Ethanol in the kitchen?

[Parisle]

--- I raised this notion somewhat semi-seriously in the "Ethanol Hoax" post by marmar,... but the more I think about it, the more I think it might have its place in the way we cope with energy scarcity in the future. I was talking about cooking with alcohol stoves.

--- Campers and boaters are familiar with them. They don't burn very hot, that's for sure. A backpacker's "standard" for a good little alcohol stove would be to boil 2 cups of water in five minutes or less. But that's a tiny burner the size of a tuna can (and it often IS a tuna can). Technology has not really addressed the challenge of effectively putting alcohol fuel in the kitchen,... if only at least for lower intensity warming and cooking,.. but I imagine that the tweaks and modifications are there if anyone should choose to explore them. I'm also picturing an "array" of burner heads which would largely negate the "cool heat" problem. I think it can be done.

--- And for this application, production capacity is not a problem. Sure, we can't expect to make fifty gallons of ethanol per week for every family vehicle in America,.... but one gallon per household doesn't seem so unattainable. Multi-technology would still prevail,... you'd still have a couple of electric or gas burners,...microwave, etc. But the alcohol burners could sure take a strain off those 60-amp electric ranges or costly natural gas. It IS renewable. It DOES help launch new industry and new employment. And if a bit of lifestyle change is required, why then I'm OK with that, too. After a hurricane a couple of years ago, I cooked with Sterno for eight days,.. made a couple of gourmet meals,.. it just took a little longer. We can stand to slow down a bit.

[Warpy]

1. Slow down?

Like working fewer hours out of the home so more time could be spent cooking meals? Most people are so rushed they're keeping fast food joints in business by ordering out three or four times a week.

I'm afraid we'll need more than someone telling us to slow down to make alcohol a viable alternative to gas and electricity.

[Parisle]

2. Agreed,.... the "take-out" mania is insanity.

--- I have friends who barely make their mortgage payments each month, but who routinely spend over a hundred bucks per week on that kind of convenience dining,.. and don't even realize what they're doing. But we're not talking "hours" here,.... an average homecooked meal might take ten minutes longer. And it won't come about as a result of me or anyone else "suggesting" it,.... Peak Oil should take care of that angle for us.

[Warpy]

3. Home cooking takes a whole lot longer than that

because it requires planning, shopping, prep work, cooking time, and clean up. Maintenance of tools from knives to cookware to stoves to the fridge also has to be taken into account. Cooking means wear and tear.

Some people really are incapable of or unwilling to make that kind of time committment when they're working 50+ hours per week, about average now, plus doing long commutes.

[Parisle]

4. Believe me,... I'm all too aware of the phenomenon you describe

--- And it makes me sick, Warpy. But the folks who are blowing money by taking home prepared meals (or fast food) probably aren't doing so because "homecooking" takes, say 30 minutes instead of 15. They just flat out don't want to do it at all. Your argument is completely true,.. but I don't think it matters much to the energy issue for folks who DO cook at home. Retired people, especially, might have good economic reason AND plenty of time to adapt to ethanol cooking.