On Sat, 22 Oct 2005 08:17:52 +0100, Tim S Kemp wrote:


Arny Krueger wrote:

Most kettles are relatively low-powered compared to the
appliances that are heavy-hitters.

In the US self-heated kettles are far from the largest
single users of power. Electric space heaters are near or at
the top.

Have you ever been to the UK?

My kettle is 3.2kw. My shower is 10.5 Kw. Heating here is done mostly with
gas (as in natural gas, not petrol) or oil (kerosene / diesel)

If the US wasted less power in electric space heaters maybe the world would
be a better place?

Maybe if the UK didn't have people using 4 times the power of a space heater
to operate a shower, the world would be an even better place.

In article ,
AZ Nomad wrote:
Maybe if the UK didn't have people using 4 times the power of a space
heater to operate a shower, the world would be an even better place.

The amount of power a shower uses depends on how much hot water it has to
supply and at what temperature. And a 10 kW one only provides a dribble -
anything less just wouldn't be acceptable.

--
*"I am " is reportedly the shortest sentence in the English language. *

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

On Sun, 23 Oct 2005 05:05:27 GMT, AZ Nomad wrote:

On Sat, 22 Oct 2005 08:17:52 +0100, Tim S Kemp wrote:


Arny Krueger wrote:

Most kettles are relatively low-powered compared to the
appliances that are heavy-hitters.

In the US self-heated kettles are far from the largest
single users of power. Electric space heaters are near or at
the top.

Have you ever been to the UK?

My kettle is 3.2kw. My shower is 10.5 Kw. Heating here is done mostly with
gas (as in natural gas, not petrol) or oil (kerosene / diesel)

If the US wasted less power in electric space heaters maybe the world would
be a better place?

Maybe if the UK didn't have people using 4 times the power of a space heater
to operate a shower, the world would be an even better place.

Power is irrelevant to the question. Energy is what matters, which is power
integrated over time. Using a 10kW shower for three minutes pales into
insignificance beside any kind of space heater running for hours. The same
goes for the kettle, which boils the water in a couple of minutes.

d

AZ Nomad wrote:

Maybe if the UK didn't have people using 4 times the power of a space
heater
to operate a shower, the world would be an even better place.

And you heat your hot water using what? A 25kw gas heater?

And a 5 min 10.5kw shower has less environmental impact than 3 hrs of a
2.5kw space heater!

--
Just remember that you're standing on a planet that's evolving / And
revolving at 900 miles an hour / That's orbiting at 19 miles a second,
so it's reckoned, / A sun that is the source of all our power. / The
sun and you and me and all the stars that we can see, / Are moving at a
million miles a day / In an outer spiral arm, at 40,000 miles an hour,
/ Of the galaxy we call the Milky Way.

Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
In article ,
AZ Nomad wrote:
Maybe if the UK didn't have people using 4 times the power of a space
heater to operate a shower, the world would be an even better place.

The amount of power a shower uses depends on how much hot water it
has to supply and at what temperature. And a 10 kW one only provides
a dribble - anything less just wouldn't be acceptable.

Always hate it in cheap hotels when there's a 6 kw shower...


--
Just remember that you're standing on a planet that's evolving / And
revolving at 900 miles an hour / That's orbiting at 19 miles a second,
so it's reckoned, / A sun that is the source of all our power. / The
sun and you and me and all the stars that we can see, / Are moving at a
million miles a day / In an outer spiral arm, at 40,000 miles an hour,
/ Of the galaxy we call the Milky Way.

"Keith G" wrote in message
...

"Dave Plowman (News)" wrote in message
...
In article ,
Keith G wrote:
My kettle is 3.2kw. My shower is 10.5 Kw. Heating here is done mostly
with gas (as in natural gas, not petrol) or oil (kerosene / diesel)

While it lasts (ie remains 'economically gettable').... ;-)

Then we'll have a problem with electricity too since the majority is
generated from gas.



I reckon natural gas supplies will be reserved for industrial processes in
the not-too-distant future and domestic supplies will be phased out and
that the future for electricity generation on a massive scale lies in the
nucular domain with any amount of harebrained schemes to supplement it on
a domestic level....



Anybody do the BBC1/Chan 4 'double news' like me tonight?

We had a French baguette baker saying 'Ze nucular power? She is very good!'
at the beginning of the BBC news (before the 'asking the reporters to make a
guess' bit) and a wacky Shell advert featuring windfarms at the end of the
Chan 4 news!!

I rest my case...

:-)

"tony sayer" wrote in message


How much power does the original organ take?

Non-trivial. The typical medium-sized pipe organ is powered
by a 5-10 HP electric motor. I suspect the motors mostly
just idle, but they don't idle for free.

"Tim S Kemp" wrote in message

Arny Krueger wrote:

Most kettles are relatively low-powered compared to the
appliances that are heavy-hitters.

In the US self-heated kettles are far from the largest
single users of power. Electric space heaters are near
or at the top.

Have you ever been to the UK?

Several times, but pulling the plumbing apart was not on my
agenda for the visit. ;-)

My kettle is 3.2kw.

That would be *lots* in my book.

We do have electric kettles, but the common domestic ones
are limited to 1600 watts or so. Most are far smaller than
that - used to heat enough water for a cup of soup, tea,
coffee or cocoa.

My shower is 10.5 Kw.

Electric showers are not exactly common over here. Most
people *learned* about electric water heaters and use
natural gas powered water heaters in the 50,000 BTU range.

Heating here is
done mostly with gas (as in natural gas, not petrol) or
oil (kerosene / diesel)

I lived in Germany for about a year and things were like
that. I lived in eastern Bavaria on an Army base and then in
an apartment in a nearby small town. Oil was widely used,
often still moved around in open buckets by hand.

Natural gas delivered via pipelines is the overwhelming
favorite in the US, with compressed Propane delivered and
stored in pressurized tanks being the favorite in areas that
lack pipeline connections. I understand that quite a bit of
oil is still used in the northeast.

The house I live in was built in 1933,. When I bought it in
the 70s is used mostly oil heat, three rooms used electric
heat, and there was an electric water heater.

It didn't take too many huge energy bills to find things
changed over to natural gas - my house now has two 90+%
efficient central forced-air furnaces. There are two
separate hybrid forced-air heating/cooling systems in my
house, one for the central living area (kitchen/family
room/bath), and one for the sleeping suites and their baths.
They are controlled by 2 separate microcomputer-based
thermostats with their own heating/cooling schedules and
rules.

We also have a highly-efficient wood-burning fireplace. We
mostly have it for romance, and because firewood has been
very cheap around here for much of the past 30 years due to
two separate plagues on common trees - elms and ash. Use it
mostly in the early fall and late spring.

If the US wasted less power in electric space heaters
maybe the world would be a better place?

Electric space heaters are mostly just convenience items in
the Great Lakes region - electric space heaters are used for
chilly corners in buildings that are mainly heated by
natural gas. They are usually limited to about 1600 watts.

There was a time when electric power was very cheap in the
sun belt and pacific coast. Some whole-house electric heat
was used in temperate climates. It is still used in the sun
belt portions of the US where the climate is very mild, and
air conditioning is the dominant energy load.

Most electric-powered climate control in the US is now based
on "heat pumps" - bi-directional air conditioners based on a
Freon cycle, or air conditioner/natural gas hybrid systems.
The freon-cycle equipment is fairly efficient, in the
climates where it is widely used. Its thermal efficiency is
200-300%. IOW one BTU equivalent of electricity moves 2-3
BTUs of heat either into or out of the house, as needed.