I'm with you, Hal. I am very poorly educated with respect to electrical engineering and thus find this list a great place to listen and learn. But there are a handful of folks who seemingly cannot post without bashing the government or the president or the FCC or anyone handy. IMO, this does nothing but worsen the S/N ratio. Each of us has, I am quite sure, fairly well developed opinions on the state of the nation. We're unlikely to have our views changed by bitter comments about how stupid the FCC is, what a "socialist" Mr. Obama is, and how requiring the use of seatbelts is part of a grand conspiracy to take away our freedoms.
I will defend to the death--being a huge supporter of the first amendment--the rights of these people and anyone else to hold forth on topics in any way they wish. But it would be a good and joyful thing if they would graciously volunteer to keep their political opinions off this site. Bill On Fri, Jul 1, 2011 at 1:15 AM, Hal Murray <hmur...@megapathdsl.net> wrote: > > This is OT for time-nuts. Should we start another list for things like > this? > nuts-overflow? nuts-OT? > > I'd prefer one without politics. Do we need another list for the > political > aspects of things like this? Would the people who send the political stuff > pay any attention to the no-politics policy? > > ------------ > > > How? Some marine refrigerators will chill down a large mass of coolant > when > > there is power and then shut off the compressor for up to several days. > > Something like this could work at home by running at night when the power > is > > cheap. > > I've worked at a place where they had an air-conditioning setup like that. > (I never got a tour of the machine room.) At night they cool off a huge > tank > of salt water. During the day, they use it to cool offices. > > ---------- > > > That is where the power company will save money. Peak loads are > expensive > > to power. > > I live in California. Peak time is summer afternoons/evenings. Afternoons > when all the office complexes are running their air conditioners. Evenings > when everybody gets home and turns on their air conditioners. > > It's also peak time for solar. A friend says he's making money after > spending big $ to put a lot of solar panels on his roof. I don't know how > much of that was tax dodges and/or other political distortions. > > He said it's important to hose them off occasionally (few weeks) or the > dust > buildup reduces the output. > > ------- > > I have a PG&E Smart Meter. They have a SmartRate program with a reduced > rate > most of the time but the rate goes way up from 2 to 7 PM on 15 SmartDays of > their choice during the summer. They send you announcements/warnings via > email and/or a phone call and it hits the local news. > > I don't have an air-conditioner so my usage is pretty flat (mostly PCs). I > assumed flat and did the math and decided I would save a few pennies each > year so I signed up. They let you change your mind retroactively for the > first summer so I didn't have anything to lose. As expected, I'm saving a > few pennies each year. > > We've already had 2 Smart Days this summer. There was a mini heat wave > last > week. > > ---------- > > I haven't noticed any pole mounted antennas in the neighborhood, but I > haven't gone looking for them. > > It's obvious where the electric meter gets its power, but that doesn't work > for the gas meter. In some other context, somebody pointed out that they > just use batteries. They only have to last 10 years or so before they > replace (or are willing to replace) the meter. I've been here 30 years and > know they replaced it once for no reason that I know of. Then they > replaced > it a year or so ago for the Smart stuff. A couple of D-cell sized lithium > cells is in the right ballpark. The devil is in the details. > > The water people are also interested. My meter is underground. Google > found > a few pages with things like an antenna that sticks up a bit and/or a cable > that runs over to an inconspicuous antenna in the bushes or next to a fence > > > -- > These are my opinions, not necessarily my employer's. I hate spam. > > > > > _______________________________________________ > time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com > To unsubscribe, go to > https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts > and follow the instructions there. > _______________________________________________ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there.