Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

What's that touchscreen in my room?

laplab.me

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

481–490 of 576 posts

Re: What's that touchscreen in my room?

#481

Post by TeMPOraL »

IshKebab wrote: post #198
XorNot wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pulling wires through anywhere after it's finished is an immense installation hassle though. It might be possible...or it might be completely impractical even if you can (i.e. low voltage buses and unshielded power wires don't play nice together if they're parallel).

Yeah I don't understand why he is shocked that this communicates wirelessly. He even bought a modern flat with Ethernet because he clearly knows how much pain it is to add wiring to a house. Very weird.

It's painful to add wiring to a house as a random normie user. It's not painful if you're an installer or a construction person.

Or at least this is my understanding why all construction is still done in a way that makes it near-impossible for the user/dweller to change anything without having to do general renovation of half the place. Which, again, is hard primarily because it makes no sense to buy all the hardware that makes such work easy for a single job.

Re: What's that touchscreen in my room?

#482

Post by crazygringo »

wkjagt wrote: post #275
ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #270

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a friend that is diabetic (a number of friends, actually). He has been doing a pretty lousy job of managing his diet. Until his doctor prescribed a monitor for a few weeks. This is a device that looks like a big Band-Aid that you put on your arm, inserting a fine needle under the skin, and communicates with an app on the phone, reporting things like glucose levels. Once he realized the effects of the foods he…

I think even people who don’t have diabetes could benefit from this. Would having access to my own glucose levels throughout the day give me some insights into how what I eat influences my own mood, energy levels etc?

You absolutely can, but having a needle in you 24/7 isn't the most convenient thing, not to mention the cost when it's not covered by your health plan.

There's one theory which is that the most effective form of weight loss might be simply to always keep blood sugar below a certain level. Still just a theory, though.

It's possible that sometime in the next decade the Apple Watch might be able to monitor glucose levels non-invasively. However, it's extremely difficult technologically, so it's not clear Apple will succeed. (They seem to be working on it though.)

Re: What's that touchscreen in my room?

#483

Post by seb1204 »

flagrant_taco wrote: post #438
stdbrouw wrote: post #222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your experience also points to the limits of monitoring and subsequent behavioral change, though. I mean, yeah, it might prompt you to start your washing machine a bit earlier or a bit later to align with high production by your solar panels... but how much consumption can you really move around like that, and how many energy hogs can you just decide to not use? If you notice high energy use while cooking, are you go…

> If you notice high energy use while cooking, are you going to start eating more salads instead? Of course, why wouldn't you? If the assumption isn't that effectively unlimited power is available on demand you adjust use accordingly. On sunny days with excess power maybe you charge and do laundry. On a stretch of cloudy days you avoid long periods of cooking or using large tools like sellers or air compressors. Adju…

In Australia there is more and more a network utilisation factor (not sure what the exact name is). In essence this is peak demand in a billing cycle does define the cost for the entire billing cycle. So if I have everything on at the same time I will draw lots of kWh, this will give me a night $/kW that I have to pay for my entire consumption.

So there is merit in keeping peak consumption low to not pay high just because of a single spike.

Never having dishwasher, washing machine and dryer on at the same time is a good starting point.

Re: What's that touchscreen in my room?

#484

Post by seb1204 »

avgcorrection wrote: post #401
stdbrouw wrote: post #222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your experience also points to the limits of monitoring and subsequent behavioral change, though. I mean, yeah, it might prompt you to start your washing machine a bit earlier or a bit later to align with high production by your solar panels... but how much consumption can you really move around like that, and how many energy hogs can you just decide to not use? If you notice high energy use while cooking, are you go…

> but how much consumption can you really move around like that, and how many energy hogs can you just decide to not use? If you notice high energy use while cooking, are you going to start eating more salads instead? There’s been some interest in this locally due to energy regulation moving to a more punishing system for peak usage. Also high electricity prices. And the topic came up that people would be encouraged…

I'm baffled, why is washing my clothes while sleeping considered dangerous? Can you please elaborate?

Re: What's that touchscreen in my room?

#485

Post by Symbiote »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #480
Symbiote wrote: post #463

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the main speed increase of American machines compared to European ones is due to much higher water consumption. A modern European washing machine uses 30-50 litres per wash, vs 75-100 for a modern American one. That's also halved the time required to heat the necessary water, so another reason a hot water connection might not be so useful

Could this be due to American washers being bigger? I don’t see why American washers would be designed to use more water if less water technology exists.

If water consumption isn't something the customer or government cares about, then the customer will choose on other metrics. Americans aren't generally going to buy a European washing machine that takes an hour longer to clean their clothes.

Europeans are going to look at the energy efficiency sticker that by law must be displayed with the machine, either out of altruism, to reduce the running cost, or because the machine with A must be better than the one with G. See the coloured symbols on [1] and the more detailed information if you click one, showing capacity, water use per cycle and typical annual electricity use.

Walmart's site [2] doesn't show this information anywhere.

[1] https://www.johnlewis.com/browse/electricals/washing-machine...

[2] https://www.walmart.com/browse/home/all-washing-machines/404...

Re: What's that touchscreen in my room?

#486

Post by seb1204 »

nawitus wrote: post #448
kristjansson wrote: post #387

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there a cap? AIUI this is how those Texas power bills got to $xx,000 last year.

Yes, 4€/kWh, which is dynamically adjusted (if that spot price is reached).

There are similar retailers in Australia. They even had a insurance against these super spikes such that the customers did have some fall back security. Details I'm not sure about but check https://www.amber.com.au/how-it-works

Re: What's that touchscreen in my room?

#487

Post by seb1204 »

jimmaswell wrote: post #371
miellaby wrote: post #136

I like how the author is surprised by the technological aberration that form Linux powered home appliances. A node server to power and publish over wifi a web site, an API, a web socket, while the site is being displayed by a outdated webview engine within an heavily constrained terminal which cant be reused for anything else. That's... the norm. All this is very common. And yet displaying a couple of digits and a ba…

> With the power supplies of this era, this pair of devices probably pumps 16w idle. Running 24/24 7/7, they probably consume as much as a small fridge as a whole. The LCA of the solution must be consterning as well, especially compared with few one dollard microcontrollers. At the average cost of electric in the USA this amounts to under $2/month. Seems negligible to me? https://www.wolframalpha.com/input?i=16+watts…

Please send me 2$/month if you don't mind.

Re: What's that touchscreen in my room?

#488

Post by dancsi »

teekert wrote: post #316
swozey wrote: post #314

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have no frame of reference but I have a feeling here (usa) it's super illegal to "tamper" with any pub utilities infrastructure. Could be wrong, though, but no usb ports. That's really cool though I wish we could do that.

P1 port is specifically to read values and “open”. There a 10€ cable to convert it (passively) to usb. You could consider one of those clamps that measure the power through a cable from the fields around it?

Actually, it is just serial under the hood, although electrically slightly nonstandard.

Re: What's that touchscreen in my room?

#489

Post by lotsofpulp »

Symbiote wrote: post #485
lotsofpulp wrote: post #480

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Could this be due to American washers being bigger? I don’t see why American washers would be designed to use more water if less water technology exists.

If water consumption isn't something the customer or government cares about, then the customer will choose on other metrics. Americans aren't generally going to buy a European washing machine that takes an hour longer to clean their clothes. Europeans are going to look at the energy efficiency sticker that by law must be displayed with the machine, either out of altruism, to reduce the running cost, or because the ma…

Walmart does not sell washers, those are all resellers using the Walmart website as a platform, and almost no on would buy an appliance there.

All the energy usage and other details would be on the website of a retailer that actually sells appliances, like Home Depot/Lowes/Best Buy/Costco/etc.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Electrolux-4-5-cu-ft-Stackable-F...

> Europeans are going to look at the energy efficiency sticker that by law must be displayed with the machine,

The US has this too with. See in “Details” in above link:

>Energy Consumption (kWh/year) 85

>Energy Efficiency Tier Rating Tier II

Re: What's that touchscreen in my room?

#490

Post by avgcorrection »

seb1204 wrote: post #484
avgcorrection wrote: post #401

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> but how much consumption can you really move around like that, and how many energy hogs can you just decide to not use? If you notice high energy use while cooking, are you going to start eating more salads instead? There’s been some interest in this locally due to energy regulation moving to a more punishing system for peak usage. Also high electricity prices. And the topic came up that people would be encouraged…

I'm baffled, why is washing my clothes while sleeping considered dangerous? Can you please elaborate?

I don’t know. A case of either Electricians or Bureaucrats Are Saying.

You can’t even leave your phone brush/phone to charge unattended, apparently.

Post reply on HN