| Energy Saving |
October 7, 2018
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| He was watching a TV show. It was a program in which a reporter introduces eccentric people, and how their lives differed from normal people's. He was attracted by one of the people who were introduced. She was in her 50s or 60s and lived in an apartment complex. The reporter, a young guy, said, "Today, I am here in a room on the fourth floor of an apartment complex. Hello Ms. XXXX" She said, "Hello. Thank you for coming." The reporter said, "It's a little hot in this room, isn't it?" The viewers saw that the window was open. She said, "In that case, please wait for a minute." She started to move to the next room saying, "Don't open the door, ok?" and shut it. The TV program turned to the live studio audience in which there were a host and several guests in it. One of the guests said, "This is like 'Repaying By The Crane'. 'Repaying By The Crane' was a famous fairy tale in this country: When a young guy was walking in the country side, he saw a crane trapped in a trap that a hunter set. He helped the crane to escape. One day a beautiful young woman came to his house and offered to live together. He, of course, agreed. She started to weave expensive kimonos and he became rich but he never saw how she  wove them because she told him not to open the door, so he only heard the weaving machine's sound. One day he couldn't control his curiosity and opened the door and saw a crane weaving using her own feathers ... Pretending to follow the story, the reporter opened the door and the camera zoomed in on the woman pedaling a bike. She realized that the camera was there and said, "Are you looking?" She wiped her sweat away with a towel and got off from the bike. She went to the corner where there were many car batteries and took a cord from one of them and moved to the living room and connected it to a fan and switched it on. The fan started to spin and shake. She led the reporter to the place where the electricity box was on the wall. She opened it. There were many cables that were cut in the middle. She started to explain why: After 2011's earthquake, she had been studying about how not to use electricity and gas. She lived in Fukushima. She started to experiment with how to manage without electricity and gas. She had tried various things. This year, when her son left home to be independent, she stopped the contracts to the electricity company and the gas company, and started her 'off-the-grid' energy life. The surprising part was that she had taken a license as an electrical chief engineer, so she was not a person who was doing it from the whim. Next, she demonstrated cooking. That was the highlight of the show. She didn't use an electric rice cooker or a gas stove for cooking. She set some aluminum plates to surround a steal pan that had a lid. She said that iron was the most heat conductive material. She showed the inside of the pan ~washed rice and water. Then she set another pan, this time the pan was covered with a plastic bag. She explained that this cover made the air inside hotter. He wondered why it wouldn't melt. He felt that she was a professional. She set a slice of salmon and raw egg in the pan. She also set up a cylinder shaped glass container that was about 5 cm in diameter and about 50 cm long. It was colored black. She hid what was inside. She explained that this solar cooker worked even in winter, and even cloudy days were also ok. One and a half hours later, she opened the pans. There were perfectly steamed rice, egg and salmon, and miso soup; inside the cylinder was the miso soup! The reporter tried some of the food, and seemed to enjoy them. She also introduced her 'natural refrigerator'. It was use of an unglazed ceramic pot. If water was in it, the water would slowly ooze out from the side surface of the pot, and it would cool the water inside. This phenomenon is called 'heat of vaporization'. She picked up a vegetable from it, and the reporter commented that it was cool. At the end of the program, the reporter told the audience how much money that she saved with her 'off-the-grid' setup. She saved enough that she went on a trip to several European countries using her this savings! "But ..." he thought, "Why doesn't she live in the country side?" If she moved to the country side, it would be cheaper to buy a second hand house and farm land and she could set up many solar panels and blades for wind mill power generation. She could even hook up hydroelectric power generation equipment to the nearest stream. She could dig a well for water. She could plant vegetables. Of course, city had many attractions and conveniences, but she didn't look that type. He remembered the one scene in the show that was in the courtyard of the apartments. She was teaching her neighbors, including children, how to generate electricity, how to make a sun ray cooker, etc. "Heat Island Phenomena," he remembered the term. Cities tend to be warmer than local areas because if one uses his/her air-conditioner, the air-conditioner gives out warm air outside of the house, and it makes the area's temperature warmer. Thus, it makes people use their air-conditioners more. It was vicious circle. And, maybe she wanted to stop it. "Is she sacrificing herself for it like a crane to weave kimonos with her feathers?" No, she was enjoying it, maybe thinking which country she would go to next. |
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*repay :返礼する
*off-the-grid :電気・水道・ガスを使わない
*whim:気まぐれ
*conductive :伝導する
*unglazed :うわ薬を掛けない
*ooze :にじみ出る
*courtyard :中庭
*sacrifice :犠牲にする