical target, but it irks me that it gets converted to AC before being
reconverted back to DC by a wall wart a few meters away.

~~~
wklauss
That's the problem, there are not many (some fridges designed to be operated
from car plugs, camping gear, things like that) and often is just an appliance
that has a converter inside, so it is as inefficient as you'd expect. Not sure
if there's a way to design stoves, fridges, ovens and washing machines
powerful enough just using DC, though.

~~~
mindslight
For stoves/ovens, just up it to 240V DC. They're just big resistors and will
work basically the same (although mechanical power switches will wear out
quicker, and now that I think more, triac-based ones may not turn off at all).

Things could get really interesting if say the EU started incorporating a
requirement for things that should essentially run fine on DC to compatible
with DC. Universal power supplies (computers, phone chargers, etc) and
brushless motors (washing machines) should really only require tweaks of their
control circuits. AC motors (fridges/dryers/air conditioners) and microwaves
wouldn't be an easy change. They'd either need a local converter or for demand
to ramp up for explicit DC versions.

Standby power supplies (the thing that powers the IR receiver and power button
while your TV is "off") wouldn't function as-is, since the common method is to
use a capacitor+zener across the power line. But changing that to a rectifier
+ small switcher doesn't seem terribly onerous.

------
fnordfnordfnord
Is this for serious? It reads almost like a troll post.

>I was electrocuted by exposed house wiring as a boy.

No, he was shocked. Electrocution means death.

> I use a butane stove. It is much cheaper and more energy efficient than a
> Keurig

I doubt that small parcels of butane are cheaper than any electric coffee
maker. If he wants to optimize this he needs to look at a rocket stove and a
high efficiency pot. [http://www.wired.com/2014/07/a-jet-engineer-designs-a-
saucep...](http://www.wired.com/2014/07/a-jet-engineer-designs-a-saucepan-
that-heats-up-super-fast/)

>First, I never cook.

Good for him, I guess. That's not a reasonable solution for most people
though.

>Next, I switched from beer to red wine.

I'm a little surprised that he doesn't make his own. It's very easy and cheap
to make red wine.

>most of them are Priuses which use DC motors so I’m good there

No, they don't, and I'm starting to think he's got a fixation on the names of
things.

>I get my clothing custom made in China for prices you would not believe and
have new ones regularly shipped to me.

Okay, this is not about reducing waste anymore, there are few things more
wasteful than the global clothing/fashion supply chain. I'd bet he gives his
used clothing to a thrift... yup. Those clothes get, wait for it, laundered,
and then probably baled up and shipped to Africa or Haiti destroying local
clothing manufacturing in those areas.

>My apartment came with a Nest but I removed it

He could have just switched it off.

>Traffic and trash and pollution will evaporate,

Nope, just displaced to Asia. Okay, I'm done with Rhinehart's post now, and I
can see that most everyone else is as well.

------
nickhalfasleep
He didn't give up AC, unless he has a magical perpetual-computing-motion EC2
node. This is feel good for a local minima.

------
54mf
"For storage a $65 lead acid automobile battery does the trick. It’s 12V so
can be charged directly from the solar panel, and holds 420Wh, way more than I
use in a day. That’s $0.15 / Wh so I don’t see why everyone is so excited
about Tesla charging $0.43 / Wh for the Powerwall, sans inverter and
installation."

I'm not smart enough to take this apart, but my gut tells me the best-in-class
engineers and (tens/hundreds of?) millions of dollars in R&D at Tesla aren't
going to be outwitted by Mr. I'm-Repulsed-By-The-Idea-Of-Kitchens. Anyone want
to take a swing?

~~~
soneil
Car batteries simply aren't designed for deep-discharge. It actually damages
(sulphates) them. They're designed to provide thousands of cycles at 2-5%
discharge. Using them for deep discharge, you're likely to see them
increasingly unusable (or at least, holding nowhere near the designed charge)
after 30-150 cycles.

So that 420Wh battery is most likely designed to actually provide about 21Wh.
Past that it's a good assumption it's lifespan is being degraded faster than
design.

To match a 7kW powerwall with these figures, he'd need roughly 350 such
batteries (nearly $23k) to stay within a 2-5% discharge cycle.

So his setup may be capable of delivering 420Wh cheap. Or it may be capable of
lasting 1-2000 cycles. But not both.

(Deep-discharge SLA are available. They're usually marketed as marine
batteries rather than car batteries. They'll survive such usage better - a
couple of years, rather than a couple of months in this scenario. But still
not tesla's claimed 5000 cycles.)

------
jhildings
>First, I never cook. I am all for self reliance but repeating the same labor
over and over for the sake of existence is the realm of robots.

Well then he does cooking wrong, he could also try to improve himself but in
the craft in itself but also add more creativity to it

~~~
tedks
Who the fuck wants to do that? Here are 10 things I could be doing besides
slaving over a stove (the seventh might surprise you):

1\. Reading hacker news

2\. Reading reddit

3\. Engaging with people engaging with my brand on Twitter

4\. Reviewing my productized consultancy analytics

5\. Reviewing my startup numbers and analytics

6\. Emailing brand leaders to gauge interest in new startup ideas

7\. Posting on hacker news

8\. Writing blog posts about the freedom provided from abandoning things like
laundry, cooking, cleaning, driving, and other mundane, bullshit tasks

9\. Meditating, which I do for 15 minutes daily to center myself spiritually
so that I can growth hack better. Growth hacking begins with personal growth.

10\. Appreciating the beautiful life I've cultivated for myself, surrounded by
dynamic people all focusing on the same beautiful goal as myself.

Cooking is boring and takes way too much skill to do right. Moreover, it is
objectively unfun and isn't related to startups, technology, or growth hacking
in any way. Why would I waste time learning to cook when I could be learning
how to write single-page web apps in Haskell with the latest framework? Do you
even test your code?

~~~
jbondeson
It's sad that I had to get to bullet point 9 before I could tell if this was
satire...

~~~
tedks
Um, this isn't satirical. If you're not meditating, I really encourage you to
take it up -- you feel really refreshed and rededicated afterwards in a way
that makes development much more of a focused, mindful process and enables you
to hack your metrics for more of a lean, competitive edge. It's much like
static typing.

~~~
jmduke
You're either trolling or have quite rapidly changed your position on
meditation from two weeks ago:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9903525](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9903525)

 _> \- to meditate

....oh. I guess it's just a new age/woowoo thing. Time to move on I guess.
That's really disappointing.

\---

Really hope you remove meditation; hokey religions have no place in the modern
nudge-engineered world._

~~~
tedks
I quite rapidly change every position in my life. I don't even sit in my chair
the same way for long. If I don't find a good fit right away, I immediately
pivot to something that delivers more value.

~~~
tormeh
This is the funniest I've read in a long while.

------
CameronBanga
Fair confident this is all satire. Read his post on dating. Same vein of
humor, but more obviously a joke.

[http://robrhinehart.com/?p=1005](http://robrhinehart.com/?p=1005)

~~~
mortenjorck
Oh my goodness. I re-read the AC current one after reading the dating one, and
yeah, I'm pretty sure now that this one is just an even dryer, more
subversively satirical piece. There are probably real elements in it (likely
the author does use a solar-powered NUC as his dev machine), which are then
extrapolated ad absurdum.

------
mizzao
Lead-acid batteries can't be used effectively for energy storage, especially
not vanilla car batteries that are optimized for cranking amps but will only
last a few cycles of charging and discharging.

Generally, lead-acid batteries will sulfate at low levels of charge, which is
a hard-to-reverse reaction.

~~~
HNaTTY
Deep cycle lead-acid batteries are still the go-to battery for off-gridders.
They're recyclable and fairly affordable for the amount of energy storage.

He's not using a high-CCA battery, you can see the model of the battery behind
the window in the picture.

I hope this situation changes in 2016 because I'm tired of adding distilled
water.

------
joshdance
I gave up the article at the "I never cook" line.

~~~
afandian
It's a shame. You missed out on "I have not done laundry in years".

~~~
Glide
And that's where I stopped.

I can appreciate people who can run low powered devices. But new clothes? Just
run a washer and hang your clothes if you're in a dry climate. Then you
wouldn't even need to buy new clothes because you don't have a machine that
slowly turns clothes into lint.

~~~
sp332
If you're in a dry climate, it still seems like a bad idea to run a washer.
Since he seems to be OK with high shipping costs, he could send his clothes
somewhere that has more water to be washed.

~~~
CameronBanga
YC Winter 2015 idea: LaaS. Laundry as a Service.

I'll be valued at 15 billion from our initial SF/LA orders in no time.

~~~
sp332
You're way behind the times! [http://valleywag.gawker.com/silicon-valley-
gets-4th-on-deman...](http://valleywag.gawker.com/silicon-valley-gets-4th-on-
demand-laundry-startup-963298251)

"Our growth chart was just insane" [https://www.fastcompany.com/3045831/from-
hobby-to-start-up/t...](https://www.fastcompany.com/3045831/from-hobby-to-
start-up/this-startup-is-turning-military-smarts-and-your-dirty-underwear-
into)

"SF tech culture is focused on solving one problem: what is my mother no
longer doing for me?" [http://www.businessinsider.com/san-francisco-tech-
startups-r...](http://www.businessinsider.com/san-francisco-tech-startups-
replacing-mom-2015-5?op=1)

------
alextgordon
Reminds me of Shabbat lamps. Since observant Jews are forbidden from using
electricity ("starting fires") on Saturdays, what they do is turn on the lamp
_on Friday_ and just keep it on the entire time.

That way they're not using any electricity.

~~~
sp332
It isn't about using or saving electricity. It's about not doing work. I'm a
Protestant Christian and I know that.

~~~
mynameisvlad
That's not true at all. The translation is "Ye shall kindle no fire throughout
your habitations upon the sabbath day." Literally, you cannot light fires
(which many have extended to electricity use). Nothing about work involved at
all.

------
Azew
> Even in less temperate locales I wonder if we really need to define our
> environment to within single degree Fahrenheit.

Hey, sure, tell that to everyone in the northern states, no need for heat
right? I mean when it's 10°F outside you can just shut the windows and be nice
and warm, right?

~~~
dalke
The Passivhaus method was influenced by the Saskatchewan Conservation house
project. Quoting from [http://esask.uregina.ca/entry/energy-
efficient_houses.html](http://esask.uregina.ca/entry/energy-
efficient_houses.html) :

> It had no furnace; instead, the house was heated with a solar heating system
> designed specifically for Saskatchewan’s extreme Climate.

------
MurMan
This guy is going to be really sad when he learns that the dc-dc converters in
most of his devices are actually dc-ac-dc converters. Evil ac must be purged.

------
davis_m
> Even in less temperate locales I wonder if we really need to define our
> environment to within single degree Fahrenheit. I am not so controlling, but
> I do want to take back the rooftops from those horrible HVAC units.

I understand that the temperature is usually pretty nice in LA, but here in
Iowa temperature control isn't an issue of defining our environment to within
a single degree Fahrenheit, it is an issue of defining out environment into a
livable temperature. Heck, most people I know have up to a ten degree delta
between what they keep their home at in summer vs. winter.

However, without temperature control at all in Iowa, people would die. Sub-
zero temperatures in the winter and above 100 degree heat in the summer are
not mild inconveniences.

------
javery
I am curious about the custom clothes made in China, how much are they and how
often does he have to buy them to never have to do laundry.

~~~
athenot
I guess the author is also comfortable with wearing new clothes without
washing them. Personally, I wash most clothes before wearing them (except for
outerwear).

Also, the author clearly does not have a baby—or keeps his/her baby naked at
all times… :)

------
tcpekin
>I have not set foot in a grocery store in years. Nevermore will I bumble
through endless confusing aisles like a pack-donkey searching for feed while
the smell of rotting flesh fills my nostrils and fluorescent lights sear my
eyeballs and sappy love songs torture my ears. Grocery shopping is a
multisensory living nightmare. There are services that will make someone else
do it for me but I cannot in good conscience force a fellow soul through this
gauntlet.

>I buy my staple food online like a civilized person.

I'm not sure if going to the grocery store could ever be described as a
multisensory living nightmare.

> I think it was a bit presumptuous for the architect to assume I wanted a
> kitchen with my apartment and make me pay for it. My home is a place of
> peace. I don’t want to live with red hot heating elements and razor sharp
> knives. That sounds like a torture chamber. However, it’s not a total loss.
> I was able to use the cabinets to store part of my book collection.

Or a kitchen as a torture chamber. This guy seems kinda nutty.

------
mdekkers
"Nevermore will I bumble through endless confusing aisles like a pack-donkey
searching for feed while the smell of rotting flesh fills my nostrils and
fluorescent lights sear my eyeballs and sappy love songs torture my ears."

Author needs to cheer the fuck up - his life sounds like a chore...

------
AnkhMorporkian
A better headline would be "How I push all my carbon footprint to other people
to make myself feel good."

~~~
danielweber
And by putting it in a place where he can't see it, he _has no idea_ how much
environmental damage he's doing.

Restaurants don't give a shit about reducing their carbon footprint. And those
Chinese clothing manufacturers probably aren't even constrained by local laws
about what they dump into the air and soil in making all his new clothes.

------
Demiurge
I was hoping this another article about how a building was switched from AC to
lower voltage DC.

------
zekevermillion
Man, I aspire to that level of efficiency though probably could not reach it
since I enjoy cooking and eating dead meat too much. I do think there are huge
benefits to simplifying life, and relying less on all these time-consuming
habits domesticated humans have invented. Even if we can easily afford to pay
for big box groceries, and coal power, not relying on these things might free
up a lot of mental space I would imagine.

------
Stratoscope
> I can feel the searing pain and loss of consciousness from when I was
> electrocuted by exposed house wiring as a boy.

Since he is dead, was this article ghost-written?

------
lotsofcows
This reminds me of Thoreau's Walden: If I pass off most of my needs to others,
I need very little. Now, where's my high horse?

------
newman314
I'm flabbergasted at the cognitive dissonance displayed in this article.

This is everything that is wrong with the echo chamber that is the Silicon
Valley. The hubris etc.

The sad thing is Rob in all likelihood believes whole-heartedly in what he has
written and all dissenting opinions as people that just "don't get it".

------
pbreit
The guy is basically right about both Soylent and this energy thing and yet
elicits so many haters. What gives?

Sure, you don't have to live like he does. But I find it pretty interesting
and actually sort of wish I was in a position to try it out (sans family).

------
chermanowicz
With no friends, no spouse, no girl/boyfriend, no kids, no pets, my life is
considerably simpler, lighter and cleaner than before.

------
mchanson
I think this is the best thing I've ever read from Hacker News. My favorite is
his eviscerating the kitchen as a terrible place.

------
ForHackernews
Is this a parody?

~~~
seren
This is from the founder of Soylent[0], so likely not.

While some ideas are delusional, it is refreshing to see someone taking
nothing for granted.

I also suspect the timing of the post is there only to generate discussion at
the time of Soylent 2.0 release. So it is basically a link bait trying to push
people hot buttons. It works superbly.

Moreover, beyond Soylent, Rob's next startup is probably somewhere in there.

[0] [https://www.soylent.com/](https://www.soylent.com/)

~~~
colinbartlett
Okay that explains a lot, thank you.

The article mentioned Soylent 2.0 several times so I searched and found hours-
old news articles about it, and become very skeptical that this whole thing
wasn't just a big ad for Soylent 2.0.

~~~
tedks
As the creator of Soylent, Rob has probably had access to 2.0 for many years
now. It's well known the military keeps civilian Soylent technology years
behind what they're using.

------
kenOfYugen
It appears that nootropics turn software engineers into narrow minded robots
;)

------
condescendence
As another user hinted at, this article is completely back-asswards.

>I have not done laundry in years. I get my clothing custom made in China for
prices you would not believe and have new ones regularly shipped to me.
Shipping is a problem. I wish container ships had nuclear engines but it’s
still much more efficient and convenient than retail. Thanks to synthetic
fabrics it takes less water to make my clothes than it would to wash them

>Thanks to synthetic fabrics it takes less water to make my clothes than it
would to wash them

>Thanks to synthetic fabrics it takes less water to make my clothes than it
would to wash them

I had to double post this again just to make sure everyone read that line
correctly. What argument are you even trying to make anymore? You use less
water? Weren't we just talking about energy? What hipster madness is this? How
about the amount of coal that is being burned to make your 'custom' clothes. I
am 100% sure that the process of getting water and electricity to your house
is less environment killing than getting new things made from factories that
have zero regulations, and fuck everything let's just get some money in my
pocket strategies.

You haven't done anything but say "okay let's see my most carbon producing
areas are," and your only solutions are "let's see if someone else can help me
reduce my carbon by taking the responsibility off of my own shoulders"

This was absolutely craptastic.

~~~
ovulator
When I got to the washing part (I skipped over the Soylent part because I
assumed it was just a paid advertisement), I expected him to talk about using
a washing board or something.

No, I just buy new clothes. So instead of using a little energy for a spin
cycle, I have factories in China spew coal, then have shipping freights (some
of the worst environmental offenders) bring it half way across the world for
me so I can wear it once, then presumably add it to the land fill.

~~~
shawabawa3
> then presumably add it to the land fill.

He said he donates it, so presumably some charity ends up footing the bill for
his laundry

~~~
bradleyland
The land fill presumption is still the safest bet.

The author said that he doesn't wash his clothes. By this we can infer that he
brings his dirty laundry — for who knows how long — to a donation facility.
I've volunteered at enough non-profit donation facilities to know that they
don't launder intake. The expense is too high, and amazingly, _most_ people
don't bring in dirty clothes. If something is clearly not clean, it goes in to
a separate bin for disposal.

~~~
hexagonc
Even if it doesn't go the landfill immediately, you're still talking about a
lot more clothes that will _eventually_ have to be disposed of. Unless you
assume that all the extra dozens of shirts and pants (shorts?) and underwear
that he buys would have been manufactured and eventually disposed of anyway.
Hard to see that being true.

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jefurii
All the extreme reactions against Soylent used to amuse and mystify me. Now I
understand they must have really been reacting to his blog. Weird.

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AJJB
how do you heat up water for showers? this is what uses the most electricity,
if you don't need to use it to heat your home.

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GBond
Can't tell if satire or not.

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jkot
> _Power generation produces 32% of all greenhouse gases_

Water is also greenhouse gas...

Anyway nice island setup, for my taste it is too small. I would add a few
square meters and perhaps a generator for doing laundry.

And good luck with your diet.

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mrbig4545
sorry, but I can't take someone who doesn't cook because soylent is more
efficient seriously.

edit: ah, he's the creator of soylent. even less reason to take his seriously.
humans are not supposed to live off a drink. I've always assumed it was a joke
product, but I'm begining to realise that unfortunately it's not.

Still, he can drink his algea, and I'll keep eating what I eat. Each to their
own

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sandworm101
Reading this article I half expected the author to forgo vaccines to reduce
his water consumption.

This is a hypocritical lifestyle through which the author outsources energy
consumption so that he can live a falsely monastic life. A true monk reduces
life to essentials but by doing so ends up performing much more daily work.
They don't stand around all day enjoying how much less effort it takes to live
the simple life. They take on the responsibility of meeting their own needs,
usually through physical effort or toil, rather than lay those tasks on
others.

This guy is a tourist spouting off about his low-energy hotel while sitting in
the first class cabin of a 747. He's not flying the plane. HIS ticket is paid
for with eco-bitcoins. We all are the ones killing the planet with our
wasteful battery-powered watches.

PS: I hope he has a fuse or two somewhere on that rig. Electrons in
combination with lead blocks swimming in acid are not your friends. But maybe
he has outsourced that risk via renter's insurance.

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dragontamer
So he eats out all the time to "save money" because he's too lazy to learn how
to cook himself. He buys new clothes all the time because washing old clothes
is wasteful.

How is this getting upvoted at all?

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pinaceae
this and the Ustream debacle points to a16z being in the snakeoil business,
backing weirdos with massive money. and if this is true for these clear cut
cases of BS, what does it mean for their overall method of investing?

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EC1
He's obviously taking the piss.

