Re: OT: SETI Shutdown

In article <qf6fo15l8jns81dd0qis1so383pa5erf06@xxxxxxx>, ab <ab@nospampl
ease.wessex.clara.net> writes
>Norman Wells <norman@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
>>If you don't keep the heating on constantly, the temperature falls
>>considerably, so it has to work harder, ie use more energy, when you do
>>have it on. And, for half the time it's on, you're still shivering.
>>There's not a lot of difference in fact between the energy demands of
>>keeping a room at constant temperature and heating it up every time from
>>a cold temperature to which you have allowed it to cool.
>
>Just to clarify this, as your first sentence and second seem to be
>saying subtly different things, and as I've quite often heard people
>express the opinion that it's cheaper to keep the heating on all the
>time so that the temperature doesn't drop....

Well, now you're inventing things I never said and arguing from there,
which is never wholly satisfactory. Of course it costs more to keep a
house at constant temperature. My point is that it doesn't cost hugely
more, and that background heating from computers etc during periods when
the heating isn't on isn't all wasted. A constant temperature is also
much more pleasant to live with, and is worth paying that extra for,
even for our poor civil servants in small government departments, which
is where this argument started.
>
>Say we have house A and house B.
>House A - Heating is used to keep temp at constant 20C
>House B - Temp oscillates between 10C and 20C
>
>It strikes me that the rate of heat loss from a house increases in
>proportion to the difference between inside and outside temperature.
>So in House A the heat is lost at a constant rate - but in B, the heat
>loss is sometimes the same as A, sometimes lower.
>
>So in House B you have an alarming 20 minutes while the boiler roars
>away heating the cold house up again, during which you think "How much
>is *this* costing?!"... but in fact it's still costing less than house
>A where the boiler is just ticking over gently - all day.
>
>(I'm no physicist mind, so if anyone wants to point out the flaws in
>my logic, please do!).
>
There is no flaw in your logic. But you are ignoring the fact that
during those 20 minutes, or however long it takes, to heat a house from
10 to 20 degrees, you will be unpleasantly cold.

>(But if there are no flaws in my logic, I think I've just proved to
>all of you nice people out there, that you should switch off both your
>heating and your PCs when they are not in use :-) )

If your sole objective is to save money, switch the heating off all year
round.

It's all about the balance between cost and comfort. If you accept the
need to have heating at all for your own comfort, you're into that
consideration already. What you now need to do is evaluate whether it
is better for you to pay marginally extra for extra comfort. All other
things being equal, would you rather have your house at constant
temperature rather than oscillating between cold and comfortable? If
so, how much is that worth to you? All I'm saying is that it doesn't
cost that much more, and certainly not as much as the original poster
complained was being wasted by leaving computers on all the time.

--
Norman Wells
.

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