Hi all

In continuation to Ellis' anecdote I think this applies in all sorts of ways to Japanese home and office energy efficiency. Many of the private homes are badly insulated and heating is mostly done with stand up electrical devices or the air-conditioning unit. That same energy inefficience applies to the summer and keeping rooms cool.

What surprised me when I experienced this was that people were quite aware of this shortfall, but did not seem to have any intentions to make a few energy saving changes. I wonder if this has to do mostly with the fact that a large majority of people live in rented accommodation with no intention to stay there for terribly long.

The other thing that raised my eyebrows was that even though some 30 to 40 % of Japan's electricity was produced throught nuclear power plants, the country is still running even though virtually all plants have been closed. From a technical perspective I would love to know if this was because there was a substantial over capacity in the past, do the Japanese have a remarkably efficient backup or have they really been saving 30 to 40% in energy consumption.

Best regards

Helmut Kostreba
UHH, student