Power Consumption - on all day or not?

[Luke]

Since your intention was to express the consumption of energy in terms of cost, and as cost is calculated from "units" used where a unit is 1kWh, I think 0.04 kWh/h hits the mark better than the strictly accurate 40W.

Does this mean that I will not need to anything other to heat my listed country pile but to plug in a Humax and leave it swtiched on?

 

[Black Hole]

An interesting point. Of course any equipment that is being run contributes to the heating, which reduces the need for additional heating (that includes old-fashioned incandescent light bulbs), thus offsetting the cost of running them by a reduction in the heating bill.

 

[Ezra Pound]

An interesting point. Of course any equipment that is being run contributes to the heating, which reduces the need for additional heating (that includes old-fashioned incandescent light bulbs), thus offsetting the cost of running them by a reduction in the heating bill.

Only really relevant if you heat your home using electricity, I would guess at lot more homes are heated by burning gas rather than electricity.
Typical costs are:-
Electricity = 14.240 Pence per kWh
and Gas = 3.960 Pence Per kWh

 

[Luke]

That sounds a good reason to convert a HDR-FOX-T2 to run off gas. Didn't there use to be fridges that run off gas? Perhaps a mod could be based on those.

 

[Black Hole]

I've seen a thermoelectric pile used to drive a circulating fan on top of a wood burning stove, so maybe...

(Gas fridges use an ingenious system of evaporation and condensation to drive working fluids around intricate pipework and generate cooling from a heat source. Amazing. As with the Babel fish, it proves the non-existence of God.)

As for the price per unit energy for gas, some of the gap would be bridged by the conversion efficiency.

 

[Ezra Pound]

You would need a Natural Gas Fuel Cell not cheap unfortunately

 

[gomezz]

Only really relevant if you heat your home using electricity

Not really. It matters not how the home is heated. What matters is that it has to work slightly less hard. But of course it complicates the arithmetic a little.

 

[Black Hole]

I think Ezra was referring to the differential between the costs per kWh.

 

[Ezra Pound]

I think Ezra was referring to the differential between the costs per kWh.

Exactly, If you do heat your house with electricity then the running cost of the Humax could be considered as virtually zero, because most of the power is converted to heat anyway

 

[oijonesey]

What we need is a sustainable source of hot air............hmmmm let me see......................

 

[socrates]

What we need is a sustainable source of hot air............hmmmm let me see......................

That's easy. Every time I get a cold caller for PPI, loft insulation or what ever I make an appointment for them to call. I then lock them in the cellar from where an ingenious system of ducts provides free warm air heating. Jehovah's Witnesses are good too but best of all is election time when candidates come calling.
And no need to feed them........

 

[Ezra Pound]

Jehovah's Witnesses are good too but best of all is election time when candidates come calling.
And no need to feed them........

A Human body emits roughly 100Watts of heat - as long as it is still alive ! ! !

 

[dandnsmith]

Would that be using the new watt value as quoted to energy efficient bulbs?
I seem to remember that a figure of 80 watts was what was always quoted per live body

 

[Black Hole]

It depends how much you eat (or rather, how much you need to eat to replace energy lost).

80W = 1651 kcal/day, 100W = 2064 kcal/day.

It also depends on instantaeous output - obviously much less sitting around watching telly than down the gymn. It's so dependent on circumstances the convenient figure of 100W is a good enough rule of thumb.

However, considering the recommended calorie allowances, it is no real surprise that men are 100W and women only 80.... (dives for cover)

 

[Trev]

But Watts are not measured by the day otherwise they would be W/d. Stick an m in the middle and you have lots of power.

PS Where do you get your conversion? I have found a couple that convert 100 watts = 86042.0651741 calories per hour

 

[socrates]

I have found that the stronger ( typically the larger males ) eat the weaker ( females and smaller males ) so the heat output tends to be at the upper end of the range, particularly as the struggle itself generates heat and a requirement for high energy replacement. Also the unconsumed portions ( what doctors call the yucky bits ) tend to exothermic decomposition adding a modest but useful additional heat source. At present I do not harvest the methane generated but this too could be considered.

As I am performing a service to society and energy efficiency could I claim a subsidy?

 

[Trev]

I always thought that the yucky bits decomposed in an adiabatic process, thus generating methane but no heat unless you put a match to it.

 

[Black Hole]

Where do you get your conversion? I have found a couple that convert 100 watts = 86042.0651741 calories per hour

That is correct. The common or garden calorie (as in calorie counting) is actually 1000 scientific calories (1 kcal).

Based on your figures, 100 Wh x 24 = 2064 kcals (same as above).

 

[gomezz]

There is an argument that having your scotch on the rocks is slimming as the calories needed to raise the ice to body temperature is more than that contained in the scotch.

 

[Ezra Pound]

Isn't the heat used to melt the ice taken from the heat in the room rather than your body?