Comments by "Traveller" (@traveller23e) on "Technology Connections" channel.

Just a note regarding dryers: I'm not sure how common they are in the US, but in Europe condensing dryers are very much a thing. These basically just use a heat pump to evaporate the water from the clothes and then condense the water into a tank that you empty when it's done. They're practical because you don't have to deal with either the same level of mold or potential hot-air exhaust ports, but they've also got to be way more efficient than any gas-powered alternative.
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I've lived much of my life in houses with a limited electricity supply, and yeah it's really not that big a deal. Just when the circuit breaker trips you feel like a bit of a moron as you go to turn the washing machine off so you can finish drying your hair or using the oven.
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Here in Italy Schukos are the bane of our lives...all the larger appliances come with them (or the ungrounded version for some reason) meaning you either have to cut off the plug and replace it with an Italian 16 amp one or use an adapter. "Why not just install one of those fancy outlets that can take both Schuko and Italian plugs?" I hear you asking. Well, here's why: those outlets tend to work terribly with Italian 10 amp plugs, catching on the part where the prong insulation meets the metal tip. This is particularly bad with europlugs (identical to the traditional ungrounded Italian 10 amp plugs except non-rewireable). Additionally, Schuko outlets take twice the space of traditional 10/16 amp Italian ones in the most common compatible socket assembly designs. Some designs, particularly older more traditional ones, also have smaller plug faceplates (I mean the little rectangle of plastic around the socket, which also normally is the size of a light switch) which do not support sacrificing two Italian outlets for one Schuko.
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Yeah, a lot of things especially tech-related are a disaster waiting to happen and really need to be standardised at the very least and also preferably open-sourced. However, it should be noted that this isn't something to demand from companies; companies exist for one purpose, and one purpose alone: making money. The real people to demand action from are lawmakers who can create provisions for the regulating authorities to authoritatively regulate.
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@Stiftoad In Italy we normally have some combination of inside shutter (solid), outside shutter (allows airflow but doesn't allow blocking out light from the street below), and especially in the south various kinds of awnings. A lot of houses, particularly the more old-timey ones have awnings that come all the way down to the balcony railings. Another factor is just having way smaller and fewer windows that American-style buildings.
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@AelwynMr Lol only applies to new devices, and only in some situations. If it's on the end of a kitchen blender or hair drier I really don't care and it's just a question of whether the joy of not using an adapter is worth the effort of rewiring. It's also sometimes convenient to have a standard Italian 16 amp plug on the end of a power strip that came with a Schuko, not to mention standard AC computer power cords (in one situation for example I had a spare cord set up at my desk with a short cable and a right-angled Italian plug as that was what fit best, then I had a separate cord for travelling etc).
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@naszfluckah7314 The plug doesn't make contact until the insulated portions are about halfway inserted, so it doesn't make a lick of difference whether or not it's recessed (barring equipment with really old plugs, like you might find in an antiques store). I'll also comment that Schuko plugs normally do not have sleeved prongs but rely on the recess instead; at the end of the day it doesn't matter from a safety standpoint which you use, you just need to pick one. Personally I prefer flush outlets and dislike Schukos for a number of reasons, mostly to do with the fact that the outlet is over twice the size of our traditional 16 amp outlet and at least the versions sold here work badly with the europlug as well as some Italian 10 amp plugs (they snag horribly as you unplug the plug). Sadly a lot of heavy devices get sold with Schukos anyway, leading to adapters being an essential household item. Rewireable Italian plugs are pretty cheap though so at least they can be replaced as needed for the application.
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@richjhart The reason a Europlug has narrower pins is so that it's compatible with Italian 10 amp plugs. I hate the Schuko sockets because they work badly with our plugs and are needlessly clunky: twice the size of an Italian 10/16 amp socket in compatible designs, with a larger size difference for Italian socket assembly designs that do not support Schuko sockets.
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Here in Italy you can get a replacement plug of any of the standard types for a euro or so, so all you need is a screwdriver and wire strippers and you can fit all your appliances with whatever plug works best. Just please make sure not to replace a 16 amp plug with a 10 amp one and then try to draw more than 10 amps.
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@ВасилийКоровин-г9э Nah, the pyramids were actually just big freeze driers. Sadly grave robbers stole the pumps centuries ago and one of them made its way into the hands of Leonardo Da Vinci (but that's a story for another time).
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Tbh here in Italy I prefer our standard 10 and 16 amp plugs because they have all the advantages of the Schuko but are significantly smaller on both plug and outlet.
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The fridge actually looks like it's a standard (though largish) european-style fridge with a colourful outer shell for the US market. Fridges do tend to be a lot warmer here, though food consumption patterns are different too. It's unusual to put a large quantity of stuff in your fridge all at once (as in the soda can test) so the warmth isn't really as much of an issue, but the flip side is it's best to finish milk within a few days of purchase, especially if you're already halfway through the bottle. Though many shops in my area store their milk at warmer temperatures than my fridge too.
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@@phillipbanes5484 Do you guys have actual thermometers in your fridges, or do you buy one separately and put it in? Mine just has a dial 1-7 with no visual indication of which one is colder.
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Depends on the country, in Italy they are not normally recessed (though exceptions exist). I personally dislike recessed sockets in the Italian context in part because right-angle plugs don't fit in them. They are also arguably harder to clean and probably unnecessary due to our prongs being sleeved. The obvious exception are Schuko outlet/adapters, which due to their design must be recessed.
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but...for that price can't you just buy freeze dried strawberries in bulk?
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@LRM12o8 man [whatever] is a beautiful thing. I remember once having trouble on a Win10 machine connecting to the internet, and the help button in the settings page literally opened an Edge tab with a Bing search for "Windows 10 help connecting to the internet" (or similar terms). I couldn't help but laugh, it was so bad.
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@chinglamyung Yeah, so many cities are perfectly suited, we just need to wean the population off them, and then ban them from cities altogether. Preferably increasing public transit of course, but like seriously, from an infrastructure standpoint we're all set. Adding some tram lines or similar wouldn't be amiss, but ultimately where money is tight there are other ways of making it work. I just wish fewer cities had rebuilt car-centrically postwar.
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@andys844 Shame we for the most part haven't bothered to actually start using the renewables we keep claiming are the way of the future that will save us. Russian gas was just too cheap.
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