Comments by "eDoc2020" (@eDoc2020) on "Technology Connections" channel.

  1.  @andymerrett  A battery-powered ignitor would need battery replacement and a physical or piezo ignitor is is much more annoying. As almost every stove has an electric (or electronic) clock built in there's no reason not to use the same electricity for lighting the stove.
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  2. There are already systems which do most of this. On a recent series of This Old House they installed a Mitsubuishi system which does home heating/cooling and water heating.
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  3.  @2sk21  Most of the circuitry runs on AC, so snubber diodes would not work.
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  4.  @waycoolscootaloo  The NEC only requires two circuits for kitchen appliances and the dining room needs its own circuit. Until recently the dining room circuit could be shared with the kitchen so the OP's probably was code compliant when installed. Having said that, code compliant doesn't mean well-designed.
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  5. If we're talking about SanDisk, have you ever noticed their old (pre-2007) logo has sun rays? What's up with that? Answer: they used to be called SunDisk.
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  6. Central air conditioning US homes with gas heat is installed in exactly the same way. For plenty of people with this setup a conversion to hybrid heat pump should be fairly cheap with only a few valves and a new controller.
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  7. Extension cords!
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  8. Well there wouldn't be a problem if you had them all on the same circuit. The only way it would be unsafe is if the current rating of a wire is less than the circuit rating AND the maximum potential load on the wire is greater than its current rating. If each appliance is plugged directly into the wall it should all be safe.
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  9. I've only ever heard of those being used in RVs.
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  10.  @criticalevent  You're right that most electric vehicles can't be used for vehicle to grid but hopefully that gets improved over time. You're right that when you leave home your car can't power your home but that's literally what the grid is for. Other people's storage systems would help power your house during that time and if you plug in at your destination you could power your house using the grid as an interconnect. As for inverter gear, it's not $20000. A Sol-ark is $7000 and there are plenty of cheaper options. The permits needed aren't that special, they are the same as you'd need for grid-tie solar. Even if they don't let you feed back to the grid you can still use the energy to power your own house. I agree an EV with a discharged battery goes 0km. That's why you set discharge limits so you still maintain enough range for what you need to do.
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  11.  @criticalevent  First of all I don't like Elon Musk bullshit either. But saying you can't grid-tie storage systems anywhere in the US is simply false. I live in Massachusetts where you definitely can, and there are incentive programs (ConnectedSolutions) for doing so. In times of grid overload they do pay more for kWh then you paid to charge the battery. They can afford to do this because wholesale electricity prices are highly variable. Today (3/26/2022) in New England wholesale electricity was $49.43 at 12:00 and $91.28 at 1:00. As for getting a permit for a 100kWh grid tie storage unit on an extension cord in a driveway does sound a bit ridiculous. 30 years ago you would think the same of people saying anybody could create home videos and anybody anywhere in the world could watch them without the creator or the viewer needing to pay for the service. Today it's obviously feasible as anybody who watches YouTube would know. The 100kWh storage unit in the driveway looks more sane when you consider that the energy capacity probably wouldn't matter, only the actual power. Saying you have a portable 5kW inverter seems much more reasonable.
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  12.  @jasonreed7522  The ground wire isn't zero because R is tiny, it's zero because I is tiny. That's the only difference between ground and neutral, neutral carries current while ground doesn't. If a neutral wire breaks it will rise to 120v and this is why the ground wire is separate. And a bit more of a nitpicky thing, you can't ever use the neutral wire as a hot. In 240v applications you can put colored tape over the end of the white wire at which point it ceases to be a neutral wire.
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  13. CR and LF have different functions. The carriage return code resets the horizontal and the line feed code increments the vertical. And a bit related the delete (7F) code is all ones and (originally) does nothing. If you punched the wrong thing onto paper tape you could punch out the rest of the holes and the computer would ignore this.
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  14.  @Lizlodude  My guess for your magic socket is that it was originally wired as part of a multi-wire branch circuit where each half was fed from a separate breaker (possibly one of which was your garbage disposal one). If the outlet was replaced but the tab on the new one was not broken it would result in two breakers feeding the same outlet. This should trip both breakers instantly as they should be on opposite 120v legs, but they erroneously be on the same leg if the wiring was modified at some point. This would be dangerous because the single neutral wire could then be tasked with carrying the current from two circuits. TLDR: A doubly-botched multi-wire branch circuit (MWBC) will only appear dead if two breakers are turned off at the same time. MWBCs are a great way to safely save on wire but can become unsafe if their breakers are moved around improperly.
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  15. Honestly if he started taking it apart he would most likely find the packet of basic service data. That would include a wiring diagram with the answers he is looking for.
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  16.  veevyo  I got my TI-84 Plus SE for exactly $1 at an estate sale. If you're going to brag about your discount it should be substantial. Plus mine is so much faster.
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  17. There's one brand (Mr. Cool) which produces DIY-capable mini-split heat pumps which don't require special tools. If they're legal in your area it's definitely worth checking out.
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  18. I was going to say pretty much the same thing.
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  19. Ring circuits. When 32 amp breakers protect 20 amp wires there's the potential for things to go horribly wrong. If there's a break in the ring all of the current can go through one wire without tripping the breaker. Even if there's good ring continuity if all of the load is on one end of the circuit most of the current will go through that half.
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  20. I thought the flow kept getting interrupted, but then he really made an impact.
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  21.  @IkBenBenG  I've never heard of pinball machines between full EM and near all electronically controlled. The ones I've seen worked on on from the late 70s use a switch matrix going to the MPU and most coils and controlled lamps are directly run from a driver board. A few coils like flippers and pop bumpers might be run by switches but all the logic is done electronically.
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  22. I feel much the same. Gas engines are generally 35% efficient at the high end so whole house generators are going to be fairly worse, totally tanking at lower load levels. And most of the time they will run at these lower load levels. I'd guesstimate the generator would be running at around 20% efficiency, meaning you'd need a heat pump COP of 5 to be a more efficient use of gas. Directing the hot air coming off the generator into the cold air intake of the heat pump would probably work reasonably well to boost the system efficiency. AFAIK most whole house generators are air cooled so it would be hard to use their waste heat directly. If you have a water-cooled generator it would theoretically be easier as you could use the engine as a boiler in a hydronic heating system. This is such a good idea automakers have been using this for cabin heating in ICE cars for ages.
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  23. And adding a heat pump is just about the same as adding a cooling-only unit. The main difference is in the thermostat wiring.
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  24. IMO direct linkage of steering and braking is more important. Electronic throttle body cause too much harm when the brakes can overpower the engine and you can kill the ignition power.
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  25. Then we can start badgering you about only having 400v where here in the US we use 277/480v in industrial applications.
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  26.  veevyo  When I got my calculator the color ones had just come out and the new 84SE was probably around $140 as well. The rechargeable battery in the color model is also a curse because it doesn't last as long. I ran my mono model with 3 rechargeable AAAs (and a paper clip in the fourth slot) for several months between recharging. More recently I did in fact use a Li-ion battery. I'm not saying you didn't get a good deal. It's just fun to sometimes 1-up another person.
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  27. @weetwteqtwtwwt The inability to heat without electricity is already a problem with 99% of existing gas heat installations. Relying on heat pumps won't change that at all.
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  28. Aren't those the lyrics of Hey Jude?
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  29.  @KinkyTurtle  I'm sure any version after the first wouldn't respond to applause, and I would suspect the original non-MCU one wouldn't respond either. I think it's much more likely it was a fake demonstration with somebody manning the lights.
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  30. If you're looking for something specific it's often helpful to try different search engines. What's impossible to find with one might be the first result in another and vice versa.
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  31. All the US light switches I've seen are rated for at least 15 amps. Maybe not really old ones but the cheapo sub-$1 ones at the store are certainly rated 15 amps. Whether or not it's wise to run them at 15 amps is another matter.
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  32.  @wojtek-33  That problem could be overcome by reading (in addition to education). Appliances always come with a label saying how much they power they need and extension cords always come with a label stating their maximum allowable load. If any of these aren't available all of our power cords made in the past several decades have the gauge printed on the cable.
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  33. If you have central AC then it is always worth it to add heat pump functionality, at least in terms of operational costs. If you don't remove your existing heating system you can choose whichever is more economical at the time.
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  34.  @Barracuda48082  Absorption refrigerators use much more energy than typical compressor-based refrigerators. And 12v LED bulbs are similar efficiency to 120v ones, not that it matters because the power is low either way. The problem with burning hydrogen is there's a lot of energy lost during electrolysis if you generate it from water.
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  35.  @lemagreengreen  Technically you can't on mine because it doesn't have a power button. You turn the knob to start the desired cycle. It's really just one mechanically-programmed cycle but the different settings (heavy, medium, light) just skip past the first prewash cycles.
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  36. Going uphill uses tons more battery, but going downhill actually recharges the battery. Assuming you're making round trips you shouldn't lose much overall range.
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  37. Runs the AM Stereo website, comments about AM radios. Makes sense.
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  38. Same here. There hasn't been a TC video dedicated about it but I think Alec has mentioned the shift from physical tactile controls to touchscreens and the like. I just find it annoying but it also presents an accessibility problem, something Alec also has opinions on.
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  39. Regarding replacing incandescent car lighting with LEDs, this warning only applies to exterior lighting. It's okay to replace the interior lighting as this does not need to meet DOT requirements. With LEDs you can make the inside lights brighter and much more useful.
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  40.  @paulhaynes8045  The systems being discussed here heat air directly instead of using water and radiators. However, there are similar systems which work for water-based heating systems. They would be installed in the same loop as the existing boiler. Danish YouTuber Morten Hjorth has such a system and has some videos discussing it on his channel My Playhouse.
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  41.  @Luke357  I don't believe you about your laptop charger. 5 amps at 120 volts would be 600 watts so it would be burning up with that much power. 5 amps output is reasonable when your laptop is working hard and/or charging at full speed but that's at only 20 volts. Average load of 10 amps would mean (assuming 240v service) 12,024 kWh/year (or 1,1752 kWh/month). EIA says average American hosehold is only 10,500 kWh per year.
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  42.  @greggv8  That's what I mean. Lack of population is more of a barrier to public transportation than long distances. As for city people vs rural people, there are indeed different needs and one should not force their own values at the detriment to others.
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  43.  @gregorymalchuk272  GU10 is just another base for line-voltage bulbs. As such, it provides no* benefit over the standard screw base. What we need is a standard form factor for flat "light engines" as they are often called. *An actual benefit of GU10 over ES is that it is more compact.
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  44.  @ps.2  Not as efficient because it's not a heat pump.
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  45.  @ps.2  I didn't say that, but I did misread the OP's comment as electric heat in general. But you're right, compared to dumb resistive heating the efficiency is the same. Ideally for heating you'd be using an electronically-controlled heat pump which could sense and automatically throttle its output to avoid exceeding your service. This technology is pretty common for EVSEs at least in the UK (where I do not live) and there's no reason it can't be on heating as well.
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  46.  @FowlerAskew  I haven't had that exact fault. On my first cheap DMM the barrel of the jack came loose and got pushed into the shunt bar, leading to the same result. Resoldering those barrels fixed it and made the meter more reliable; beforehand it was a bit flaky.
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  47. @Nigel Cam I'm assuming you haven't driven an electric car. Most people who have will tell you that they are far from glorified golf carts. In fact they generally offer better performance than gasoline cars, especially in terms of low speed acceleration.
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  48.  @valleyofiron125  Not to be too pedantic, but do you mean pedantic instead of padantic? Also, I don't have a fingerer. Do you mean finger?
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  49.  @mmmhorsesteaks  Ground fault interruption is usually handled by a device downstream of the breaker. The receptacle underneath Alec's panel has an integrated GFCI (which may also protect additional downstream outlets.) This is the standard setup in the US.
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  50. You could have it set up to turn on a light when you get out of bed.
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  51. A heating pad is usually sixty watts, well under the 1000w continuous that a light-duty extension cord is capable of. So I'm sure chaining cords wasn't the cause of the incident. Having said that, it's still not a good idea to do that. The cause of the damaged outlet was almost surely from arcing due to a loose connection at that location. If there's a decent amount of current flowing arcs can leave quite a bit of damage. Due to the way outlets are daisy chained a load on one outlet could smoke a different outlet on the same circuit.
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  52. The V-Chip is the same thing. The ratings data is encoded in the same line 21 data stream as the captioning data.
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  53. While Alec touched on this he could have mentioned more. A rule I have seen is to halve the capacity when the cord is spooled.
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  54.  @harshnemesis  What do you mean? Turning on floor lamps from the entrance to a room is useful anytime you want easy access to light. It's literally the reason we have light switches instead of switches at the light socket. Keep the lamp's own switch on all the time and it's easy.
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  55.  @MusicByproduct  Temperature is one of the factors in degradation. if you charge regular batteries at high C rates they heat up, accelerating their demise. In modern EVs the cells are liquid cooled and sometimes also connected to the air conditioning system.
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  56.  @lirawyn  The colors are indeed correct for regular single-phase 120v outlets (NEMA 5 plug). However, this is a 240v device with two hots and no neutral (NEMA 6 plug).
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  57. Temperature compensation could work but do you know what would work even better for ensuring consistent light output? A photoresistor. I bet the circuitry found in $2 light sensing incandescent nightlights would work pretty well with minimal adaptation.
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  58.  @pilotavery  Not quite. SD and SDHC use different protocols. A 4GB+ SDHC card is not recognized as storage at all by legacy SD-only devices. It's not like hard drives where you can use large drives as small ones.
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  59.  @radiotec76  Your bulbs likely are using switchers. The majority may be linear but I'd guess ~25% are switchers. Side note the circuits used in CFLs are quite different than regular switchmode supplies. They are much simpler, only using two transistors and little else.
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  60.  @Sha.ll0w  A stove ignitor normally using grid power but having batteries for backup ends up being a terrible solution. When you have power the batteries sit and sit, likely leaking and causing damage. Then when the power's out it's still no good. It would work if you regularly check the batteries but nobody will do that. If somebody is willing and able to change the backup batteries chances are they can handle some matches. Also the circuitry needed to seamlessly support both is much more complicated than only dealing with a single power source.
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  61.  @KyouTGD  Furnaces need fans but basic gas fireplaces do not. There are also some very old gas room heaters still in use which don't use fans.
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  62.  @markm0000  Thermostats for (whole-house) heat-pump systems have built-in support for backup heat systems. It will work automatically and will maintain constant living temperature. As a plus smart thermostats can use other data to help make their decision, such as weather forecasts and realtime energy prices.
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  63. How about a touch lava lamp?
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  64.  @TheNabeshein  Modern dishwashers have an exhaust fan? My mid-90s Maytag runs a fan during the dry part of the cycle. It's so not-modern it doesn't have any semiconductors.
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  65. He's just doing it to cool off the air. I hope you saw his last video.
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  66. Hydronic systems are also an option. Have one central compressor heating/cooling a loop of water which goes to simple fan coil units. The thermal mass of the water means the compressor can cycle less often during low load situations. A water loop also enables in-floor heating which is usually more efficient.
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  67.  @rafflesmaos  If you have fan coils and in-floor heat you could configure it so the fan units are always contributing. That would mostly eliminate thermal lag. But I also need to ask, wouldn't insulation between the slab and the floor also eliminate this lag? Having said all this I would probably also have a small ducted system for air circulation and HRV/ERV.
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  68. With a smaller system you wouldn't need as much airflow. This results in much quieter air ducts.
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  69. I think if installing an outlet you should go with a NEMA 14 and if designing a device you should aim to be NEMA 6 compatible. Since the only electrical difference is the neutral wire, you can safely and easily convert a NEMA 14 receptacle to a NEMA 6 receptacle, but the reverse is not true.
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  70. If your radiators don't put out enough heat with low temperature water you can add a fan to them. In the US the term for this is a fan coil unit (FCU). A fan blowing through an existing radiator would also work.
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  71. Yes. An uncoiled 12AWG extension cord will always be protected by the circuit feeding it.
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  72. Some ants release pheromones when they die which cause other ants to come and attack the threat. So once one ant gets fried there's a positive feedback effect. I've heard this is a common problem in Texas.
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  73. LED grow lights seem to have settled on a de-facto standard set of connectors, making the drivers user-replaceable.
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  74. @asdrubale bisanzio Albania, the Congo, Iceland, and Paraguay use basically 100% renewable electricity sources. So yes, it's more than possible to last a day or two without coal. Hydroelectricity is by far the main renewable source and it naturally provides storage. If you are insistent on the 'bad weather' excuse, consider that most days wind and solar does generate. This reduces the need for fossil fuels which can be saved for those bad weather days.
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  75.  @greggv8  A good look at policy is always a good thing, even if no better options end up being found. While mass transit is infeasible for most of the US, it certainly is more practical for most Americans because most people live in more densely populated areas.
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  76.  @gregorymalchuk272  I saw those mentioned on another comment. They're still not ideal as they seem quite small and there's no thermal contact with the fixture. More ideal would be a 4 inch or so (~10 cm) square which is pressed against the fixture via a thermal transfer pad to keep everything cool.
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  77.  @ClaytonDorris  Are you forced to use resistance heating as your home's main heat source? Are your light bulbs where you need heat? If you answered no to any of these questions then switching to incandescent light bulbs because of their heating effect is a poor idea. Even something as simple as ceiling mounted lights (where the heat stays above your head) is less effective at heating than electric heaters at the floor. The best way to use resistance heating is a radiant heater pointed at you. If managed properly this could be done with incandescent floodlights but I doubt your existing lights are designed to do this.
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  78. The secret is we only have one phase going to residential areas. The second leg is an exact opposite (180 degree) instead of 120 degrees as if it were three phase. I hope this makes sense. In areas with true three phase, you indeed cannot get an entire 240v from two phases.
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  79. Modern American RVs with more electrical use a four pin 120/240v 50a connector.
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  80.  @asbestosfibers1325  The raw equipment doesn't cost much more but that's before any dealer markups. And regarding that $10, it's probably a little bit more, especially since you're probably switching from a 17" to a 21" cabinet. Probably more like 100-300 USD.
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  81. That would definitely be a poor wiring decision. If you have overhead lights and a switched outlet it's definitely better if they have separate switches.
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  82. The technical feature becomes much more acceptable if it is fully advertised and incentives are offered for using your car as grid storage.
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  83. The story involving your excessive hair didn't make the cut. I get it. Btw you need the Reed stories.
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  84. @Nigel Cam You're saying electric cars don't have soul, size, opulence, or class? That's the automaker's fault, there's no reason they couldn't release an electric version of the Town Car or any other model of your choosing. I agree electric cars don't have the engine note of an ICE. I don't think most people care, they just want something that will get them from point A to point B reliably.
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  85.  @arnehurnik  The prices I'm seeing are $735.26 for the WiFi version and $387.45 for the standard version. Certainly very expensive for the components within (especially for the WiFi version, that's probably <$10 more in parts), but IMHO not too bad, considering the special flexible cabling and machined plug. Most people will spend more than that on an electrician to run power line and install the unit.
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  86.  @klikkolee  Some companies make all-in-one units with one compressor running home heating and cooling along with hot water production. This Old House installed one by Mitsubuishi in season 40. They specifically mentioned it was capable of heating one room while cooling another so I can assume it would also choose the best heat source for water.
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  87.  @danielfay8963  Those outlet testers can only detect a few of the possible wiring errors. Most notably, they cannot detect if neutral and ground are flipped or shorted. The most exciting thing is a reverse polarity bootleg ground. A tester will report such an outlet as perfectly fine, even though the ground pin is actually connected to live.
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  88.  @lztx  They can't be shrouded because that would break compatibility with outlets that grab the prongs further up.
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  89.  @kyleflounder9783  Confused about rotary phones? You put your finger over the number you want to dial, rotate it to the fingerstop, then release to dial a digit. It's easy to use (although I've never actually dialed a live phone). Internally there's a governor to regulate the pulsing speed, and a switch opens once per pulse transmitted.
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  90.  @run2thestore  I'm guessing the downstairs bedroom opens up into the landing area. If that's the case maybe it originally had a 3-way switch but it was replaced with the wrong type of switch (or an incorrectly wired 3-way).
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  91. The important thing to note is that the different settings have no effect on efficiency. Choose a lower setting if the heater is sharing the circuit with other devices. And lower settings will lead to more consistent temperatures. Higher settings will make it heat faster (obviously) but the hidden gotcha is self-heating will cause the thermostat to switch off early so it's not actually faster at heating a room unless there is some amount of airflow. Matthias Wandel made a video about this.
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  92.  @VictoriaKimball  I should probably note that the issue with inconsistent temperatures is much less with an oil-filled heater compared to hot air. The oil-filled stays warm for a while after the thermostat cycles off but a hot air heater stops putting out heat immediately.
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  93. Not too much. Like an ICE car going uphill will consume much more energy but unlike an ICE vehicle you can use regenerative braking to recharge going downhill.
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  94. IIRC Code requires that if you have extra switched outlets (AFAIK all switched outlets outside of dwelling units) you put a label on the outlet saying it is switched.
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  95. Yes, we need this. Even with a cheap mini-split you have installation costs but a window one is easy. It's probably not ideal for actual windows but plenty of people have in-wall units which are basically the same.
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  96. If load does not affect your runtime the generator is running very inefficiently. You could increase efficiency by using it to charge a battery and then running off the battery.
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  97. The problem with calling them auxillary sweaters is that many people associate the term 'sweater' with feeling warmer.
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  98.  @a.b2966  Even in the US all of that would probably be fine going through a single light-duty extension cord. The thinnest cords we have are 18AWG which are still good for 1000 watts continuous.
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  99. Ground source heat pumps are definitely the way to go if you can.
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  100. A tip from when I did this: bundle all your 'dock' cables into one using cable ties/wrap or whatever. It keeps things tidy. Also USB hubs are your friend (and many monitors have built in hubs.) Power, video, and USB are all you need.
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  101.  @BenRattigan  I was thinking the plug casing might break if the cable is yanked away perpendicular to the wall. While British plugs may have a tendency to fall pins up, let me tell you that if you manage to step on a US plug it hurts, probably much worse.
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  102. If you're concerned about resale value you shouldn't be. Practically nobody checks heating capacity when buying a house. Even if the system were actually undersized they won't know as long as it's warm during the tour. But a 74F design temperature is fine; I believe the actual standard is 70. And there's still the heat strips available which nearly double the total available heating capacity. Maybe it would be worth going from a 2 ton to a 2.5 ton.
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  103.  @jmr5125  In that case the inspectors are part of the problem. And ideally the sell sheet for the house should include an estimate of HVAC running costs because it can be such a large expense.
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  104. Yes, definitely regulate flicker on exterior lighting. I assume you're talking about slow PWM that's sometimes used.
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  105.  @exoticcar5482  I remember seeing incandescent streetlights in a single neighborhood in the early 2000s. I'm not 100% sure they were incandescent but I remember the bulbs were unprotected on the bottom.
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  106. Yeah, I'm surprised that he didn't mention heat pumps at all this video. It's clear to me why this monstrosity is better but he still could have explicitly mentioned it.
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  107. That's pretty common here (US). Mainly hallways and staircases.
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  108. I don't think 66F is excessively cold... for the winter. For the summer it does seem very cold.
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  109. That will depend the most on how often you drive. An easier metric is how much it costs per mile/kilometer if you charge at home. An "average" figure for EVs is 200Wh per km or 320 Wh per mile. If a kWh of electricity costs ten cents then each mile would be 3.2 cents. Or if you drive 12,000 miles a year you'd be paying a bit more than a dollar per day at these rates.
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  110. The problem is a power meter cannot show you the amount of power which would be drawn in the future. An appliance which has different modes could draw more power in the future if it switches modes. An example is a refrigerator which draws much more power when defrosting than when cooling. The power meter will also not be able to warn you about faults which may develop in the future.
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  111.  @ronk9830  That's all very true, however I would suggest using the nameplate rating whenever possible when sizing cords as that should be the maximum possible steady state draw. I'll use the example of the freezer in my basement, which I actually have put on a power meter. The power meter registered a maximum draw of over 18 amps, which would suggest that a 12AWG cord is needed. However that's a momentary draw of a fraction of a second when it switches on. Because it's so quick there's not enough time for wires to heat up so it can be disregarded when selecting a cord for safety. With my measurements it dropped below 3 amps after a few seconds. This was in the winter, though. It might be more in the summer. The nameplate says about five amps so that's what I'm using in calculations. Nowadays we have both it and another refrigerator on the same 16awg cord. It might look like it's overloaded but the nameplate ratings only add to 12 amps which is less than the 13 amp rating of the cord, so I know it's safe.
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  112.  @ronk9830  My point is the nameplate rating already accounts for those different situations. I would only measure 6 or 7 amps max but the nameplates say I should account for 11.5 amps. Technically I should be using a heavier cord because a 16awg cord's rating of 13 amps should be dropped to 10.4 amps if used for continuous loads. However there are two or three main reasons I'm ok with this. First, the cord is out in the open. Half of it is hanging in the air where it will get plenty of convective cooling, and the other half is over the metal freezer body which will also conduct heat away. This cooling slightly increases the ampacity of the cable. Plus in this setup the cord is away from flammable materials. Even if the cord were to melt it would short out the supply and trip the breaker, preventing further damage. The final reason is that from reading the service information for the refrigerator I know it will not draw its rated load continuously. The compressor's rating is less than the defrost heater. The defrost heater won't run continuously because it is on both a timer and a thermal cutout.
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  113. It's halogen bulbs which redeposit the evaporated filament.
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  114. Sounds like it might be the Telechron Occlusion Clock.
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  115. You could have a literal gold mine of information!
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  116.  @GeorgeVCohea-dw7ou  I've also run into a situation where a metal object crossed the plug. In this case it was an extension cord but and a metal hanger on a shelf but it was still something.
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  117. I think that's a purely Italian limit. At least everyone I've seen comment about their tiny electric service has been from Italy.
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  118.  @Coconut-219  I think most vehicles have proper turn signals, AFAIK it's mainly trucks and vans that have the shared signals.
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  119. I don't think it is to slow the movement but rather to impart more energy into the impact.
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  120. I didn't know they did that for light bulbs but they definitely did it for vacuum tubes. If you bought a Zenith radio or TV it would come with Zenith-branded tubes even though they never made tubes. The tubes would actually be made by RCA, GE, Sylvania, Tung-Sol, etc, or more likely a mix of manufacturers.
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  121. To be more accurate the code requirement (as of the 2017 NEC) is to have fixed lights in every room. An exception is provided if you have a switched outlet but this exception is only valid in certain room types. So the bathroom and kitchen need ceiling (or wall) lights but it's up to the designer if your bedroom and living room have switched outlets or overhead lights.
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  122. And if you do get a blue screen, you can just press the appropriate key to continue. P.S. If you never want a blue screen you can just change the color: https://web.archive.org/web/20080112185307/http://support.microsoft.com/kb/90740
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  123. Yes that's right. The absolute minimum allowed for new single-family homes is 100A and this gives us 24 kilowatts. In recent decades 200A is more common. And yes there are limits. My service may be good for 48 kilowatts but I don't think the distribution transformer it's connected to is rated for more than 50.
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  124. Your 230v 63a 3ph is almost 44 kilowatts. American 200a service (200a on each 120v leg) is 48 kilowatts so it's pretty comparable. I've watched videos of English electricians and 63 amps single phase seems to be their norm with 100a as an option. Worst is Italy where if I'm not mistaken 16a single phase is the norm with 25a as an upgrade option.
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  125.  @whitslack  If the wiring was done in conduit it will be well-grounded and if done with armored cable it will probably be good enough even if not intended for grounding. It's really only ancient knob-and-tube and early non-metallic cable which won't have a ground. This leaves a decade or two in the thirties or forties where a grounded box would be fairly common at home. Of course commercial buildings are much more likely to be conduit. I work in an old building and most of the wiring is in surface mounted conduit, likely from the original electrification. It pained me to see a grounding adapter used without the screw.
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  126.  @whitslack  NM-B is only installed in conduit under very specific situations (to offer physical protection of a short section of the cable), usually conduit is filled with loose wires such as type THHN). The second situation I was referring to is armored cable which back then would be hot and neutral inside a steel or aluminum sheath. Since the sheath is metal and is attached to metal boxes using metal clamps it happens to provide ground continuity. Please not that the sheath is not rated for grounding duty but it's still better than nothing. While I did not say ungrounded receptacles were ever installed when a proper ground wire is present, that did sometimes happen. As to why, I'd guess ungrounded outlets were cheaper. It's similar to how you can install 15 amp receptacles on 20 amp circuits.
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  127.  @kensmith5694  On modern ones I'm sure there actually is a counter. Not a countdown but more like a car odometer, providing useful information for servicepeople. If the machine has gone through 10,000 wash cycles you could assume the mechanisms are more likely to be worn out and might need replacement.
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  128.  @HCkev  Even if the dimmer's all the way up you really shouldn't power electronics with it. The sharp leading edge can be super stressful on capacitors.
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  129.  @cloksin  Uh, my closest Home Depot currently has 46 10packs of non tamper resistant 15a receptacles in stock. Tamper resistant outlets aren't required everywhere, only in homes and certain places which are likely to have children. Even then you don't need tamper resistant outlets if they are more than 5 and a half feet off the floor. If you're installing an outlet high up (such as for a garage door opener) or at a business you don't need the shutters.
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  130.  @heatshield  There are US outlets with switches. Some examples are the Leviton T5225 and T5625 although these appear to only have 15a switches so would not be suitable for 20a kitchen circuits. You'd also need to keep in mind code rules for outlet quantity and spacing as well as GFCI.
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  131. FMVSS in the US require that you can't drive when charging. Even if not required many cars retask some of the motor electronics for driving, making it physically impossible to charge when driving. Although having said this, it would occasionally be useful to charge when driving. It would let you use an ordinary gas generator as a range extender if needed.
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  132. Many charging cords have space for a padlock so it can't be removed from the car. And the charging plug is standardized on EVs, all electric cars* can use the same charging stations. *Different continents have different charge ports but I doubt you drive to different continents very often.
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  133. Dedicated thermoelectric power plants can extract much more energy from fuels than the average ICE can. Coal plants are usually around 33% and natural gas plants are usually over 40%. A car engine averages around 18-20%.
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  134. Retroreflective beads are also in many projector screens to improve contrast. It reflects lots of light to somebody in the same direction as the projector but doesn't reflect as much from the room lights.
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  135. They often do.
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  136. That's just a GFCI in the plug, not an overcurrent breaker. And actually, GFCI plugs on hair dryers happened after GFCIs were added to wall outlets, not before.
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  137. Well most of those things don't affect the cost at all. He's also using white wire for a 120v leg. It should technically be marked. Regarding cost AFAIK a GFCI breaker is under $100 and a neutral isn't needed if you don't have a 14 receptacle, such as if it's hardwired or using a 6 receptacle.
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  138. In the US, the neutral and ground are connected at exactly one point. Since that point is the the service panel, you are permitted to interchange the two there. In subpanels the two must be kept separate. Note that different countries use different earthing types.
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  139. The largest laptop batteries are just under 100 watt-hours, or 0.625% of Alec's calculated energy storage. Assuming power consumption is the same from the wall or from battery you'd never save energy by doing this. You could theoretically save money but even at a very high 50 cent/kWh rate a full charge costs less than four cents. In my opinion the wear on the battery would not be worth it.
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  140. @Call Me Joey Here there are regulations on the minimum heating that needs to be provided to qualify as habitable. While you may prefer it warmer they only need to supply that much. I can't imagine there not being similar regulations anywhere unless the weather is mild enough that it never became an issue.
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  141. Captions are more important than sound on this channel.
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  142. I thought Teslas air conditioned the batteries if needed while charging. I'm surprised that it couldn't charge. I presume that was the EVSE cutting out instead of the car itself. But why would the EVSE cut out? 60 Celsius operating temperature is acceptable for most electronics and that's 140 Fahrenheit.
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  143. My thought was using the vehicle speed sensor (the thing driving the speedometer and odometer) which won't require any extra sensor hardware. The individual wheel speed sensors used for ABS would provide four separate inputs for extra redundancy if desired.
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  144.  @AndrewDasilvaPLT  On the other hand this old-school one uses about 3x as much water* as Alec's newer one. If you use the dishwasher multiple times a week the savings make the additional complexity worth it. *It's not so much the water itself but more the energy to heat the water.
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  145. It's 2024, we have the Internet. I did a quick search for Flip-flash and got the answers. The thermal events disconnect the spent bulb and wire in the next. It's easy enough to break a circuit with heat but making a connection is more interesting. It's described in patent US3458270A.
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  146.  @ryanphillips7064  That's basically all it is, but it also works in reverse so you recharge if you go downhill. Obviously mechanical transmission, motor efficiency, and battery efficiency are also at play so it's not a 1:1.
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  147. I think capacitors are rarely the cause of LED bulb failures. In fact from what I've seen most of them should continue operating without electrolytic capacitors, just with more flicker. Most hard failures seem to be from the bond wires inside the LED chips breaking. Power supplies in LCD TVs and other "real" electronics are very different than LED bulbs.
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  148.  @radiotec76  LED bulbs tend to use linear power supplies because they are cheaper yet are still reasonably efficient because they match the LED voltage to the line voltage. A side effect is that they are more reliable and produce less interference. Note I'm talking about bulbs. Fixtures with a separate driver are almost always switch mode and a fair number of bulbs are too.
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  149. Anything inverter-powered should run just as well on 60Hz as it would on 50Hz.
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  150. When the car isn't running a contactor in the battery pack physically disconnects the electricity which increases safety. Commercial EVs also have circuitry which will detect faults including damaged cables which will trigger the same disconnect.
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  151.  @mattdaddy_888  If you cut into the bright orange wires you could get a serious shock but needing to do that isn't common. A good analogy might be high pressure lines on a diesel or gasoline direct injection engine. Hydraulic injection injuries can kill and worse yet it's easy to be unaware of such an injury when it happens. Ultimately you really shouldn't be working on any dangerous machinery if you aren't careful and take precautions.
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  152.  @mattdaddy_888  Discharging the battery won't do much in terms of shock safety. If you need to work inside the battery pack then you should probably use gloves and fully-insulated tools if you want to ensure safety. I would think many mechanics would remove the pack as a whole and take it to an independent battery shop if refurbishment is necessary.
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  153. It's okay to replace the entire assembly with a different approved one. All that really matters is that the bulbs match the assembly.
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  154. I've never personally been somewhere with switched outlets AND overhead lights in the same room.
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  155.  @rafflesmaos  I understand how the water would continue emitting heat but how would a slab under an insulated floor emit heat?
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  156. I wonder what all those people would say once they realize how the public roads are funded.
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  157. When I saw the title and the thumbnail I knew exactly what this video was going to be about. I'm surprised your thinner extension cords are 16AWG. In my part of the country we have tons of 18AWG extension cords which are only good for half the capacity of a 20 amp circuit.
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  158. Even with unlimited money I would suggest against having a DC fast charger at home. The equipment is much more complicated than a Level 1 or 2 charger so you could have it breaking down or needing maintenance at inopportune times.
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  159. Why not use a thin silicone mat as a buffer? Even a piece of paper would theoretically work.
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  160. While a 120v device will use more current than an equivalent 240v device, that increased current makes no difference in terms of getting shocked. The only thing that matters is how much current flows through the person, and a lower voltage means more current will flow through a person on higher voltages assuming they touch the live wires the same way.
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  161.  @christopherbedford9897  Higher current only means more heating if the same thickness of wire is used. However I believe we use thicker wires so that point is cancelled. The thinnest mains cords we have here are 18AWG, equal to 0.824 mm2. And regarding chaining power strips, the advice not to do that seems to be gone from the general mind. People chain them all the time but more importantly overload them often. In something like a breakroom where there's only one outlet there might be a microwave, coffee maker, and toaster oven all plugged into the same power strip. When too much is switched on at once the splitter's built in breaker trips. Perhaps in the past unfused splitters were more common, and of course if a 15a power strip is plugged into a 10a extension cord there is the potential for overheating. Basically if we put fuses in our 120v extension cords they should be just as safe as 230v ones. And regarding the actual shock hazard, skin resistance appears to be nonlinear. This means an equivalent shock at twice the voltage is more than twice as dangerous.
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  162. In a practical sense, if everybody keeps their existing heating system as a backup it shouldn't make a difference in peak grid usage. Worst case draw would remain what it is now. Note that doesn't mean it's not an issue, in some places it obviously is already an issue.
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  163.  @neglectfulsausage7689  Incandescent bulbs are still legal to buy in the US if they fall under exemptions. Unfortunately this means you mostly find "rough service bulbs" which are less efficient than regular bulbs.
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  164.  @neglectfulsausage7689  That just proves my point. I'm mostly finding 40w fan bulbs and they only put out ~350 lumens, and similar 60w bulbs are ~560 lumens. Old-school 40s are ~500 lumens and 60s are ~800 so there's a huge efficiency gap. The newer ones also produce a duller light which I dislike.
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  165. It's good to know that this actually exists. In another comment thread we were discussing the possibility of running a heat pump from a gas generator.
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  166.  @alexanderkupke920  Also I didn't mention this before but AFAIK in many cases you can replace the entire light assembly with an approved aftermarket one. Or at least I've seen cars with headlights which are styled differently than stock, there's a chance all of those have been illegal.
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  167. No, we use 120v because we've always used that, even in the late 1800s. The plugs came later in the 1910s. We couldn't change because that would render too much existing equipment obsolete.
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  168. It's November but that doesn't mean I can't put in effort. The service manual for your fancy microwave is W11400254 which you can find online. From the wiring diagram it does have a current limiting resistor but it is only used for the hood fan, the magnetron circuit is purely conventional on-off. I have no idea how it could run at reduced power when popping popcorn.
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  169. For a continuous 7500W, yes. There are special rules for thermostat-controlled devices so if I'm not mistaken you can connect this 7500W (@250V) heater to a 30 amp circuit if hardwired.
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  170. Alec addressed people without dedicated charging spots in the video.
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  171.  @EebstertheGreat  Presumably you'd have something else. I have gas forced air heating and a separate gas water heater. If you don't have gas you'd probably have an electric water heater. They do make heat pump water heaters but I think there's much less value in them.
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  172.  @Luke357  A mobile home needs access to 100 amps peak. Average load is under 10 amps.
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  173.  @Luke357  2500W at a lackluster 3mi/kWh comes out to over 65 thousand miles per year. That's enough for most people.
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  174.  @zaandam0172  Some LED bulbs use switching power supplies which generate interference, but some use linear power supplies which are much cleaner. Due to the limited space in the base filament style bulbs are invariably always the latter.
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  175. Even if it won't shut off when it should there are still a ton of safety features. There are usually physical overtemp sensors (either bimetallic strip and/or some sort of one-time-use fuse) to interrupt power if either the magnetron or box get too hot. There is also a double hardware interlock to make doubly sure it won't run with the door open.
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  176.  @DreAdeDcoRpSE  One of the things I mentioned is thermal over-limit switches. It should shut down before food gets hot enough to catch on fire. I suppose if you put something small in it could catch fire without heating the compartment bu then it wouldn't be large enough to cause damage.
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  177. It's perfectly normal and acceptable for the breakers to add up to more than the main breaker. It's all in section 220 of the NEC. 220.82 is a "shortcut" which can be used most of the time.
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  178. They are standardized. A light-duty extension cord will usually have 18AWG SPT-2 cable. Screws are also standardized, yet a #2 Phillips screwdriver won't work with a T8 Torx bit.
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  179. As a resident of Massachusetts I have a backflow prevention device on the water heater. There's no expansion tank, as you suggested would be a terrible idea, yet nothing bad has happened. I haven't noticed any puddles under the TPR valve under normal operation.
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  180.  @shawnbottom4769  What water drain? I don't have a floor drain. I also think I was mistaken. The device installed before the water heater does not appear to be a backflow prevention device but something else, maybe a vacuum break device. It appears to be wired in parallel with the tank rather than in series.
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  181. At least those invariably have user replaceable batteries, so waste is limited especially if rechargeable batteries are used. I think some newer ones even have built-in rechargeable batteries.
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  182. When you add a circulation system you're basically adding an in-wall tank to the water heater.
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  183.  @lordsamich755  There is a big difference between 120 volt lamps in regular lights and trying to use 400 volt lights in a car. With incandescents of a given wattage lower voltage bulbs are much more durable than higher voltage ones. With all the vibrations in cars this means higher voltage bulbs aren't practical. The other option is of course LED but modern LEDs run around three volts, so you'd either need to run 100 LEDs in series (IMHO impractical for things like turn signals) or have some sort of voltage converter.
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  184. How much of your system they can reuse probably depends on the pressures involved as well as material compatibility. I believe older systems run at lower pressures which might not be compatible but if you have a modern central air conditioner most of it can probably be reused. I'm not an HVAC expert but I'd expect the lines and the evaporator would certainly be reusable if they use similar refrigerants. It should be possible to convert just by adding extra valves in the existing outside unit but installers may be unwilling to do that and you may want a new variable-speed compressor for added efficiency.
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  185. I'm sorry, you can only buy vowels. I o y oe oiooe. I aie iou a ae. Anyone who works with electronics test equipment should understand that pun. Well, they would if it had consonants.
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  186. Something I think would help push heat pump adoption is if they were readily available in the same form factor as window and (two-hose) portable air conditioners. If you could get one for $300 and set it up yourself there would be such a lower barrier to entry. Not only that but it would boost visibility. If somebody is out buying an air conditioner and one of the boxes in the store says "also heats, 5x as efficient as traditional electric heat" they might want to check it out.
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  187. Where I live, evaporative cooling is used, ironically, to make rooms warmer in the winter. In the winter we put wet paper towels over thermostats in places like schools and offices where the setpoint is remotely controlled. This cools the air by the thermostat so it thinks the room is colder than it actually is. The heater is run until this cold area reaches the set temperature, at which point the room itself is warmer than the too-cold temperature set by facilities management.
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  188.  @mernokimuvek  Not every way. Screw-in lamps are polarized. But despite technical superiority the established standard is practically superior unless there is a compelling reason to switch. Half an inch is not a compelling reason.
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  189.  @mernokimuvek  While not necessary polarization is still nice to have with electronic lamps so the fuse goes on the live side. And it's hard to accidentally put your fingers in a light socket and get shocked. US style plugs are much more of a shock risk than light sockets.
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  190. You don't need to bring a gas generator with you on the go. Eighty pounds of lead acid batteries will let you compute in silence for hours.
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  191. Capture devices often encode the caption data in a separate stream, or at least old-school DV ones do.
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  192. I am fairly certain that this device does not selectively censor the data sent on line 21 in the video output. My first guess is that it doesn't alter the data at all, meaning a TV's built-in caption decoder will reveal the original words. With a bit more circuitry they could strip the entire line. I suppose it's possible that they strip the data and then regenerate it but I find this unlikely.
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  193. Am I the only one who's had mostly good experiences with CFLs? I've never had a problem with the electronics getting cooked; I've done autopsies on my family's burnt out CFLs and without exception it was the tube itself which had failed. The only early failure I encountered with CFLs was in the bathroom where they were always short-cycled. And even that was probably just because of the instant-on "feature". We have an old-style non-twisted CFL with proper programmed start and it still works fine after 16 years of frequent use.
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  194.  @Science1144  Not quite. When the indoor temperature is set back lower than the design temperature your heat losses are lower than expected. This means the 100% sized furnace still has some extra power to bring the temperature back up even on the coldest day. And on the other 362 days it can do this without struggling. And this effect is even greater with heat pumps. Heat pumps actually output more than their designed output when the indoor temperature is low. Having said that, it's fine (and I'd argue a good idea) to oversize a little bit, perhaps 15-25%. This can also provide insurance for possible changes in the building's performance. Up to 150% sizing generally doesn't hurt performance. If the installed equipment is over twice as large as the calculated worst case there better be a very good reason.
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  195. 26:16 "Signaling an electronic flash" - don't you mean igniting a flash bulb?
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  196. Hey Alec, don't you usually put the corrections in the pinned comment? I have some fodder for you: 1. (9:44) You refer to a "sixteen pin chip" but I can only find an eighteen pin chip. 2. (10:05) As has already been mentioned, TRIACs turn the current on, not off, midwave. 3. (6:59) The ring in the tube circuit is insulated. On line 47 of the first column of text in the patent, it is specified that "the base 5 is made of ceramic, glass or some other insulating material." 4. (13:22) You couldn't connect the sensing electrode to a refrigerator because the refrigerator is (Hopefully) grounded. 5. (7:57) I doubt the tube circuit would have used 10-20 watts when idle. A tube similar to a 12AX7 could be used, which has a heater consumption of only 1.9 watts and a max anode dissipation of 1 watt per section. I would expect closer to five watts for the power consumption of the entire circuit. As a side note, the English WIkipedia page 'Touch-sensitive lamp' has seen significant improvements since this video has been published.
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  197. You can only add an outlet at the switch location if it's fed from the switch (or is post-2011 NEC). Oftentimes switch boxes will have hot and switched hot but no neutral. Actually now I realize even if fed from the outlet side you can just rewire it there. But then you have the problem of not having a switched light which is code required.
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  198. Cogeneration is another way to provide heat, and can work well with heat pumps. If power plants have 44% efficiency, the remaining 66% of energy is waste heat at the power plant. If this heat is piped into homes instead of directly into the atmosphere we'd have less need for a heater in the first place. I just don't know why this is so uncommon, it seems so obvious. It's not like it's too hard for us to extract the extra energy, that's exactly how the heating on a typical car works.
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  199. 0:48 Nope, we don't have 240v at our disposal here in the US. Only 120v. A little food grinder in the sink doesn't draw enough power to require 240v.
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  200. I actually have an outlet which uses the holes to improve retention; there is a definite feel of the bump sliding into a plug's hole and the reverse when removing a plug. It's a three-way splitter which is quite old; the receptacles are non-polarized and it is made of a Bakelite-like material. It may not be used anymore, but in the past it definitely was.
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  201. He has seen that show. The second half of his channel name is a direct reference to it.
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  202. Let me chime in here. A year or two back I looked at the installation instructions for a similar Siemens EVSE. If I recall correctly it is required to be on a GFCI-protected circuit if installed outside but not if installed inside. For DC fault currents I believe the car itself has ground fault detection on the high voltage DC system, opening the contactor and disconnecting the battery if a fault is connected. I don't know where else DC fault current could possibly come from.
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  203. ​ @natehoy6924  Before the 2011 NEC you didn't need a neutral at the switch location. This would be the usual case if the power is fed at the outlet side. However if you are wired this way you change the connections at the outlet and then the previous switch location is a permanent on power point.
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  204. I believe geothermal systems run with (more-or-less) water. If there aren't any harmful additives used then I'd say just don't worry about leaks.
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  205. It actually is still allowed. But it is uncommon. If you take a closer look you may notice that they are actually only one unit. Some manufacturers create double pole breakers which look very similar to two single pole breakers bound together.
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  206.  @zeroone8800  The motor may spin continuously but on these quartz movements it is driven by a quare wave, AFAIK 8Hz. Essentially the motor itself is a mechanical digital to analog converter with a low pass filter.
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  207. Did you watch to the end of the video? Despite the temperature differences Alec determined that his heating load and cooling loads are very similar.
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  208.  @jackdunagan331  I'm pretty sure the short cycling caused by an oversized unit is much more stressful than running 100% for 12 hours a few times a year. I've read that up to 50% over-sizing has minimal side effects so perhaps Alec's parents could have gone with a 4t instead of a 3t unit. 5 tons would definitely be too much.
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  209.  @jackdunagan331  I imagine variable speed inverter units have the greatest physical longevity. Running at half speed all the time needs to be less wear than running at full speed half the time. But really, is it worth worrying about the compressor? I've never seen a dead HVACR compressor but leaks in the coil seem more common.
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  210. I know I've thought of using a laptop in a car as an MP3 player back in 2006-7 or so.
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  211. Are we getting a Connextras video on thermostat heat anticipators? They're basically the same thing (but obviously much more dependent on room temperature), switching the heat on and off with proportional duty cycle control instead of purely based on room temperature.
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  212. Wall-wart is specifically referring to blocks located on the plug. Plenty of external transformers are not wall warts (many are mounted inline) and a modern AC-DC adapter is much more than a transformer.
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  213. That doesn't seem right. Do you have a light switch nearby that doesn't do anything? Assuming you're using US-style wiring somebody probably replaced an outlet while neglecting to break the tab. This will most likely be one with one wire on the neutral side but two on the live side (and a ground).
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  214.  @LexarVN  That's really weird then, a room with no light switches?
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  215. Fancy metallurgy helps.
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  216.  @man_eating_monkey  You can cause damage if you are moving at high speed and then switch to a too low range if you're using an ancient pure-mechanical automatic transmission. Anything made in the past 30 or so years is going to be computer-controlled. Unless it's already malfunctioning you can't cause any damage by commanding a downshift.
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  217. Mini-splits usually run the indoor unit from the outdoor unit. Central ducted systems usually have a separate feed to the AHU and have low-voltage wiring connecting the two. Even if you do need new wiring just run it alongside the refrigerant linesets.
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  218. You don't need to mess with rectifiers and bare transistors. There are super cheap AC current sensing relay modules and you can have its output power a contactor which cuts off the other device.
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  219.  @paulkurilecz4209  You can definitely have multiple outlets on a single appliance circuit. And especially since they're living in an apartment there's a chance the fridge is actually outside of the kitchen area, or at least what was the kitchen area when it was originally wired.
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  220. COP shouldn't be in your calculations. Heat pumps are sold on on output power, not input power.
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  221.  @ccoder4953  That article is wrong in its assertion about needing eight circuits, that's only if you have tons of built-in appliances. From my reading of the 2020 NEC you only need two and a half circuits in a kitchen: the two dedicated appliance circuits and the lighting one which can be shared.
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  222. That's a great option much of the time but not all the time. When it's very hot and humid a fan becomes ineffective.
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  223. There are already air to water heat pumps which I've heard are pretty popular in Europe for whole house heating. The easiest option in the US is probably to get an all in one heat pump water heater tank and use an external circulator pump to run the hot water to the in-tank loops.
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  224. Connectors are some of the most expensive components around. To make the LEDs easily removable would likely make the fixtures several times more expensive, especially if you retain adequate heatsinking. Honestly, the solution to replacing individual LEDs is getting a soldering iron.
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  225. I did a search for "central heat pump" and lots of units showed up. "Ducted heat pump" is another term.
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  226.  @DeGuerre  Actually one of the first central heat pumps my search revealed is the Pioneer DR024GHFE18HT2 which uses a conventional "dumb" 24v thermostat system. For better performance you probably want one with more smarts. It's better to have multiple zones but I would imagine most would have no problem operating with a single zone.
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  227.  @lztx  I think those outlets would be rare at best but with well over 100 years of history, a good portion of which was without a formal specification, you can never be sure of what's out there. I have an ancient power strip / power bar which is just two long vertical slots where plugs can be inserted anywhere. Maybe that grips near the body? I don't know. I should mention that I have seen a shrouded US-style plug before, on a travel adapter which allows British appliances to be used here.
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  228. I would presume your window AC has a built-in thermostat.
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  229. Are you sure about that? Do you have a bathroom
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  230.  @jonanderson5137  I could see it potentially happening if the magic outlet is worn and defective in such a way that pieces no longer are in proper contact if something is plugged in. However I can't see the switch being fed from an outlet on the other side of the room unless there are only the two outlets in the room.
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  231.  @PlaystationMasterPS3  TLDR 16mpg. I was wondering the same thing so I'll run the numbers(even though I'm a year late): Honda EU2200i runs 3.2 hours of rated load on its .95gal tank A level 1 charger draws 80% of that so runtime should be a bit greater. So 1 gallon of gas probably will run the charger for 4 hours. Assuming the car charges at 4mph that means those 4 hours get you 16 miles. 16mpg is far from great but it's on par with large SUVs. As an emergency range extender I'd say it's not too bad. I'll also run the numbers for a large Honda EB10000: 8.19gal gives 5.4 hours of 9kW load That results in 5.4hr * 9kW / 8.19gal = 5.93 kWh/gal Multiply by 4 mi/kWh and you get over 23mpg A common L2 charger will only draw 85% of the generator's capacity but that still gives over 20mpg.
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  232. This does exist. When done automatically it is often called an economizer.
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  233. That's a function which the automakers could easily add. A likely way they could do this is using GPS to know if you're parking at home. If you're parked at home with a depleted battery it would send a notification if you don't plug in within a few minutes.
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  234.  @christopherdahle9985  I doubt your central office has the same old switchgear as the Connections Museum, they're pretty confident they have the last remaining panel and 1XB switches. 5XB is much more plausible. And running a magnetron on PWM? It would technically work but my understanding is magnetrons electrically behave like LEDs (but also have filaments). Meaning they have a relatively constant voltage drop when running (a few kV) and rely on external current limiting provided by the transformer and the doubler's capacitor. What I'm saying is high-frequency PWM is somewhat impractical as it would interfere? with the original current limiting. There's a reason microwave manufacturers use low frequency (0.067 Hz in my case) PWM instead.
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  235. A 6 cent rate probably doesn't include other expenses which add to the power bill. Where I live the cost to generate electricity is only half the bill, the rest is transmission charges which I presume cover losses in the network as well as maintenance of the system.
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  236. There's another way to determine your actual heating requirements without needing a smart thermostat: look at the gas meter/bill. Most of it will go to the heating system (and the rest heats the house indirectly) so divide by your furnace efficiency to get the actual heat output into the home. The gas bills around here show average gas usage per day as well as average outdoor temperature during the billing period so it's easy to do the math.
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  237. With a little experience it should take much less than an hour to fix basic problems with such a machine. If you know what switches you pushes and what should be triggered then you just look at the schematic for what's in between. The real hard part is going to be designing everything. And a benefit is the failures will be visible, you can easily see if a switch is working or not but it's not as easy to see if a digital chip is bad.
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  238. Definitely.
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  239. All else being equal a cassette adapter will give better audio quality than an FM transmitter. Of course if either adapter has a builtin bluetooth receiver or MP3 player or whatever the quality of that will likely make more of a difference. A wired cassette adapter plugged into a physical headphone jack sounds great.
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  240. In terms of plain electric heating everything is 100% efficient, the wattage is exactly equal to the heat output. The difference is how the heat is utilized. An infrared heater pointing at you could make you comfortable without needing to heat the entire room, thus saving energy. "Heat lamps" often marketed for reptiles or chickens work exactly the same as the $200+ infrared heaters ones you are finding.
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  241. You don't need a smart meter, just read it manually. Or even easier, wait for your bill. The gas bills around here show average daily usage in therms (which can easily be converted to Btu/hr ow kWh) as well as the average outdoor temperature over the billing period.
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  242. That sounds like a neon lamp. If so, I'm surprised you could read by it. I had a clock with one and I couldn't even read the digits with it.
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  243. On mine from the mid nineties it uses a wax motor (thermal expansion). Newer computer-controlled ones or other brands might be different.
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  244. Uh no. Alec didn't forget, he specifically said he wasn't going to be discussing DC charging in this video.
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  245. Of course that only makes sense when all your cords are individually fused.
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  246. I didn't notice that but when you have physical access to the machine it's super easy. Just tap one relay* four times, another one two times, a third one 6 times, and so on.
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  247. According to Whirlpool a "high efficiency" washer uses 10-25 gallons per load. If filled with hot water directly from the tank that's enough for at least two loads on a 50 gallon tank.It's only a problem if you have a large laundry day. If you rarely do more than one load at a time it's a complete non-issue. Also the modern washer will take longer per cycle than the hot air dryer, leaving off-time for the water to reheat.
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  248.  @Yay295  Bringing a gas powered generator isn't a silly idea if it's for some "just in case" situations. An example would be going on a road trip where there are charging stations but upon arrival the chargers are inoperable.
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  249. The same principles apply to boiler systems.
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  250. Bluff detected. It's impossible to bend the prongs of UK plugs. Of course I've never tried but clearly it is much more difficult than bending the pins on US plugs which depending on the style is already pretty difficult.
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  251. What you want is what was done with some old X10 modules: flick the power off and on to toggle the state. If you have a switch at the wall and on the lamp each of their switches becomes an independent control more akin to a 3-way (called 2-way in other countries) setup. You'd need to remember to put everything back to ON but this is probably easy to get used to, at least easier to get used to than what Alec is doing now.
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  252. Actually, by that definition 240v systems are actually 415v because of phase separation. Now, do those high power appliances really use the 415v or do they just have multiple 240v inputs?
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  253.  @LeifNelandDk  In the US for the 1974 model year there actually was an interlock so you couldn't start the car without the front seatbelts buckled. Due to public resistance this rule wasn't continued past then.
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  254. Since it has the float switch, it will never get empty by itself. You'd need to dump it out manually. To do that, you need to, you guessed it, move it.
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  255.  @SummerFunMan  I was being a bit facetious about my last point but as a whole? It had wheels, right? If it can move easily it shouldn't make a mess when it does. Somebody unfamiliar with it may need to move it to get to something and end up with a nasty surprise.
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  256.  @SummerFunMan  Sometimes I can't read my own mind. I think I was trying to say it would be common for it to get moved when full so the design should take this into account. I realize I can have an abrasive speaking style sometimes and the nature of text-based communication does not help.
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  257. I thought Shucko plugs were good for 10 or 16 amps. In any case 6 amps should keep everything cool.
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  258.  @Irthex  Heating is determined by I²T, current squared times time. I'm not sure how it works in Europe but in the US our standard plug is nominally 15 amps. At full capacity we can only use it for 3 hours because of heating but if we only use 12 amps or 80% capacity we can run continuously. Do you have electric space heaters available where you live? If so, check their wattage. That's an amount which can be drawn continuously for an extended period of time.
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  259. Yes, everything just comes with a 'NH' thread. Nothing comes with built-in quick connectors but they are available for purchase separately. Does everything have a standardized built-in quick disconnect where you live?
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  260. I don't think "it's stupid" is the reason they don't advertise switching a TV or radio anymore. Back when the earlier versions came out mechanical controls were the norm on existing TVs but modern versions of these devices are electronically controlled and often can't be turned off and back on by cutting and restoring power.
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  261. ​ @tshirley05015  For context the US used 3.93 trillion kWh in 2021 according to the Energy Information Administration, or 10.77 billion kWh per day.Your math is assuming everybody drives the full range of their car every day which is not the case. For a better number you should look at the total miles driven and the energy consumption of EVs per mile. I did the math a while ago and IIRC switching everyone to EVs would only add around 10-20% to the total electricity usage. For context according to according to the Energy Information Administration, the US used 3.93 trillion kWh in 2021. This comes to 10.77 billion kWh per day.
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  262. When you mentioned hot water my first thought was literal hot water. Since water-based heating is (AFAIK) the norm in Europe it would be easy to add a pair of pipes to connect your central heating loop to a fan coil in the garage and use your existing high-output boiler or heat pump.
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  263. This isn't the first time he's done a video series on the workings of a pinball machine. Ten years ago he did a series on a different machine. That was before Technology Conenctions, it's on his older "Alec Connectify" (edisonphono1) channel.
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  264. I can provide one solid data point that an always lit dashboard on a new car combined with daytime running lights leads to forgetting to turn on the headlight.
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  265. What do you mean they can be used on both sides? Are you referring to the fact that plugs can be rotated 180 degrees and still fit? That's bad from a safety perspective because it doesn't allow for polarization.
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  266.  @cedricalexander9319  If believe Europlug is just a safe design for certain low-power double-insulated devices like device chargers. If I'm not mistaken "real" appliances still use each country's native plugs. Europlug doesn't even have a ground pin!
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  267.  @Guysm1l3y  I agree you shouldn't replace a working furnace for funsies. Most furnace setups in my area are paired with an air conditioner where the condenser goes above the furnace's air output. In such a setup the heat pump would replace the air conditioning unit, or the AC can be converted with some valves.
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  268. I think there should be more of a focus on cogeneration. In a large-scale system you burn fuel to generate electricity, but harness the waste heat to heat buildings instead of just heating the environment like a regular plant.
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  269. A gas tankless water heater would definitely take a few seconds to start. Electric ones might be an imperceptible delay. But with a hot water tank there's usually some heat conduction into the outlet pipes, meaning it would be a bit warmer while you wait.
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  270. Do you live in a warmer area? My attached garage usually doesn't reach freezing but it's quite often in the high 30s-low 40s F.
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  271.  @sireuchre  I mean there are tons of factors involved. My garage has three outside walls and a roof. Other houses with the garage under the first floor and next to the basement will have warmer garages during the winter. Of course other things like garage doors that don't seal perfectly aren't helping me either.
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  272. On the other hand straight-exit plugs are much more likely to pull out if caught. I can't imagine the damage that would occur if somebody trips over a British plug.
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  273. I haven't heard of that scheme before. What I've seen before on an old Civic is you can't lock it from the inside if the door is unlatched. This setup is contained entirely in the door so it's likely less failure-prone.
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  274. Was it an old apartment? Back when 99% of what you'd have plugged in was a light it would be convenient to have everything switched together.
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  275. I can't imagine nobody has commented on the use of a dedicated dehumidifier. Alec, if you use a dual-hose portable air conditioner wouldn't you get the same dehumidification but also get "free" cooling?
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  276. I should add that if your fridge is inside a room which is at a fairly constant temperature it won't help at all. If X degrees is the warmest your fridge can be then just set it to X degrees. Overcooling it will cause a greater temperature gradient, meaning more thermal energy will flow through its insulation.
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  277. The second knob could be power level. Real power level with a rheostat, not power cycling like digital ones do.
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  278. The connectors are all recessed so nothing is exposed when it could be live. They also have protection like GFCI/RCD in case something were to go wrong.
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  279.  @johncoops6897  True but it's not worth worrying much about. Of those HVAC is the only substantial load and it seems these don't need to work very hard if you're not moving.
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  280.  @johncoops6897  General car electronics are about 300 watts on the Prius. Even if you are using 1kW it's still like you're only driving 3mph. For the HVAC, It's what Alec said.
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  281. A "smart outlet" sounds a lot like an EVSE. In some areas (I think UK for instance) most public charge stations require you to bring your own (standardized) cable. Since the cable is the most prone to damage (both by accident and by vandalism) this should increase reliability.
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  282.  @robertpatterson5937  Maybe it's a bit cheaper to have an ordinary outlet and I guess if it's inside a garage you probably don't need to worry about rain. The benefit of a standard outlet is you could easily charge other things, like ebikes. The problem I see with what you described is the need for an app and presumably also Internet connectivity. I would hope that such systems also have provisions for standard payment methods, such as one kiosk serving many outlets.
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  283.  @robertpatterson5937  But why would the app not be an impediment for residents? Not everybody has an always charged smartphone with Internet access that they are willing to install third party apps on. If I were a resident I would rather have an NFC card or fob I could use instead. It is of course okay if they use a connected app as one authentication method but there should be other ways as well.
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  284.  @robertpatterson5937  The number might be vanishingly small but it includes me. And even among "normal" people phone batteries die or other glitches can occur. As to costs that their system is 20% off what an equivalent L2 charger costs, I call BS. It's easy to find L2 chargers which retail under $200. I even found a $99 one but it might omit required safety features. Unless the Orange system is under $40 per port they aren't being honest. A smart outlet requires GFCI and a contactor just like L2 chargers do. The signalling for L2 charging is super easy to implement. The main difference in cost is the connectors.
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  285. Most modern LED bulbs have an aluminum can under the plastic cover. It's not quite as good at heat transfer but it's cheaper than needing to fully isolate exposed metal and it's certainly better than no heatsink.
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  286. That's great and they certainly should improve the infrastructure. But I believe these smart thermostat temperature changes can easily be overridden, they're not exactly forcing you not to use air conditioning. I'd say it's a win-win if it enables your electricity rates to be lower while not forcing you away from being cooled.
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  287. That happened with my family's new car. On every previous car the dash only lights up when the headlights are on, and the new car also has DRL. Combine the two and it is hard to notice if you accidentally left the lights off.
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  288. If you've ever seen a US plug you'll know we never have sleeved pins. Worse is that many plugs, especially older ones, have the pins surprisingly close to the side of the plug.
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  289.  @anthonychallis2472  We can all agree your plugs are safer (as long as you don't step on them). Somehow I've never managed to shock myself with 120v on a plug but when I shocked myself on purpose in a controlled environment it wasn't too bad. I also haven't tried 240vac but I have touched 220vdc by accident and it was much more spicy.
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  290. I haven't seen it in a computer but in a repair video I did see a bimetallic thermostat used for fan speed control in a 1970s amplifier. A simmerstat would be a bad idea because the constant change in fan speed would be annoying.
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  291. New Duracells leak all the time but tbh I don't remember the old ones leaking.
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  292. If you are charging from a 100% efficient fuel-fired plant then MPGe would be useful in that way. Otherwise it's useless.
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  293.  @daledavies2334  Except often the dashboard is still lit lit even with the headlights off. I know somebody who was pulled over in a then-new 2011 CRV because of this. When the car is lighting the road in front of you and the dashboard is lit it's easy not to realize the headlights aren't on. You would need to notice the incorrect beam pattern or you would need to know that there is a dedicated symbol on the dashboard to indicate the headlights. Unless you're specifically thinking about it you probably won't notice.
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  294. I'm surprised actually. I would think the button is too small. I suppose you could just tape a coin or something over it. Or, just turn the 'dock' upside down.
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  295. When you did the demonstration where we could see only a single point of light and by moving we could see a different point of light, I thought of something. What if we built a device which could scan the point across the entire room, transmit the point to a remote location, and then reconstruct all the points into an image? It would be like vision at a distance. And then there's this Greek word tele, meaning at a distance. We could call this hypothetical technology "vision-tele" to sound cool.
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  296. The big problem with all the Tesla cars is that they are made by Tesla Motors. They're a very consumer unfriendly company who are basically single-handedly responsible for the impression that EVs are hard to repair.
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  297.  @benc1927  I've always heard it was hard to get parts if you're not an authorized repair center. It's possible they've gotten better in the past few years or in certain market areas. May I ask where you are located and what your repair was?
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  298. It's an arm.
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  299. Technically NEMA 10 receptacles are ungrounded and are only permitted in legacy installations. If you have one you can likely switch to a NEMA 6 receptacle without changing the wire or breaker (although you may need to move a wire in your panel).
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  300. In the US wind and solar are only about 7% of the power generated, which is not enough to make daytime power more expensive.
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  301.  @freibuis  You need to also consider that electricity demand is higher during the day. Daytime electricity won't be cheaper until the solar generation capacity is greater than the increased daytime load.
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  302. As somebody who lives with an AFUE 78 furnace without a draft inducer, I didn't know how newer furnaces work. Thanks for enlightening me!
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  303. The NEMA 6-15 plugs you are mentioning are actually fairly uncommon. Most 240v outlets in US households are dryer and range sockets (NEMA 14-30 and 14-50, or NEMA 10-30 and 10-50 in older houses.)
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  304. That was such a nice demonstration. My 90s dishwasher, as expected, works basically the same but has less smarts and is instead controlled with an electromechanical timer, a float switch, and a temperature switch. It uses more water than yours and runs the top and bottom at the same time. It washes fine, but then again we prerinse dishes AND we don't use pods.
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  305. I don't see any reason why this method wouldn't work in Arizona. If you have good insulation and a properly sized air conditioning system there should be no problems.
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  306.  @trxtech3010  It should work about as well as a house in Vermont can stay warm when it's zero F outside. I'm not really sure how well that is but I have a feeling we in colder areas take insulation more seriously. I'd be surprised if you had anything more than a 4x6 wall of fiberglass insulation.
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  307. Oddly enough I took apart the same Intermatic model D111 timer after it started acting up. Mine has a polarized plug (and socket) and a white dial but is otherwise identical. I always found it odd that it needed to be plugged in upside down. For completeness sake the motor has many poles so the rotor turns at much less than 3600 rpm.
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  308. You monster.
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  309. It depends. Many plug-in ones have 14-50P plugs which require a neutral (so 8/3). Most hardwired EVSEs (and all with a 6-50P plug) don't need a neutral and so can use 8/2 cabling. Something else to consider is aluminum wire. I believe 4 AWG is the smallest allowed which can carry more than 50 amps. It's more difficult (and thus expensive) to make proper connections with Al wire but for a longer run the lower wiring cost is likely worth it.
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  310. You never need to think about refilling your tank? What sort of vehicle do you have?
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  311.  @arantala  As long as there's a temperature difference the heat will make its way out eventually. The only question is how quickly and how much leaves via radiation or via conduction/convection. The only real loss in transfer efficiency is the amount of heat lost via conduction to the underside of the stove. AFAIK it is worse with lower temperatures but with thermal insulation I don't think it's enough to really matter.
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  312. I think your math is wrong. Your costs are showing 300 kWh which is way too high. It should be closer to one tenth that.
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  313.  @theJellyjoker  You probably did a multiply instead of divide. My math: (88.9 mi) / (3 mi/kWh) * ($.063/kWh) = $1.8669 Seeing that number you actually just had a decimal point in the wrong place.
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  314.  @theJellyjoker  I don't like electronic garbage either. If you end up needing a new car you might be able to unplug some of the sensors to disable the unwanted features.
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  315. Alec, you appear to be using wire nuts improperly. Stranded wire should lead solid ones when you put the nut on. Wirenuts are great if used great but as the Wago folks point out novices are more likely to properly use lever nuts. If you get this wrong they definitely have a point.
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  316. Most toasters are built like that today.
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  317. Well, a Sealed Lead Acid battery shouldn't be venting hydrogen.
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  318.  @johndododoe1411  I believe there was a "copy out" jack on Alec's adapter specifically for this purpose.
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  319. His main breaker appeared to be Siemens so he probably needs QP breakers. I think they have tandem breakers but IMO a new subpanel is a better option. He could even use it as a "critical loads" panel if he gets a backup power source.
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  320. All the fridges I've had (two R12, one R134a) have mechanical thermostats in the refrigerator compartment. A fridge needs to stay within a relatively tight temperature range so food don't spoil and doesn't freeze. If a freezer gets too cold nothing bad happens.
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  321.  @paulkurilecz4209  Based on the discussion of double-gang plates I would assume they do have overhead lights.
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  322. Never. We don't want to need to hold a button down to get power. Even regular on-off switches won't catch on because they're simply unnecessary. We are perfectly capable of unplugging things which need isolation from power.
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  323. You might be interested in EV conversions, more or less the same as engine swaps. You can even keep your old manual gearbox. With custom built setups there's also little vendor lock-in. You can mix and match parts from wherever you want.
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  324.  @kenbrown2808  The modern adapters just mean that now you have an entire laptop power adapter as a wall wart. But even without wall wards, right-angle plugs are still a thing.
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  325. That would only be an issue if both appliances have their incoming hot wires shorted to the case. With the exception of three wire stoves and dryers, I'm pretty sure no US appliance was ever designed with the case connected to a current carrying conductor.
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  326. Why would something with a ton of gasoline-based energy still need an external boost to get going? In an EV all the control circuitry runs from the 12 volt supply. Most important here are the battery contactors which physically disconnect the battery when not in use or if a fault is detected. Unless the contactors have a steady 12 volt supply you don't have a high voltage supply at all.
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  327. Supercapacitors often have a high self-discharge rate which would waste energy, but much more importantly for a given amount of energy storage they are many times larger and more expensive than batteries.
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  328.  @alakani  Energy density is still an issue. According to the Wikipedia page ELDCs have up to 3.9Wh/kg. To store 1kWh you'd need over 250 kilograms. If the density is similar to water that would be something like the internal volume of two minifridges. Definitely not easy to integrate.
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  329.  @alakani  Those numbers don't seem right. I looked up SkelCap (hadn't heard of them before) and their website has tons of links for their latest 3200F model. They specify: 6.7Wh/kg and 8.7Wh/L. This would be 150kg and 115L for 1kWh. 115L is 4ft3 or around 1 19 inch cube. You'd need 278 of these for 1kWh and at probably $50 each (when purchased in bulk) that's almost 14 thousand dollars. I'm surprised that it ends up being that small but it's still a bit too large and way too expensive.
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  330. I bet you have overhead lighting in the bathroom and kitchen. If not overhead then fixed wall-mounted which I guess would technically also be overhead.
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  331. That's a question for another video. Here's one bit for the future: using V2G functionality EVs can actually reduce stress on the grid by load shifting.
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  332. Generating green hydrogen is not very efficient and neither are hydrogen fuel cells. Using green hydrogen as a primary energy source on cars just doesn't make sense. If in cars it would likely just be as a secondary range extender.
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  333. From other comments I can say yes PCM adapters were sometimes used for BGM.
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  334. When you want to plug it in, make sure each side can see the other's pitchfork or else they won't be riled up enough to connect.
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  335. I'm waiting for the correction saying that a 15A 120V circuit cannot handle 1875 watts, only 1800. The 1875 watt rating on cordsets is assuming a 125 volt supply.
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  336.  @christo930  On a technical level the only difference between an AC only unit and a reversible heat pump is the addition of one extra valve, so the manufacturing price difference is minimal. Because it's such a simple difference they can fit in the exact same locations. While EVs increase demand for electricity it's surprisingly little compared to total grid usage. If EVs are too much for a grid then the grid is already too close for comfort. With home solar growing faster than EV adoption power generation is not going to be the limit.
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  337. That only works if you get a switch installed there when the place is wired. And then if you put the bed somewhere else it doesn't work anymore.
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  338. Yes, they are exact mirror images of each other.
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  339.  @rs12official  I have an ancient coupon for $1 off Reveal bulbs which likely predates their electronic CFLs. It's a "no expiration date" coupon so hopefully they keep the brand going until I actually have a desire for one.
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  340. I believe when Alec is mentioning USB-C he is referring to the connector and not the USB 3 SuperSpeed protocol. These docks rely on the 'alternate modes' of USB type C to transmit video. I don't see any reason why his setup would need USB 3 over 2 (except for Gigabit Ethernet). Regarding Thunderbolt, I would presume ARM-based systems from Apple will still support it.
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  341.  @MrCREWCRUSHIN95  CFLs (especially more modern ones) have very little mercury. Burning coal to run incandescent lamps releases much more mercury than smashing CFLs. The instructions are just overly cautious. We used to put much more mercury in thermometers which we would stick in our mouths.
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  342. ​ @whitslack  You can use multicinductor cables inside of conduit but there's one big reason this isn't done. Loose wires are more flexible and easier to pull, especially if it's made of stranded conductors. Loose wires are also functionally more flexible as you can pull exactly the combination of wire you need on whatever color you want. And it's a bit cheaper than multi-conductor cables. The main reason you can't use loose wires outside of conduit is that they don't have the protective sheath. Some single-conductor wires do have sufficient protection but then you run into rules where AC wires need to be kept together. You will likely only find individual wires used outside of conduit in a string-style solar setup, or possibly in a battery bank.
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  343. Wireless charging is inefficient,
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  344. Yes. I think it actually worked pretty well for me (but then again I didn't use it much.) IIRC I could use it for text but video was unusable. I actually have two DisplayLink adapters nearby, one is part of a USB 2.0 "dock."
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  345. I believe each USB controller can handle up to 127 devices, so number of devices most likely will not be a bottleneck. If you want to have 1440p at 144Hz, I think most adapters supporting 4k@60Hz will work. Both modes use about the same bandwidth. This probably means DisplayPort 1.3.
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  346. Unless you have a receptacle on its own dedicated circuit, and have other receptacles to supply code required outlets, this won't be an option.
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  347.  @michaelsexton1107  If there's sufficient coupling of the generator's waste heat into the heat pump it will be a more efficient use of energy than a furnace. The question would come down to how much coupling is needed and whether or not that much coupling is feasible. Putting the generator and heat pump outside unit in a sealed box would provide good coupling but this isn't an option because the generator needs fresh air intake and exhaust. Adding tubes for intake and exhaust would be feasible but might not meet safety standards, plus you'd need to make sure you don't overheat anything.
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  348. I just heard of the York Triathlon heat pump which was a natural gas engine driving a heat pump. It seems when they worked they worked well, but unfortunately they weren't very reliable.
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  349. Back in the day my elementary school had an even simpler demonstration of energy-efficient lighting. They had a volunteer come up. They asked him to put his hand on the CFL. Next, they asked him to put his hand on the incandescent lamp. Naturally they didn't actually let him do that but it still gets the point across. The main disadvantage of this versus the radiometer setup is that somebody needs to come up and feel what's happening, they can't just see from a distance.
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  350. The battery definitely won't handle all-day cooking but the battery oven also has a standard wall plug. The 1800w available from the plug is probably sufficient to offset the heat lost through the oven walls, meaning the battery is only needed when preheating or if you open the door too long and let all the hot air out.
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  351. I actually have seen an old battery-powered flip clock at a yard sale before, but as it appeared broken I did not buy it. I regret that mistake. Regarding flip clocks not flipping the minutes card very consistently, couldn't they just use a mechanism similar to the extra catch on the hours cards? The extra minutes catch would then be activated by the seconds "hand". And one last thing, a good aspect of my rolling-digits clock (similar to your stock footage but with a continuously spinning seconds wheel) is that the alarm time is exactly as you set it because it is tied to the intermittent movement of the tens of minutes wheel. I consider myself an amateur electric horologist myself, btw.
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  352. No, it's fine. The neutral wires could have a bit less insulation uncovered but it's not excessive. It may look scary to you but that's how it's done here. Technically the panel won't pass current code but only because nowadays we need to use fancy electronic circuit breakers to detect arcs.
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