Can It Be this SIMPLE? (the Off-Topic continuation)

[f_lez]

I do my bit... I turn the lights off in the Bedroom when I go to bed (saving 200W), but I keep the air-con running (burning 3kW)

200w for a bedroom!

My bedroom is 12ft*12ft and was light by a 60w bulb, now it has a 15w energy efficient bulb that has equiv 70watt light output!

Those must be subsidised because our local netto store (netto.co.uk) sells them for 47p/$0.25, I buy two every trip and a have a cupboard full, they last about a year even though they claim longer.

As for air-con, MOVE! think of the savings.....(I know its not always possible)

We've just had a really hot summer for us, hitting 36c for about a week, I did the unthinkable and went out and bought a pedestal fan....

Even my car does not have air-con, Air-con is another planet killer, its hot, so you use energy to pump out more heat into the local area, cooking everyone else, making them turn on their air-con...........

You sit in traffic in a car, turn on the air-con, pump out hot air to all the cars stuck in traffic around you, who turn on air-con....

whoever invented air-con, well.........

Now transportation, I drive a big car, 2.1ltr turbo diesel, old but efficient at about 40mpg.(Citroen XM)(AFAIK never sold stateside) and pay about $370 a year tax just for ownership, its less for smaller engines/cars.

Best fuel for it is oil seed rape (canola oil?) but corn oil and sunflower oil are good also but if you run it on that it smells like french fries, oddly corn oil makes it smell like popcorn...

If I did that, I would get up-to a $4000 fine, my car impounded and possibly crushed for evading the paying of road fuel tax, unless I register as an experimental fuel producer and voluntarily keep record of what I burn and pay the required tax, which should be bio-fuel rate of £0.27/$0.50 a ltr, unfortunately our tax office do not officially recognise plant oil / waste cooking oil as a bio fuel(!) and so want standard road fuel tax rate of $0.43/$0.90 a ltr tax. (plant oils have nearly a 0 carbon footprint, IE they are only releasing the carbon that they previously absorbed)

[Mike_Lynch]

whoever invented air-con, well.........

Isn’t air conditioning an offshoot of refrigeration?

Without refrigeration we (I) would have to make a lot more trips to the store to buy Fresh Meat,
Dairy, Produce Products (burning more Gas). Trucks would have to bring the products to market
more often, (Burning More Gas). Products which come from producers FAR away would never
make it to market before spoiling. There would be NO Ice-Cream, Frozen Yogurt.
(NO Ice-Cream may just trigger the downfall of civilization as we know it.)
Look at all the products in your cupboard / pantry that say “refrigerate after opening” on the label.
Would you want to purchase those in “one time use” package sizes, resulting in more waste in the
landfills and requiring the burning of more gas to haul to the dump? No Ice for your soda, no cold beer,
(NO COLD BEER would be worse than no Ice-cream) Look in your refrigerator / ice box and
think about all the things that you wouldn’t be able to have or keep for more than a day or so.

[f_lez]

]There would be NO Ice-Cream, Frozen Yogurt.
(NO Ice-Cream may just trigger the downfall of civilization as we know it.)

Look at all the products in your cupboard / pantry that say “refrigerate after opening” on the label.

(NO COLD BEER would be worse than no Ice-cream) Look in your refrigerator / ice box and
think about all the things that you wouldn’t be able to have or keep for more than a day or so.

My granny never had a fridge, we had a celler, it was cooler down their and thats where she kept things that needed to be cooler.

I can see that without ice cream etc etc but thats because we are used to having it, at the expense of the planet.

Ice cream is the new planet killer (tm)

I just think we are not doing it right, we should not be trying to modify our environment to the extent that we curerently are, the knock on effect is damn big and its going to come back and bite future generations.

I have a refrigerator, and only a month ago I was discussing with the wife about moving it from out the kitchen into the back yard so its no longer working like an indoor heat pump, then maybe I can turn down the fan on my desk....


Its little things like this what can help.


Everything we seem to 'invent' seems to be just another fuel hungry monster, the computer, emm, about 100 watts for an old one, the newer ones even more, cell phones, not great, but whats the power consumption of the infrastructure running them, all those transmitters, computers, routers etc etc, add on the last 10 years explosion of the internet, all those isp's and the servers running night and day.

We need more power every day, its a spiral, at least we may get more power stations but the only option now is nuclear....

I did hear that the nuclear generators on submarines cant do a chenobyl because they dont contain enough explosive material, so why do we build big dangerous ones instead of a hundred smaller safe ones???


If it was not for the chilled vodka, how would I sleep at night........

[Mike_Lynch]

Nuclear Powered Refrigeration . . .

Now THAT is a subject, which just screams for SERIOUS R&D money to be thrown at it.
Did we just solve global warming? . . . OK, so where IS Osama Bin Ladens hideout?

[Acetronics2]

Hi, F Lez

< I have a refrigerator, and only a month ago I was discussing with the wife about moving it from out the kitchen into the back yard so its no longer working like an indoor heat pump >

Sorry, but it is really a false assertion ...

The heat you pump in the room ( entering the fridge ) ... you bring it to the backside of the fridge ... so, IN THE ROOM !!! , just adding the compressor running electric energy.

Globally ... you heat your room !!!

So, ... a split system is the solution for summer, and a conventional one for the winter .

Alain

[f_lez]

Hi, F Lez
Sorry, but it is really a false assertion ...

The heat you pump in the room ( entering the fridge ) ... you bring it to the backside of the fridge ... so, IN THE ROOM !!! , just adding the compressor running electric energy.


Alain

but if its a 150w motor, its a 150 watt of heat going into the air, minus electrical energy thats converted to noise.

If its hot, I dont want that extra heat inside the house....

[Acetronics2]

but if its a 150w motor, its a 150 watt of heat going into the air, minus electrical energy thats converted to noise.

Noooooo,

Noise is also a kind of energy ( pressure ); it is also converted IN YOUR ROOM, into heat. ( supposing you do not hear your fridge from outside ... let's keep serious ... ).

But note this amount of energy is ... ridiculous !!!

so, split system ... and compressor outside the room !!!


to JOE

" Check the 12th Green in Palm Springs. He probably has a house right there."

May be, May be, ... but he's got a much better protection : OIL !!!

Alain

[Archangel]

Nuclear Powered Refrigeration . . .

. . OK, so where IS Osama Bin Ladens hideout?

Check the 12th Green in Palm Springs. He probably has a house right there.

[sayzer]

Is there a particular topic here or we are just shooting for free and adding couple of quotes?

[Melanie]

This is free-for-all thread, the PIC controlled dragster is on the other one.

Like all good pub/club conversations (this one sadly doesn't serve alcohol or Turkish coffee), it starts with the price of gas and ends up fixing global warming, whether Pluto has enough mass to be called a planet or a skinny dog, and finally revealing Osama Bin Ladens hideout.

[Mike_Lynch]

Sayzer,
I think it rather turned into a free shot zone after being replicated into the OFF TOPIC
Area. What’s on your mind? I’m generally attempting to stay within the confines of
Energy Conservation, but did digress into the “loud music and cars” which was preceded by
a question about alternate energy development in countries other than the USA.

Like Melanie said, (Thanks Melanie, Nearly fell out of my chair laughing at that one.
So, Pluto is a skinny dog now, is that OFFICIAL or is that just Walt’s version of the story?)

[Mike_Lynch]

How many people could realistically Telecommute for the majority of their workweek ?
Myself being primarily a Field Technician of sorts don’t see it happening. . .

Client on the phone: “You want ME to unplug the system from the wall, take a SCREWDRIVER and do WHAT?”

One “US” PC manufacturer Headquartered in TEXAS, tried that for a while, they may still, I don’t know,
I once worked for a company who contracted a LOT of their Field Service Warranty Work.
Remote Control repair of PC systems, requiring component replacement, generally doesn’t work well.

The AVERAGE End User of a PC can't (or just will not) count the Pins on a DB25 Connector.

If you are at all technically adept and you are calling a PC company’s help desk for technical support,
the first thing you should say is “Put the SCRIPT Down, Get Me Tier Two!”

[Melanie]

I think two thousand cartoon fans met in Czechoslovakia (or in the country formerly known as) earlier this week and decided that Pluto was a dog.

Oh, tech support, you mean this kind of thing... (warning - don't click if you're afraid of a little bad language!), but if you work with clients you probably get a version of this at least once a day.

http://www.daujones.com/sounds/helpdesk.mp3

[Mike_Lynch]

. . . .Czechoslovakia (or in the country formerly known as) . . . .

That brings up another question, Where do i get parts for my YUGO now?