thebeave
Veteran Member
What do you do in rainy weather?
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Features
Stop Unaffordable Dishwasher Standards (SUDS) Act
- Thread starter Don2 (Don1 Revised)
- Start date
T.G.G. Moogly
Traditional Atheist
And in the Winter too, hang them in my basement.
TIL Sabbath mode appliances exist. I was aware of some Sabbath mode devices but I wasn't aware that included normal household appliances. And what that page describes seems like going overboard. Why do the displays need to be disabled? And why the water dispenser? That can be purely mechanical, you push something that lets the water flow. It already has pressure, it will come out on it's own.
Dishwashers are supposed to be more water-conserving that even careful dishwashing. I can easily see this being the case because of rinsing--the machine can do a parallel flow process that would be impractical for a human. Take a bit of water, spray it over everything until you have reached equilibrium--the water is as soapy as the dishes. Discard the water, repeat. A few cycles of that will be fine.
All of our back yard is allocated to fruit trees, no place for it. Nor would I want to use a clothes line here--too often there is blowing dust.
Somebody mentioned the basement--would be good if we had one. Our winters are warm enough we don't. (A normal structure will be damaged if the soil under the foundations freezes. Thus foundations must be set deep enough into the ground that this will never happen. They have to dig the hole anyway, finish it up a bit and you have weather-shielded space. However, our ground never freezes, there is no need to put the foundations deep--there are trenches that they poured the foundation concrete into and that's it--the space in between has some gravel that is approximately at grade. The slab was poured above that and is basically sitting on the ground.)
I find myself disagreeing with both sides here.
The Republicans are insane for trying to gut environmental protections. The Democrats are insane for pushing too hard on efficiency and the like, driving up the total cost. (And probably defeating the very gains they are trying to make by doing so.)
I have long said we should scrap basically all emissions rules and replace them with a tax on undesirable emissions. I think something similar should be done with efficiency requirements. The politicians have no good picture of what's practical and that's a moving target, anyway. A tax is self-adjusting for updating technology. And it changes it from a get-past-the-post system to a do-the-best-you-reasonably-can system--which would be better as the best place for the post is inherently unknown and often can be gamed. (Observe SUVs displacing station wagons. SUVs are regulated as trucks, not cars.) It will be a bit harder with efficiency as there's no way to define perfectly efficient in all cases. And the yardsticks aren't always right, either. Consider the case of building a structure based on a concrete dome. Building codes that dictate R-values for walls and ceilings (and what exactly is a dome, anyway??) will considerably overstate the optimum amount of insulation because the thermal mass of the dome has a considerable averaging effect on the temperature inside. A similar problem exists with hobbit houses--there's little value to insulating a wall other than if needed to prevent condensation.
The Republicans are insane for trying to gut environmental protections. The Democrats are insane for pushing too hard on efficiency and the like, driving up the total cost. (And probably defeating the very gains they are trying to make by doing so.)
I have long said we should scrap basically all emissions rules and replace them with a tax on undesirable emissions. I think something similar should be done with efficiency requirements. The politicians have no good picture of what's practical and that's a moving target, anyway. A tax is self-adjusting for updating technology. And it changes it from a get-past-the-post system to a do-the-best-you-reasonably-can system--which would be better as the best place for the post is inherently unknown and often can be gamed. (Observe SUVs displacing station wagons. SUVs are regulated as trucks, not cars.) It will be a bit harder with efficiency as there's no way to define perfectly efficient in all cases. And the yardsticks aren't always right, either. Consider the case of building a structure based on a concrete dome. Building codes that dictate R-values for walls and ceilings (and what exactly is a dome, anyway??) will considerably overstate the optimum amount of insulation because the thermal mass of the dome has a considerable averaging effect on the temperature inside. A similar problem exists with hobbit houses--there's little value to insulating a wall other than if needed to prevent condensation.
TV and credit cards
Contributor
I need to made the switch. I use a drying rack for wool items I wear in the winter. I've an extra bedroom with a ceiling fan I could be using year round for this purpose.