What have the Romans ever done for us?

Well apart from Monty Python….  No, not the Treaty of Rome (don’t get me on to Brexit – that’s for another day).  Latin.  The root of many European languages.  Think of the word plumbing - plomberie in French, plomería in Spanish.  All derived from the Latin for lead, plumbum.

Not only did they enhance our language, they gave us bureaucracy (the gift that keeps on giving), roads (OK strictly speaking roads existed before the Romans, but they were of a similar quality to modern US freeways – not very good), advertising, fast food, etc.  However, in my opinion their greatest gift was indeed plumbing.  Running water, underfloor heating, sanitation.  Things we take for granted, until they aren’t working, or they simply aren’t there.

The etymology (that’s Greek) of many words comes from tribus, the Latin for three.  Triumph, tribute, tripod, triangle, trilemma.  Actually, that last one is a relatively new portmanteau (that’s French) word or mash-up (estuary English) of unknown provenance used to describe a difficult choice between three alternatives (as opposed to the customary two alternatives of a dilemma).  A modern-day Hobson’s choice.  This phrase is most often used in the context of energy.  The choice between security of supply (cosying up to varying shades of dictator to access their oil / gas), cost (paying a small fortune to a cartel of upstream and downstream energy providers - literally a cartel - OPEC) and ruining the planet through the continuing use of fossil fuels and their impact on climate change.  In reality this is not really a trilemma as it is not a case of choosing one over the others.  Currently we are stuck with all three, but there is an opportunity to ditch them all.

What has all this to do with plumbing?  Global demand for heat (hot water, space heating, cooling, process heat for industry) accounts for three times as much energy as electricity.  Yet no one talks about it.  Polite conversation rarely gets on to the topic of heating (or plumbing).  However, if we are going to solve the energy conundrum, we really need to address the subject of heat.

Generating electricity from the sun has the same crowd pulling abilities as well performed magic.  I was thrilled to be invited to talk to a class of primary school children and was able to perform some simple experiments to explain the concept of carbon dioxide with a jam jar and tea candle.  I also performed the world-famous trick of using sunlight shining on a photovoltaic cell to illuminate a light bulb (fortunately no smart Alec 8-year-old asked why I would need a light bulb when the sun is shining brightly!!).  In fairness it’s not just 8-year-olds that marvel at the phenomenon of turning sunlight into electricity.  It has really captured the public’s imagination judging by the rampant growth of the solar PV industry - the manufacturers, installers, financiers, energy companies and others whose alchemy transforms abundantly available elements into gold, have all been keen to capitalise on this particular illusion. I wonder why?

We have strayed again from our thread, but fear not, the magic number of three appears again - the rate at which energy from sunlight is converted into heat is three times the efficiency of turning it into electricity.  The CO2 emissions offset by using a roof to generate heat instead of just electricity from solar irradiation is also three times greater.  I’m reminded of the old response to a buyer / seller debate about quality, price and timing – you can have any two out of three – cheap, quick and low quality; quick, high quality and expensive; cheap, high quality and slow.  The thing is you can have electricity and heat from the sun from the same area of roof space.  It takes no longer to install and doesn’t cost any more to install.  The quality actually improves (because the PV cells are better protected and kept at a uniform temperature).  The solar collectors themselves are no more expensive than conventional solar thermal and PV (when considering the sum of the parts they are actually cheaper).  What’s not to like?!  (Google solar-PVT or #virtuPVT).

Apparently plumbing scares a lot of people.  A leading cleantech VC once told us that plumbing was too complicated and that trying to address the market for over 50% of the world’s energy demand was essentially in the too hard box (the same VC subsequently invested in a company making a fancy hot water cylinder by the way).  Plumbing is complicated but pretty much every building in the developed world (the world that first brought you climate change!) has indoor plumbing.  We have a lot to thank the Romans for.  Now about the Treaty of Rome…..