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| Illustration of my Future house and Garden. done by me.... of course |
So I'm writing this post as a cautionary tale for anybody who thinks they are safe and comfortable in their gas heated house. Sitting in sub zero temperatures in the north of UK, I was shocked to realize that my boiler was not working. Since I am from South Africa I am not sure how the system works so I spent about 2 hours calling the gas supplier which only sent me through a labyrinth of robotic button pressing. This gradually spiraled into a cacophony of options and questions which I knew nothing about. When I eventually reached an actual phone line to a human being I was put on hold for 20 minutes due to a high number of calls. I am a working man, 20 minutes I do not have, I have clients waiting for artwork and students who want me to tell them how to speak English. But I can't do either of these things with frozen fingers.
Needless to say, due to my superior Googling I figured out how to check my gas supply and my balance. Which were both functioning fine, and I thanked all the gods that I didn't have to deal with the supplier. Next thing to do was to check the boiler and figure out why it wasn't working. After some inspection, I realized it was an engineering problem and so I had to contact my landlord to get an engineer over to fix it. So three frosty hours later an engineer arrives and takes it apart. Basically the condensate pipe was frozen. He did nothing I couldn't do myself.
Ironically the thing that is meant to keep me warm in freezing conditions had stopped operating because it was frozen. So this may be my fault since I am a silly warm climate mongrel who has no idea how to survive under sub zero conditions. Stupid me, I had my boiler on a timer so it turns off when I don't need it. How ridiculous of me trying to save money and the planet at the same time. So now I have to have my boiler on all the time to make sure it doesn't freeze. So this isn't a problem. If this is how people have learned to survive here then that's what I have to do. I am a foreigner after all, I can't impose my warm climate ways on a temperate one. So funnel in the gas please. Because that's what the world needs right now. More gas.
Aside from the boiler problem, my house also has badly insulated windows. Which basically means its windy when the window is closed. So why am I writing this post? is it because I am a mongrel Zaphor who can't operate a boiler? well partly... I take responsibility for letting it freeze.
BUT, the main reason I am writing is because the whole system is badly designed. And I am not the only one who is outraged by this. Of course not, I can guarantee there is a medley of people who have the same opinions as me.
I have spent a lot of time living in sustainable systems where I have control over every aspect of my environment. I hate not being able to solve a simple problem, and having to wade through hours of crazy red tape to have a simple boiler fixed. Everything is fine while it works, I'm comfortable and well fed. My clients are happy, and my students are happy. Even my landlord is happy.
But what happens when it doesn't work? What happens when the store runs out of food? or the gasline stops operating, or a severe storm knocks out the power? Am I to sit idly by and wait for rescue? I'm not this type of human being. I don't want to sit idly by and let the environment savage me! This is not how humans made it this far. We made it this far by dominating the environment. I don't want to do that either. So something has to change.
I don't like the current state of affairs at all. If they had any sense of design, they would have designed it to deal with sub zero conditions, or simply let the outlet pipe to go down the sink indoors. Anyway, enough ranting. What is to be done about this? How can I take charge of my own resources and stop having to pass the buck to landlords and engineers and other people who are only doing the bare minimum to solve the problem.
Everyone is trying to cut costs and use the cheapest possible material. If they had installed a larger pipe for example, or added a simple device that allows the condensate to run through the hot inlet valve we wouldn't be having this problem now. At a time when the heating is needed the most. Arguably the only time that I need heating. I made the mistake of trusting this system and not paying it any heed because it always seemed to quietly boil away in the background. Well I have a feeling that we are all doing this. Outsourcing our vital systems to companies and corporations who mainly care about the bottom line, and don't mind fudging the design. Or even worse, designing flaws into the system to allow for continuous profit.
SO, my reason for writing this, is that we need to be ready people. Shit is getting real now. Cape Town is running out of water, it's snowing in Barcelona for the first time in 5 years. The entire northern hemisphere is freezing over while I am writing this. The centralized utility companies are not going to be able to deal with all the complaints about faulty boilers and condensate pipes. And most of all, you aren't going to have time to deal with the suppliers. You will be too busy trying to figure out how to chop a tree down with a kitchen knife and how to keep your Carbon Monoxide alarm from going off while you burn your rent agreement for warmth.
We need to be ready and equipped for disaster. It's not your landlords fault, it's not your suppliers fault. If you end up freezing to death or dehydrating, its YOUR FAULT. Take responsibility for your own resources and stop waiting around for the government to sort out problems. Learn Permaculture. Take control. And START NOW. If you want any advice on how to get started please contact me at keeganblazey@gmail.com , I will not charge anything and this is not an advertisement for my services. In fact, I don't want to be doing this. We should have sorted this problem ages ago. But anybody with the knowledge of regenerative and sustainable systems needs to speak up. NOW. I have these skills, but I want to be an artist. I like stories. But right now, this is the most important story.
As Elon Musk Says: "If we're all in a ship together and there's some holes in the ship, and we're bailing water out, and we have a great design for a bucket, even if we're bailing out way better than everybody else, we should probably share the bucket design."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=savSlk-eot8
He shared the designs to all his cars. While I don't know if I agree with everything he does, I agree with the idea of sharing useful information that leads to sustainable systems.
I'm trying to help and to do something useful for everyone here. I don't know what the solution is for my situation, so if anybody knows, please help! The problem with renting is that if you don't own the house, it doesn't serve you to make any changes from your own pocket. Since the renter pays for the gas and electric, it doesn't matter to the landlord that you pay through your teeth due to bad insulation.
Apparently my house meets the average U.K energy standards. Which means that the standard is bogus. This is a clear indication that we can't rely on the government.
The way I see it, my way forward is to save a boat load of cash and buy land somewhere. Or to opt into an intentional community. Both of these things have their inherent risks and quite frankly I don't look forward to freezing to death in a poorly organized community or taking out a mortgage. I'm not saying that it isn't possible to live in a community or buy your own land, but it is a long process and I don't think that all of us are in the position to do this right now. Especially not in the face of a disaster. Actually, it's already too late.
So we have to figure out a way to improve the current system, and quickly. In permaculture circles I have heard people saying "Go straight to the solution", don't try to change the system. While I agree, the possible disaster really hit me today when I realized that I could freeze to death in my own home while on hold to a gas supplier.
While I am open to change and perfectly willing to go out alone and brave the struggles of a new piece of land, or a sustainable community, I don't know how this would go with the average person in my neighborhood. People simply aren't ready. So START NOW spread the word. And please let me know if you have any ideas. In my current situation, I have no money because I have spent it on traveling to India for the Permaculture IPC. I have no property. All I have are my wits and skills. So this is why I am writing, it is what I can do to make a minuscule difference.
Here are some useful links if you want to get involved in Permaculture(which I think has the most meaningful solutions to these problems):
https://www.permaculture.co.uk/what-is-permaculture
https://permaculturenews.org/
