Comments by "Helmuth Schultes" (@helmuthschultes9243) on "American Reacts to Things About Homes in The USA That Puzzle Foreigners" video.

  1. Over use of A/C and lack of dual flush toilets stand out to me. Dual flush saves massive quantities of potable water, excluding modern systems using recycled water for flushing and garden use. There are many places where sufficient good quality water is critically short for population. Do not waste good quality pure water for flushing in unnecessary volume. Also saves volume into sewage works and evaporation ponds or waste outflow to lakes, rivers and/or ocean. One common problem of A/C is wasteful use and wasteful temperature settings. Use of entire house conditioned and that effectively 24hrs a day, even while unoccupied is extremely wasteful. Keep the conditioning to used areas only. If no one is home keep it off. A typical house, which normally is also insulated can be left many hours and minimal temperature change happens, quickly recovered in minutes after reactivation. Keep the A/C on a timer, so off while all are at work, school, at sport etc. All can be fine when switched on before arriving home. The temperatures should track outdoors conditions. Why in hell, set 15 to 16 degC, say around 60°F in summer, so if entering from outside in light clothing have such cold conditions that one needs to put on a sweater of jacket, to stop shivering. Then in winter dial up 23 to 26°C, upper 70°F, so entering from outside in warmer clothing, needing to strip down almost to the thermal underwear, to keep from sweating like in a sauna. We had the problem in college, where library, lecture rooms and study rooms were such skew conditions, so before seating in these places, you either had to put on or strip off clothes, to keep from chivering or sweating/dozing off while inactive for some time, yet while around campus both indoors and outdoors different clthing was needed for comfort. Save energy, do the opposite, set cold values in winter, so the clothes, short of thick jackets are right indoors no need to strip off, and set the warmer values while outdoors is hot, over 30°C, mid 90s°F upwatds, in the clothes worn outside the temperature inside is then just nicely cool, but not so cold that warmer clothes are needed. Now given these low and high settings are so right, whichever are used, why bother runnong the A/C at all while outdoor temperatures are in that range. The human body is quite capable in that range with moderate clothes worn. Also seems most US homes have a refriggeration type A/C and seperate furnace for heating. Why so few reverse cycle A/C systems, that pump heat in either direction? In cooling mode it takes heat inside, sheds it outside, much as a refrigerating sytem, but in heating chills outside air, and sheds heat indoors. In effect using outside conditions to dump or draw energy needed for cooling or heating respectively. Power use is a fraction of the two classic A/C and furnace systems. For very cold conditions the classic heater for living area is fine, be it wood, gas or electric. Only do cooling and heating of actual occupied space not all the house. I for instance have no A/C at all, and summer regularly is 30 to 40°C , 90 to 105°F or higher a few times, a fan is used, window shutters keep much heat out during the day, and free air passage over night cools the interior well. Yes the nights do at times stick in above 30°C, and a fan is nice but sleeping in very light cotton night gear without any blankets or sheets cover is fine. Winter a small electric fan heater is fine in living area, and a good doona or blanket still is fine for sleeping, even with near 0°C, 32°F, and extra blanket if colder. The energy use is a fraction of that of people cooling and heating in extreme. Wearing clothing appropriate to climate is best. Do not wear summer beach gear indoors for winter outside and keep to light airy clothing in summer. Waste disposal units, also not good environmentally, destroy the recycle by compost possibility, amd the US hanit of oversized food packages, th iui d over sized meals particularly high waste of foods, well suited to composting, results. The ground up food vegetanle matyer compromises the bacteroal breakdown cycles of sewage plants leaving higher solids settled and needing clearing far more frequently.
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