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| Author |
Message |
| 25 new of 365 responses total. |
rcurl
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response 190 of 365:
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Nov 7 07:34 UTC 2000 |
I'd be surprised too, today, though I have not looked for another.
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carson
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response 191 of 365:
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Nov 7 13:56 UTC 2000 |
(The Hotpot connection?)
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scott
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response 192 of 365:
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Nov 7 14:16 UTC 2000 |
http://www.hotpotsgalore.com
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rcurl
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response 193 of 365:
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Nov 7 17:51 UTC 2000 |
"Netscape is unable to locate the server......"
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scott
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response 194 of 365:
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Nov 7 20:18 UTC 2000 |
Hmm... maybe they got merged with http://www.e-hotpots.com?
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keesan
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response 195 of 365:
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Nov 7 20:51 UTC 2000 |
Electric coffee percolators also heat the water directly. Just get rid of
the aluminum thing at the top under the lid. Kiwanis has lots of them, cheap.
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scott
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response 196 of 365:
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Nov 7 22:08 UTC 2000 |
Oh wait, I got that link all wrong. It's:
http://www.hotpotnow.com
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rcurl
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response 197 of 365:
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Nov 7 22:50 UTC 2000 |
Good idea in #195!
I checked while at Meijer, and they do have a 1 quart electric kettle for
$18. Presto. The B&D "cup at a time" (8-12 ounces) is #15. (An old perc
is probably $5.)
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drew
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response 198 of 365:
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Nov 7 23:19 UTC 2000 |
Just how much savings are we talking about here? At my electric rates, running
a 1500 watt appliance for a *whole hour* costs about 15 cents.
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scott
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response 199 of 365:
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Nov 7 23:56 UTC 2000 |
Dan, I'm glad you asked that question. See:
http://www.hotpots-online.com/faq
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rcurl
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response 200 of 365:
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Nov 8 05:26 UTC 2000 |
Every little bit helps. When I installed my X-10 system to put almost
all lights in my house on a schedule I never expected the result would
be a major saving in electric cost. After all, all it did was control
lots of mostly 60 watt bulbs and a small number up to 100 watts. Pennies?
No, big dollars. The system cut my electricity cost by nearly 25%. This
was the accumulations of lots of small savings - the system *turned off*
lights we might otherwise have left on, it set all outside lights to
run at 80% power, and because we just waited for the system to turn lights
on in the evening, they were not turned on as early as we might otherwise
have done manually.
So, I run my electric kettle ca. 30 minutes per day so at danr's consumption
and rate figues, instead of using the stove top, which would use perhaps
three times as much energy, my savings is ca. $55/a. You do that on
several appliances around the house, and savings add up. If *everyone*
made similar savings, we would not need a generating plant or two.
Now keep multiplying that in overall fuel savings, pollution reduction,
reduced land use, etc... important savings result.
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keesan
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response 201 of 365:
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Nov 9 00:21 UTC 2000 |
You spent $5/month to heat water for tea? My entire electric bill, not
counting heat, but including computers, lights, music, refrigerator and stove
is under $10/month (lower in cool weather). We have a switch on the outside
light so it only comes on for about 30 seconds when you wave your arm near
it. I turn the light on when I cannot see without it. It is 40 watts, in
a reflector. Actually, if you save about $5/month by cutting consumption to
about a third, you are spending about $2.50/month to heat tea. At 9 cents
per kilowatt hour, and assuming the teakettle is 500 watts, how many hours
is the kettle on? About 50 hours/month?
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jiffer
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response 202 of 365:
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Nov 9 01:07 UTC 2000 |
some people drink a lot of tea
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scott
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response 203 of 365:
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Nov 9 02:12 UTC 2000 |
I use a *gas* stove.
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rcurl
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response 204 of 365:
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Nov 9 07:32 UTC 2000 |
I do drink a lot of tea. But, as I said, I run the kettle about 30
minutes per day, and it is not on for 30 minutes because it cycles
on and off with the built in element thermostat.
I don't doubt my numbers are approximate as I haven't even looked up my
electric rate, or timed the kettle, etc. The details were not my
point, but rather that a significant savings results many small savings.
Another example that was recently in the news was wall-warts - power
adapters for answering machines, computer accessories, etc. They draw
a few watts even when the appliance/device is not used. It is estimated
that across the country, they account for the full power output
of three (3) or so full size power plants, of the 500+ megawatt variety.
(They are being reingineered with cutout circuits that turn them off
when the appliance is not being used - not a fully satisfactory
change however, as for some devices continuous power is required to
sustain memory.)
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keesan
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response 205 of 365:
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Nov 9 15:43 UTC 2000 |
If your kettle is on for 10 minutes (out of the 30) that is about a tenth as
much savings as you calculated, or 50 cents/month. You could save a lot more
energy than that in other ways, that did not require buying a new electric
kettle which requires a lot of energy for its production. Such as not leaving
a light turned on in any room that you are not in. Using small lamps focussed
on the task instead of a ceiling light. 100 watts left on for 8 hours a day
for 30 days costs (.1x8x30x.09) about $2/month.
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rcurl
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response 206 of 365:
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Nov 9 17:02 UTC 2000 |
I presume you use only compact fluorescents for lighting?
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albaugh
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response 207 of 365:
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Nov 9 17:26 UTC 2000 |
Does one's body experience the sensation of wanting to itch because the body
thinks that there is an irritant or something at the "itch point", and the
body should be "cleaned" at that point, and a scratch will serve the purpose?
Even if true, it seems that there are place that feel itchy that I know are
pretty darn clean. What's up with that? :-)
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gull
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response 208 of 365:
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Nov 9 18:06 UTC 2000 |
Re #204: Some devices also need them on continuously to keep batteries
charged.
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keesan
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response 209 of 365:
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Nov 9 19:03 UTC 2000 |
Actually I am lighting with a 40 watt bulb removed from a discarded
refrigerator, that is also providing heat. I don't normally light during warm
weather. The bulb would have been dumped, meaning no energy (other than the
act of unscrewing it) went into it for my use.
Jim thinks microwave ovens and electric kettles both consume about 1000 watts.
How many minutes does your kettle run to heat a cup of water? My microwave
oven (500 watt output) needs 1.5 minutes on average (longer when the ground
water is colder, shorter in summer). It does not have to heat up the mass
of a metal pot in addition to cup and water. It does not continue putting
out much heat after the 1.5 min is up. It shuts itself off immediately when
its time is up (so do some electric kettles). The water might heat a bit
faster if the cup were covered. Electric kettles have a large hole in the
spout through which they lose heat.
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rcurl
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response 210 of 365:
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Nov 10 19:19 UTC 2000 |
My kettle is 1500 watts and holds 3 quarts. I make that much tea and drink
it all day. The kettle takes about 10 minutes to heat the 3 quarts. Near
the end, I have to reheat the tea in the microwave. (This, of course, is
more about my peculiarities than the kettles... 8^})
I use 20 watt lamps that last 10,000 hours - *much* less expensive in the
end than incandescent lamps, and also helps cut down on the need for more
coal-fired power plants, etc. These are, of course, compact fluorescents,
and they provide the equivalent of 75 watts of lighting. We wanted more
light in the kitchen ceiling fixture, so I rigged two in parallel and get
"150 watts" light for 40 watts.
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russ
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response 211 of 365:
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Nov 11 02:22 UTC 2000 |
Re #204: Interestingly enough, parasite loads are one of the things
that's been occupying some of my free time. I want to make a power
supply to keep a device operating on stand-by power, with minimal
drain from the line. I am leaning toward a gadget using a small
audio transformer in a reverse-flyback mode. My goals are to have
minimal drain and no noise.
I think I just figured a way to do it. I'll have to test my load
and see how much power it requires on standby, and work from there.
BTW, the magnetrons in microwave ovens are about 50% efficient or so.
About half the input power is converted to microwaves, and the rest
just makes the magnetron hot. The magnetron heat is rejected in the
oven's cooling air, but it doesn't do anything for your food. If
you are heating water for a cup of tea, a one-cup immersion heater
is probably the most efficient electric method you can use.
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rcurl
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response 212 of 365:
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Nov 11 06:22 UTC 2000 |
Think it will be economically competitive? The wall warts are cheap
because they use the most awful transformers, which waste a great deal
of magnetization power.
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gull
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response 213 of 365:
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Nov 11 18:31 UTC 2000 |
Another big reason wall warts are used a lot is they get the 120V supply
outside the case of the appliance. This has at least five benefits:
1. It makes the appliance smaller.
2. It gets the transformer's magnetic field away from the appliance's
circuits.
3. It means that a company can buy a wall wart power supply from somewhere
else, and get a UL-certified supply without all the expense of having the
entire appliance certified.
4. It means the power cord for the appliance can be much thinner.
5. Making a 240V, 50 Hz version of the appliance means simply packing it
with a different wall wart.
Any energy-saving solution will have to fulfill all these requirements, as
well as being price-competative.
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other
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response 214 of 365:
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Nov 11 22:11 UTC 2000 |
re:207
The itch/scratch stimulus/response is a complex mechanism. It starts with
a stimulation of a nerve -- usually at the ending, near the surface of the
skin. The interpretation by the brain of the stimulation as an itch, rather
than as heat, cold, pressure, or something else, is dependent on the nature
of the stimulation. Also, itching occurs from internal stimulation, such as
the healing of a wound (in that case the itching is usually associated with
the pulling of the hard scabrous material on the soft skin as it shrinks) or
from a checmical reaction, such as in the case of mosquito venom (which
functions as a blood thinner to facilitate feeding).
The response to scratch is a learned process. It is usually learned very
early in life, as your brain develops an understanding of the distinction
between your body (what you can control simply by will) and that which is not
your body. As you learn to control your environment, you learn the impact
that scratching has on your skin and your senses, and that it can be soothing.
This becomes a fairly automatic response to a variety of nervous stimuli.
It really has nothing to do with cleanliness, even though cleaning an ithy
area may remove physical sources of the "itchy" stimulation. Scratching is
simply a soothing response.
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