Day by day, barrel by barrel we walk towards the peak oil which is the global mid point in hydrocarbon production and means that we have used about half of all the oil and gas there is in the ground. As production comes tighter and tighter while the demand soars up year after year that can only mean one thing: price of oil (and gas) will go up. We have already seen the first signs of this in recent years. Ten years ago the price of one barrel of oil was about $15. Dated Brent spot today was above $90.
Rising energy costs affects first people with low income. Each winter thousands of low income house holds (in UK and USA) struggle to keep their houses heated. There are speculations that each year this is causing thousands of premature deaths, when people living with small pensions can't afford to heat their homes and practically freeze to death.
For someone living in Finland this just sounds horrible and unbelievable. For those of you who doesn't know much about Finland, I suggest you check some facts for example from Wikipedia or World Fact Book (by CIA). We live rather north, as you can see on almost any map. The temperatures here goes below -20 celsius degree for couple of days in most winters and weeks of temperatures below -4 C degree are 100% sure. So preparing for cold is something we have had experience for hundreds (or thousands) of years.
You seldom hear here in Finland about someone freezing to death in their home. These things do happen, but usually they are sad exceptions and got much to do with stubbornes combined with loneliness. You see, there are old people living in country side, in areas where the nearest neighbor can be few kilometers away. Usually the county social workers have suggested to those people that they really should think about moving in elderly home. But the Finns can some times be quite stubborn. When you combine stubbornes, weak physique of old people and heating with chopped wood, it some times add up as tragedy that should have been avoided... :( But as I said, these things are sad exceptions in extremely cold country where you usually don't hear about fuel poverty or death by freezing in ones home.
The reason is simple. First of all, the houses in Finland have been adequately build to withstand the sub zero temperatures of cold winter. You don't have to heat your house like a manic devil in order to keep it warm. The walls of houses are well insulated and there are double windows in every house (or triple in newer ones). In countryside the most usual heating system is electricity combined with one or two fire places (or in many cases an oven heated with woods). So in summertimes you don't have to heat at all (except the boiler which heats you water), and in springs and autumns you manage fine by just turning your electrically heated radiators on. And in winter, when the temperature drops below zero (Celsius), you have to burn an armful of woods in your fireplace every day in order to avoid heart attack caused by your next electrical bill. In many cases if the price of electricity raises, people just start to heat their fire places more often and adjust their radiators to lower temperatures.
In cities it's even more simple. The insulation again is very good in the apartment blocks and condos. One reason is strict government regulations that demands builders to meet strict minimum standards in wall insulations and windows. I believe triple windows are mandatory in new buildings. But at least as important for people living in cities is that the apartments and condos (and all the warm water that people use) are heated by district heating. When you combine well insulated houses and heating system that practically heats you houses with left over heat of electricity production (the power plants are officially called CHP plants, Combined Heat and Power) you end up with cost effective and environmentally friendly heating system. Even when considering the fact that most power plants also here in Finland use coal as main fuel it still becomes (relatively speaking) environmentally friendly because the energy efficiency. Power plants in Finland can reach near 100% fuel efficiency if they are designed and build to be CHP plants, which most of them are. Of course the investments for this kind of systems are huge, but eventually they pay them selfs back.
The government programs in UK and USA which aims to tackle the issue of fuel poverty are valiant efforts. Unfortunately they are doomed to fail as long as the only method used is subsidized fuel for poor people. When the prise of hydrocarbons clime steadily higher, the budget allocations for this type of programs are bound to fail time after time. The right way to do this, would be investing in technologies described above. Poor people needs investment aid for re-insulating their houses and for example buying heat pumps. The cities, municipalities and power companies need investment aid for building CHP plants (or converting existing plants) and constructing district heating systems. The standards and regulations concerning new buildings also have to be re-evaluated. You have to abandon the energy waisting methods and embrace the new well insulated buildings.
Without these well tested ideas, poor people in the UK and USA continues to freeze to death in the coming winters.
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