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A candle produces roughly the same amount of energy as a resting human

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Re: A candle produces roughly the same amount of energy as a resting human

#161
post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not so simple anymore. Now you have a 60W (equivalent) bulb outputting 9 watts. If you ignore the numbers you can still easily feel the heat, but it's not so easy to translate into human equivalents.

Isn’t that because in that case, 60W refers to the legacy socket size rather than the power output?

No, it refers to the legacy light output of a 60W incandescent bulb.

You can get a large range of wattages for one socket size.

Re: A candle produces roughly the same amount of energy as a resting human

#162
post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've never been sure how to reconcile this with advice about insulation. It's currently really cold where I live, and I am trying to limit outside air coming in as much as possible. This then leads to the air having uncomfortably high levels of CO2, as confirmed using an air quality sensor.

It can't be reconciled. Which is why there are going to be more posts about air exchangers on HN in the future.

Well I'd word it that it can be reconciled; the energy-recovering air exchangers are exactly what reconciles it.

Re: A candle produces roughly the same amount of energy as a resting human

#163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"they produce soot and many other molecules" welcome to my family Also s/produce/release/g

Underrated response. Not only a subtle fart joke but also pedantic about words.

No, candles "produce" not "release", because the soot doesn't exist before the chemical reaction.

Re: A candle produces roughly the same amount of energy as a resting human

#164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You understand that if things touch each other the heat transfer isn't from radiation right?

You understand you've been utterly whooshed, right?

To be clear your joke is:

1. You don't understand something

2. Someone tells you that you don't understand

3. Got you good, can't believe you fell for my ignorance

Re: A candle produces roughly the same amount of energy as a resting human

#165
post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn’t that because in that case, 60W refers to the legacy socket size rather than the power output?

No, it refers to the legacy light output of a 60W incandescent bulb. You can get a large range of wattages for one socket size.

I see. It's still a fact though that the energy output is the same as the heat output.

Re: A candle produces roughly the same amount of energy as a resting human

#166
post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, it refers to the legacy light output of a 60W incandescent bulb. You can get a large range of wattages for one socket size.

I see. It's still a fact though that the energy output is the same as the heat output.

Close enough to the same, but that number is now a footnote on the box instead of the primary selling point.

The average person, when asked how many watts that bulb is, is probably going to say "60" or "much less than 60 but I don't know how much".

Re: A candle produces roughly the same amount of energy as a resting human

#167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, cooking with wood fires is a known-known and we've been doing it forever... but it's the biggest cause of death by air pollution.

Even bigger than pollution from e.g. burning coal/oil/etc.?

Surprisingly, yes, by many metrics. Per the WHO, 3.2 million people/year, mostly poorly ventilated wood or other biomass, mostly poor countries: https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/household-a...

_Overall_, outdoor air pollution (coal/oil/industrial effluent/etc) kills more (about 4.2 million) but in terms of single worst cause, cooking with biomass seems to be it.

Even in many rich countries, wood (generally burned for heat, not cooking, in the rich world) is one of the biggest sources of particulate air pollution, as coal is phased out and vehicles get cleaner.

Re: A candle produces roughly the same amount of energy as a resting human

#168
post #80
post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> We can make gradual incremental change as we learn more though, and we should try to do so. We shouldn't thoughtlessly make gradual changes which sacrifice quality of life for safety (which is the direction that these changes always seem to go) without actually deciding that the benefits are worth the costs.

Agreed, and that was my entire point. I think the tradeoffs for candles are worth it, I don't think the tradeoffs for gas stoves are worth it, and they probably aren't for quite a few people.

I think the problem is that we don't have a great way of quantifying the impact, so the tradeoff always ends up being something like "people are literally going to die, is pleasant light worth human lives?"

The answer IMO is "yes, if the number of deaths is small enough relative to the total amount of pleasure that the pretty lights create", but without a quantitative framework it's pretty tough to make that call.

Re: A candle produces roughly the same amount of energy as a resting human

#169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> even ignoring CO and gas leak risks from gas stoves Right, but they don't generate CO and they don't leak. If they do, they are faulty and should be repaired or replaced. Don't you have safety inspections where you are?

> [...] they don't leak. If they do [...]

Not sure what your fairly illiterate point is, there.

Re: A candle produces roughly the same amount of energy as a resting human

#170
post #141
post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, the amount of CO2 each person produces is noticable, especially in such a small room. If possible, keeping a bedroom window a bit open makes a noticable difference. Avoid closing bedroom door too. Similarly, if you work from home, make sure to create a draft once in a while. We got an Aranet4 CO2/humidity/temperature sensor mostly out of curiosity two months ago. Outdoors it's ~430 ppm CO2. 500-1000 ppm indoors…

I've never been sure how to reconcile this with advice about insulation. It's currently really cold where I live, and I am trying to limit outside air coming in as much as possible. This then leads to the air having uncomfortably high levels of CO2, as confirmed using an air quality sensor.

> with advice about insulation.

Good insulation only works with good ventilation anyways, the goal of insulation isn't to make an house completely airtight

Look into these things: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heat_recovery_ventilation

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