Though for the life of me i don't understand why one needs a machine just to keep the bier cold. ;-) "Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage." - Anaïs Nin
In town, during the winter, domestic parties are powered by crates of beer (24 x 1/3 l) left to chill on the balcony or outside. You can't be me, I'm taken
I don't know if that's necessarily so. You can always upscale your definition of efficiency. But in practical terms, it is true that we talk too much about how we can make one thing better rather than an entire network.
To go back, this is the difference of talking about better mileage for cars and talking about car-sharing, biking and more public transport. TreeHugger had a good, simple post on this recently:
7 Overrated Technologies and Their Underrated Low-Tech Alternatives : TreeHugger
Technology rocks, and improving upon what we have is a boon for fighting climate change in a lot of ways. But sometimes green gadgets get more attention than the totally effective non-tech solutions to problems in our lives, because, well, non-tech solutions are boring. The latest and greatest is always fun to talk about.
