The people who owned/occupied this house previous to us were muppets. I'm not sure if I mentioned it previously, but instead of fixing a leak in the pipe/valve leading from the hot water tank, they simply turned the pressure WAY DOWN so that the leak did not occur. This meant that the shower water pressure was sucky. We discovered this when Sara sought to fix this, and the plumber went "that's odd" flicked a switch and fixed the problem. He agreed - they were thickies.
Phase two of their muppetry with regard to the hot water tank comes from the temperature dial. For some time we have wondered why we have never run out of hot water. Even when there are sometimes six showers a day. We have also wondered why the electricity bill seemed a little on the high end.
The hot water cylinder is on the low rate night/day power scheme, but it still seemed excessive. Unfortunately due to additional stupidity on someones behalf, the control panel on the tank is inconveniently located in a dumb place. It requires the fridge to be moved, so we can move the pantry, so we can get to a panel that we have to unscrew. Suck. They could have simply turned the cylinder about 40 degrees and it would have made sense - locating itself in the hot water cupboard which would provide easy access. BUT NO.
So yesterday Sara and I moved the assorted stuff, and finally found the holy grail. Which was surprising. But more surprising was the temperature setting of the hot water tank. We discovered that the settings went up to 80 degrees, and that it was set well in excess of this temperature holy smeg that is hot. Mum and Dad's is set to between 60-65, and this thing is somewhere close to 85?
Well, that certainly explains the high power bill. It has since been lowered to 70 degrees, which seems far more reasonable. Sara and Sam will have to contemplate it, and we will see if we start running out of hot water - which isn't necessarily a bad thing mind you.
This should save: every night x 15 degrees x many litres of water = hopefully lots.
In being tall news, Glen dropped me in town this morning, and I made my way to the library to get queueing material. Found Heads be Greg Bear, and selected it as the central library's collection of Sci-Fi/Fantasy seemed to involve not much, bar a huge assortement of hard backs. Often the same hardbacks. Over, and over.
Walked down Colombo St to the previously reconoitered place. It turned out it was old Sydenham Town, for those in the know, or 454 Colombo for those that don't.
Arrived shortly after the eleven AM kick off, and found a bunch of tall guys standing outside. The queue moved reasonably quickly, compared to LOTR's. The only TV camera in sight belonged to the polytech's current news class, and I want to know who gets to be the interviewer, the camera person, and more importantly the "girl who caries the tripod." Because only two of those are good. I imagine they take turns?
Anyway. A guy came out and reminded everyone that they were only looking for people over 6'4" and under five foot. I think it would have helped some people if he had had some kind of stick with these measurements so that they could check. There were a number of people (all short girls) that either didn't know how tall they were, or believed that they were under five foot. So, stupid, but possibly happier now, knowing they are taller than they believe. Or just desperate to get in. Only saw one guy wait the entire queue only to be judged 6'2". Thicky.
The queue went inside, and upstairs, and around. At the end was found a height marker with someone checking you. (Not too useful at the END of the line) Then forms were deployed. Name, rank, serial number, etc, plus suit size. Not one single guy new their suit size. I don't even know how one measures suit size, but it appears that it is in the s-m-l-xl style, so I simply went xl, who knows. Also, am I available from Sept-November (shooting down the June theory of the paper) and do I wear contact lenses, and would I be willing to wear colouredcontact lenses. Also, am I claustrophobic, and have I ever worn prosthetics.
Were then measured for a more accurate height, waist, shoulders etc. And had my photo taken. The guy recorded my offical height as 6'4" which I thought sucked, but choose not to challenge it, in case I was wrong. However the next guy he recorded as 6'7" when was obviously significantly shorter than I. (He thought he was 6'5") So at this stage I asked for it to be corrected. It is after all, all I got. The only interesting aspect of this process being that they used a non digital camera. Which I found very surprising. Total time one and a half hours. Time till I find out what is what unkown. Here's hoping. Oh, and there was an apostrophe crime on the form. I'll inform the appropriate people.
And that was it.
I saw no Amazonian ladies, nor any tiny men. There were two guys taller than me, and a smattering of short woman, the general population however was simply tall guys.
Posted by luther at April 19, 2004 06:30 PM | TrackBackenergy vs. temperature is normally modelled as a first-order system, where the power flow between two masses is proportional to the _difference_ between their temperatures divided by the "thermal resistivity" of the thermal insulation between them.
so if the water was 85 and we pretend there's only a single layer of insulation to outside, say 15 degrees, we have 70/some number power flow. if the water is now 70, we have 55/some number.
so the relative change is 70/55 = 22% saving - instead of 85/70 = 18% saving.
unfortunately there are multiple stages so that is oversimplifying, but that's the principle.
(Actually posted by ME, Will sent it via ICQ)
Posted by: Will on April 19, 2004 11:39 PM