Comments by "DrScopeify" (@drscopeify) on "Technology Connections" channel.

  1.  @kj8476  You don't need 3 phase in the USA because we use natural gas. I have natural gas dryer, furnace, water heater, stove and as such I pay very little money per month around $58 a month in summer and $80 in winter it is crazy cheap. Also because the furnace is forced air it blows around the entire house and with the heavy insulation in the wood frame walls, the whole house is the same temperature, there is no cold area every inch is perfect temperature every minute and it is very cheap to do so. I lived in Europe this is much better way to heat a home and also cool a home. In addition I never found something that needs 240v, kettle goes on the gas stove very fast and almost free. What else needs 240v? Nothing! Also my natural gas appliances are cheap to buy and are 97% - 98% efficient so very little loss probably less than the transmission of electricity or the manufacture/transport of wind turbine I would guess is more polluting.
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  2. One is positive the other is neutral so to make you get the plug in correctly that is how they are made.
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  3.  @Reaktanzkreis  Residential houses don't need high voltage as that means they are using too much electricity. The idea is to reduce usage not increase it and keep in mind that high voltage is efficient at transmission at long distances and does not create heat in the wire but does create very very large heat and major losses at the transformer on the street and inside devices.
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  4. Never going to happen because each country and area has different challenges, distances, energy sources, issues with natural disaster and so on. Due to the differences mentioned that just will never happen. Even inside the USA there are major changes, like on the west coast there is a risk of earthquakes so most electricity is above ground WA/OR/CA and the connection to the home is let to be a bit loose so both sides can move without pulling the power line. While in cold climate states the electricity is underground to prevent damage and power outages.
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  5. One thing to add to the complexity is that the USA/Canada has cheap copper so like my house has 20amp breakers and 12 gauge wire which I think is why Europe and I guess Australia as well uses higher voltage so that they can use less wire and thinner gauge wire. I think it all comes down to copper prices. The USA has the world's largest copper mines.
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  6.  @guillermoelnino  Are they really illegal? I see 100w Incandescent bulbs for sell in a few stores and they are available on Amazon anyway. Perhaps LEDs became so popular they gave up on that? Hmmm
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  7. You can also get 400v in the USA if you need it. Usually most houses have natural gas so they don't need anymore than 240v my heating is natural gas so it s very cheap I pay like $45 in winter -10c to heat my house super super cheap. So I don't need to waste money for 400v panel.
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  8. If you live in most of US it can 1-2 weeks to get non-replaceable headlights unless a local distributor has them in stock, either amazon, car parts stores, dealer networks but once a car generation falls back maybe 1, then 2 or more generations the availability drops drastically. My friend has an ACURA MDX with diamond whatever its called LED headlights that are one of the first non replaceable headlights and it took him around 2 months to get a replacement. I predict that this will become more and more common as time goes on and especially for cars with small volumes of sell it may become impossible to find replacements. I don't doubt that cars will be junked in the future due to dead headlights alone especially as the value falls for the earlier all-in one headlights modules.
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  9. Wait a minute, this isn't new stuff here, the office building I work at in Seattle uses a spring water pond for the cooling system and it is a very old system from the 1970s it was installed when the office park was built. It recently required some maintenance and the pond had to be drained and I got to take some pictures of the pipes. Anyway I think it is important to note that I am sure there are a good number of commercial buildings already using such systems.
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  10.  @Gay_Priest  Trust me there are just as many in every country these days it has nothing to do with the USA. People believe in anything.
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  11.  @jorgemiguel2641  This is absolutely not true. I have natural gas heating my house for very little money like $50 a month for power and gas in summer and around $80 in winter and winters here ware very long. I also have 1GB internet connection with fiber and have 5G great reception everywhere I go I would call that 5 star infrastructure if you ask me. I live cheap, my house is always nice and comfortable 365 a year thanks to central forced air AC and gas heat and lots of insulation with wood frame house. It is really just fine. I would love to know where the idea of bad infrastructure comes from? My city of Seattle is building brand new light rail network every day new stations. Maybe the North-East of the USA is the older area of the country and so some infrastructure is older but most of the country is great, I have family in Irvine California the entire city is new. Also Friends in Salt Lake city again everything is brand new there and Las Vegas which for sure is all brand new infrastructure as well. Also I have personally never seen crime and I travel all over the USA, I stay in small towns, big cities and really never seen anything. Sure, there are some areas with gangs but it is not a place you will end up in and is tiny tiny minority of places in such a big country! All I see are nice happy people all over the country. I got stuck in my car many times and always nice people, one guy even got us lunch when we were waiting for a tow truck. People with a heart of gold everywhere. I would love to know what makes you say bad things about the USA? I don't say bad things about your country right?
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  12. You should make a video on the charcoal/solid fuel hand warmers, the new units made are not as good as the old time ones but there are many for sale on ebay. There are also the ZIPPO fuel hand warmers that are for sell on Amazon.
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  13. In all reality it is not up to the end user to be efficient but up to device makers to do so. To make efficient products that do not waste power when not in use and except for a very very minor draw for say phone chargers almost everything else these days is very good at conserving power when not in use.
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  14. The idea of a button to kick on one cycle of heating or cooling is very very very good idea, I keep having to raise and lower the temperature for immediate response when entering the house form the outside at random times. Yes there is a "schedule" but I work at home and go to bed at random times so yeah, not very useful at all and when entering the house after working outside in summer or returning home from shopping in winter I keep having to mess with it and then forget or be lazy about setting it back.
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  15. It is 2x 120v so if you have a breaker that has a leg in each you get 240v. The USA has both 120v and 240v but the wall sockets are always 120v and any big appliances are wired with a different plug for 240v.
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  16. I use hand crank can opener! You should have a look at one of these cool classic can openers with the hand crank, they are so cool and built like a tank, I can't imagine anything damaging it. I bought it because I have some #10 cans and they work like a charm!
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  17.  @matthewjohnson3610  Yeah it is really the appliances that needs to be efficient not the user and this is how it is today. Sure your phone charger uses a little over time but most things like screens, audio gear, kitchen appliances they all nicely conserve power when not in use. This is a more recent change though, I am guessing like since the year 2000 or so.
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  18. Another point to make is that European homes are mostly cinderblock and have no insulation or very little to Canadian and American standards. The loss of heat is very extreme in Europe and I know it first hand. Also many Europeans use things like space heaters to heat their home or older buildings use boiler system with radiators which is very ineffective as it does not properly spread the heat around the room. Essentially in Europe people are always fighting with the temperature but in the USA and Canada that is not an issue as forces air and heavy layers of insulation thanks to the wood framing makes houses have perfect even temperature anywhere in the house. Since these systems are for many natural gas or propane the need for high voltage is totally removed. Natural gas appliances are mostly 97% efficient today or higher mine is 98% as such there is just no need for 240v outlets because everything is dealt with by natural gas. Kettle is just one I put on the gas stove they don't even sell electric kettles here, it is old world thing. Overall American homes are focused on gas which is higher efficiency than electricity even when electricity is made by renewables due to power loss in transmission and the manufacturing of things like wind turbines I would bet is much higher than 3% loss.
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  19. My house has 100 AMP service panel but I never had an issue since I have gas dryer, stove, furnace, water heater. Really the only thing that takes power is oven and microwave that is it!! Who cares if it is 120 240 400 whatever I get natural gas which is 10000% better. In addition copper wire is very cheap in the USA comapred to Europe so I have 20A breaker and 12 gauge wire for the entire house so there is no need for high voltage for the purpose of cheap thing wire like in Europe.
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  20. It is important to note that all states require carbon monoxide detectors in bedrooms so if there is a fire with no flame and just smoke they should trigger once oxygen is depleted to some level. However, I did by mistake light up the fireplace and forgot to open the flue so the house filled with smoke but none of the detectors went off so nothing is failproof and just when you need something to work, they can all fail.
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  21. Different countries have different set of challenges and do things differently for a reason. The US/Canadian system is not worse it is not better it is just doing the same exact thing a different way. That is all there is to it, thinking the USA needs to change something is just total misunderstanding.
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  22. The copper wiring in the USA/Canada is a thicker gauge which is why 3 phase or higher voltage is just not needed, we have 12 or 14 gauge for 120v and 6 gauge for 240v car charger with 50amp so not having 3 phase is not an issue neither is higher voltage is not needed. This because the USA has abundant supply of cheap copper and Europe needs to save $ as copper is much more expensive.
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  23. The Bosh models are very Germany as they just make a monotone beeeeeep when the wash is done. The American dishwashers make a nice little elevating tone or a little jingle but the Korean ones from LG or Samsung make a full performance of funny cute tones. The downside is I end up turning them all off because they are annoying :)
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  24. Here in Seattle most of the Electricity is hydro so it is the cheapest in the US but I am strongly against placing solar panels on the roof as we get pretty aggressive MOSS growth any shaded area within a few months will take over by Moss for example during COVID people did not drive their cars much so many cars were damaged by Moss and you can see them driving around with the damaged paint job. Now imagine what this will do to your roof after a few years growing under the solar panels?? Disaster waiting to happen. Sun kills the Moss but it will grow like crazy under the panels, or you got to go up on your roof and spread the anti moss powder like most people do in Seattle. In spring and before winter most people climb up on the roof and put down the anti-moss powder. That will be super hard with Solar panels in the way and it is so dark under them as well I don't think the powder will even work. The best is to place the solar Panels on a metal adjustable frame in the yard, this will also be way cheaper to install, less man hours, less drilling and easy to maintain, monitor and replace bad panels yourself and also lower cost to replace your roof material if you ever need to. Sure, roof is supposed to last 30 years but some bad storms and snow and it can eat away at it after like 20 years; Also, with the Solar panels near the ground you can clean snow off of them without having to climb on your roof in winter!!!!! Yeah fuck the roof install do it on a raised panel in your yard!!
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  25. I have a tradition of twisting red and white sets together and using them everywhere, yes I know it kind of looks like a hotel but my house is simple 1950s and looks nice with that color scheme. I tried LED over the years but always run in to issues like the refresh rate issue, the colors don't match my other sets or the white is much stronger than the red when run together. I think one option is to run red incandescent set together with white LED set but not sure how that would look, maybe next year heh
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  26. My house from 1950s has many outlets wired so that a wall switch turns on/off the outlets. I assume these were all for table lamps but they can offer the same as the British outlets you seem to like for some reason, and without the need of reaching down and putting your hands on a live outlet. I think this is far better design and many homes already have it this way anyway like mine, perhaps this is not common on newer homes. I totally renovated my house on my own including moving outlets, replacing them all although I got fancy metal plates and used black outlets in the Kitchen to look extra fancy! These are so cheap in bulk packs, why not.
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  27. I assume it is a custom import, I have never seen one for sale in any store.
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  28. ​ @johnd4348  The one here in Tukwila Washington is open and doing fine but so many stores sell Appliances these days I can see how it is not easy for them.
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  29. Good video. I have a simple Chinese made charger I got for like $45 I am just too cheap. 21:00 no utility companies should not be installing charge points as that is a conflict of interest. They could offer perhaps a rebate for an owner installing a more efficient system but to actually choose a system and install it is a BIG nono and it might be against the law.
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  30.  @damionlee7658  The USA adopted electricity long before the rest of the world so it is not changing anything I can assure you that. The long term plan I think in 20-40 years is to move from 120v to 125v but that is the only change. You can get 480v if you really need it n problem at all but it is overkill. The reason is that copper in the USA/Canada is very cheap which is why 120v is 15A or 20A breakers and 12 or 14 gauge wire. 240v 50amp car charger is usually 6 gauge wire which is much thicker than in Europe which removed the need for 3 phase or 480v.
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  31. I think those machines are petty small though, I think I did see one for sale but it's meant for like a small apartments. The normal size machines from GE Or Samsung don't come as all in one I guess a limitation of size of how much water the machine can deal with.
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  32. Heat pumps have been around for 20+ years in the USA so they are not new at all and are very common in areas that have a warmer winter but still need heating like along the western coast from California, OR, WA, BC. The issue is that heat pumps cannot extract heat properly under freezing temperatures and especially if it is very dry winter like is common in many western high desert states. As a result the heat pump fails to pull warmer air and kicks on verrrrrry expensive simple heating elements. I was paying $600 a month for 3-4 months of the year due to heat pump inefficiency in cold climate. I saved money by switched to natural gas furnace and I still use the heat pump for AC in summer so all I had to do was add the gas furnace 98% efficiency unit and now my winter electricity bill is around $80 and gas around $140 so much cheaper it paid for itself in less than 2 years!!
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  33.  @CantEscapeFlorida  In countries like Germany ground water is over 70% of the water sources only 30% is fresh surface water. In the USA it is the opposite around 70% is fresh surface water and only 30% is ground water + desalinization of Ocean water in California. Overall the USA has a different water source than say Germany which explains why even hard water in the USA is less of an issue than hard water in a country like Germany.
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  34. The USA can manufacture thicker wire for cheaper because copper is cheap so there is no need for that extra complexity. It is more than just the power output but the wires used is one of the main reasons for such complex system in Europe to save money of wire. In the USA and Canada that is just not an issue as there is abundant copper including the largest copper mines in the world.
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  35. I personally see flickering and pulsing with CFLs so I kept using incandescent bulbs during that era but I switched to LEDs really really early with the flat style Phillips LEDs that were pretty bad and the ones that were sold at IKEA at the time when CFLs were still prominent, many of the early IKEA ones actually stopped working by now but I was happy to switch them out. The one thing I do note is that the early LEDs had many issues such as ones used on a small pedestrian path they decided to lit every few feet here, leaks out and cause radio disturbances so when you drive by in your car with the radio on you are treated to sound of ominous high pitched tone. Well, at least the LED bulbs lasted like 11 years so far.
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  36. My favorite and what gets the most attention and a lot of comments are incandescent red and white strands twisted together. Even though not many people can see my lights I have fun playing with them, this year I am using a method used on old world department stores but twisting the strands in to thicker web and running it around the window molding, just following what was used in the Home Alone movies which is basically department store/hotel designs from NYC at that time.
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  37. At the same time as the Aladdin there were also standard round wick lanterns like the famous one called Rayo that has a bit of controversy because it was made by the company selling much of the Kerosene fuel at the time, Standard Oil. However, they do work great, about maybe a my own eye says 30% less bright than an Aladdin but no Mantel means a very stable flame overall and I hardly need to adjust it during operation. I also do have a number of Aladdin as well, I have a bout 3 of each since they light up the house much better than battery lanterns and I usually don't run my generator continuously during power outages. Here in Seattle we tend to have unpredictable weather and like in 2018-2019 we got 2-3 feet of snow in just a few hours and lost power for over a week from that. These sure work great but you need to know how to use them safely. The biggest issue of most of these lanterns is that they come in metal and glass. The glass ones are great because they are heavy but the metal ones even with fuel are very very light weight and DANGEROUSLY easy to push and fall over causing a large and damaging Kerosene spill which is very bad inside a house with carpet or nice furnishings!! This is why I only have glass ones, you can see how much fuel is left and a much lower chance of it falling over, oh and I don't have children yet and no pets so just clumsiness reasons I stick with glass ones!
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  38. Here in Seattle most of the Electricity is hydro so it is the cheapest in the US but I am strongly against placing solar panels on the roof as we get pretty aggressive MOSS growth any shaded area within a few months will take over by Moss for example during COVID people did not drive their cars much so many cars were damaged by Moss and you can see them driving around with the damaged paint job. Now imagine what this will do to your roof after a few years growing under the solar panels?? Disaster waiting to happen. Sun kills the Moss but it will grow like crazy under the panels, or you got to go up on your roof and spread the anti moss powder like most people do in Seattle. In spring and before winter most people climb up on the roof and put down the anti-moss powder. That will be super hard with Solar panels in the way and it is so dark under them as well I don't think the powder will even work. The best is to place the solar Panels on a metal adjustable frame in the yard, this will also be way cheaper to install, less man hours, less drilling and easy to maintain, monitor and replace bad panels yourself and also lower cost to replace your roof material if you ever need to. Sure, roof is supposed to last 30 years but some bad storms and snow and it can eat away at it after like 20 years; Also, with the Solar panels near the ground you can clean snow off of them without having to climb on your roof in winter!!!!! Yeah fuck the roof install do it on a raised panel in your yard!!
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  39. There are major benefits, like when you measure wood which is so common in USA and Canada it is easier to use inches as the measurement is larger and you never need to be perfectly accurate anyway so it is just faster with imperial. This helps in the crazy speed at which they can build houses here. That said almost everything you buy in a store, food, tools, chemicals, liquids has both systems so if you only know metric it is not too big of a deal. I use both metric and imperial and they both do the same exact thing at the end of the day but each as strong areas and weak areas.
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  40.    Bosh units in USA/Canada and Mexico are made in the USA so these are not the same as the ones in Europe. They are set up for North American regulations and standards and detergents.
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  41. There really aren't any devices in the house that need 240v in the ]room outlets just appliances that are permanently installed as is standard in USA and Canada, it is as simple as that. I never once said; man I wish I had 240v, it just never happens. Heating is central, we don't really use kettles ever since using gas stove is much much faster and cheaper almost free and my natural gas price is 0.19489 cent per term, even in the coldest time in winter my heating costs just a few dollars. When I had an electric heat pump the heating element kicks in at around 24f and the electricity bill goes to easily over $300 for the month instead of like $45 for gas. Huge difference and why natural gas is not going away in colder climates. Europeans has a very serious superiority complex even though guess where electricity was invented???
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  42.  @Jukke55  In the USA copper wire is very cheap which is why my house has 20A breakers with 12 gauge wire, they are just really cheap and also why we don't need higher voltage because the wires are just thicker. New cheap homes have 15A breakers and 14 gauge wire but nicer homes still use 20A and 12 gauge wire.
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  43.  @zandkoek  Here in Seattle we have endless large conifer tress everywhere, people live inside of the woods all over the area we are mixed housing and forest and so there are millions of trees and people living together so when there is a strong Arctic winter storm from Alaska or Canada we get hit with heavy winds and strong snow even frozen rain on top of it since temperature is usually pretty warm just a bit under freezing so trees get hit hard by the weight of snow and frozen rain and they come down. It depends on the type of storm, 2014 and 2020 were especially bad as it had frozen rain and like 3 storms together one after the other so millions of people had no power but the cities got power back after maybe a few hours to 2 days or something like that but I live on a hill side higher up and lower priority I think it took us 4 or 5 days to get power back after the roads were clear of trees and snow but this was a rare event. We had no power outages at all from 2021-2023 winter storms which were pretty bad too but almost no power outages. Not a big deal, we have a simple like $400 generator but it's enough to run the fan on the gas central heating, all the normal lights, electronics, and stove or microwave. We also have backup heating with wood but it does not get very cold here probably just fine without any heating and just warm clothes but its nice to have heating working lol.
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  44.  @ploed  Yes there is a serious misunderstanding of what 3 phase is. In all matter of reality higher voltage is only efficient at long distances if you feed it to house devices it will create heat not at the wire but at the transformer in the device. You shift the waste in to the device itself for no reason. Higher Voltage still create heat but it is bottled up at the end, transformer.
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  45. You really can't beat the price for heating with gas, my house with an electric heat pump was around $2,400 a year and yes it was working properly but with a 98% efficient gas furnace I am paying around $800 a year so a real big reduction in price. The gas furnace + install was around $4500 and this was done around 2017 so it pretty much paid for itself by now in savings. I also had a rebate for a high efficient gas furnace for the power company I think it was like $400 but I don't remember. I don't think it makes sense to pay more for heating just to avoid using gas if it really is cheaper, I do have a very efficient home with a lot of insulation and well sealed up house even though it is from the 1950s I totally sealed the house myself over the years and you can tell when you close the door the pressure is pretty solid. I caulked and sealed every inch and insulated by myself under the floor in the crawl space and in the attic with a rental blower machine, comes out very cheap if you do the work yourself maybe $1200 or so not bad.
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  46. No because these are usually central to the house, they are installed and have 240v form the panel directly.
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  47. Old houses are grandfathered in you still have houses in the USA with knob and tube wiring. Not an issue unless you hire a hack electrician or mess it up somehow.
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  48.  @Biden_is_demented  This is not true at all. 1. The electrical grid is very advanced allowing the use of solar fields in the desert and hydro plants to reach the populated areas efficiently. 2. The water grid is different in every area, the USA is like 50 countries all in one so you can't say the water grind is bad because there are a million different ones, my state was mostly private water so almost everything is brand new. 3. Internet is great I have google fiber 1gbps. 4. Health Care in the USA is great by far #1 in the world and in order to be #1 it is not going to be free but if you work at a company, are a kid under 21 or retired person all have proper care 2. USA has both wood and cement block houses depending on climate and natural resources available, keep in mind that hurricane will destroy a cement home the same as a wood home just much more $$ to repair or replace. 2. The USA needs to build almost 1 million new houses each year to meet the demand from large population growth and wood is renewable. 3. The USA at least the west half has serious risk of earthquakes and wood houses do very well with that risk. A fire is a risk to cement houses the same as wood houses as the exterior of wood houses is guess what?? Also made of cement! Most of the outside siding of USA houses is cement boards so it is also fire resistant just like a cement house.
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