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Freeing a Xiaomi humidifier from the cloud

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Re: Freeing a Xiaomi humidifier from the cloud

#41
post #29
post #2

On a tangent note: don’t use ultrasonic humidifiers. Unless distilled water is used, they create a shit-ton of pm2.5 particles. Use evaporative humidifiers (just disks with myriads of small notches for water to cling on and a fan): https://us.smartmiglobal.com/pages/smartmi-evaporative-humid...

I found this too. I wonder why they don't just accept a PUR water filter on the input side. I also wonder why mini-split heating systems drip and pool water outdoors instead of pumping that distilled water back indoors for humidification.

> I also wonder why mini-split heating systems drip and pool water outdoors instead of pumping that distilled water back indoors for humidification.

Do you want Legionnaire's Disease? Because that's how you get Legionnaire's Disease.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1976_Philadelphia_Legionnaires...

Re: Freeing a Xiaomi humidifier from the cloud

#42
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How did we survive the last 3.5 billion years?

We didn't have access to modern technology... like ultrasonic speakers? Also we died at a young age. Everyone dying at 40 isn't incompatible with the species surviving but it's what advice like that is usually trying to avoid (and even less extreme outcomes).

So up until about two or three years ago when everyone suddenly became terrified of "particulates", people died at 40?

The Victorians called, they want their Night Air Panic back.

Re: Freeing a Xiaomi humidifier from the cloud

#43
post #38

Tangential rant: It’s becoming hard to buy dumb appliances. I was looking at robot vacuums, and most need internet connection at least for setup - by which point it’s already uploaded your floor plan and who knows what to the cloud.

Not sure that’s a great example when you can easily buy a regular vacuum. Robot vacuums are sort of by definition already the “smart appliance” version of the “dumb appliance regular vacuum”.

Re: Freeing a Xiaomi humidifier from the cloud

#44
Great project! This resonates with me - been using ESPHome for a year now and it's solid. One tip: if you're concerned about reliability, pair it with a PoE switch for your ESP devices. Makes recovery much easier if something goes wrong.

Also curious about your power consumption - did you measure watts before/after switching from Xiaomi's cloud solution?

Re: Freeing a Xiaomi humidifier from the cloud

#45
post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The concept of everyone dying at 40 is a myth/misunderstanding anyways - the reality was a lot more bimodal than that.

Eh, here it's more of a simplification than a myth as used in my comment. There are two effects: 1. We've reduced infant (and childhood) mortality. My comment isn't talking about this effect but it did drag down average life expectancy substantially. Including this effect life expectancy at birth in the stone age might have been as low as 20... but as you say the bimodality means this is a deceptive statistic when us…

The age 40 includes childhood mortality! It's difficult to get records from prehistoric humans for obvious reasons, but as early as Ancient Greece you had the upper class living about as long as we do now a days. A study of men of the time found the average life expectancy to be 71.3 years. [1]

And while the Bible includes plentiful mythological components, it also includes many historical and contemporary accounts. And this verse is certainly of the latter: "The length of our days is generally seventy years, or eighty years if one is strong, yet even the best of these years are filled with toil and sorrow, for they pass quickly and we fly away." That is part of the Old Testament (Psalms 90:10) that is believed to have been written somewhere from 1400-1200BC.

If you want more contemporary stuff that's completely indisputable you can also take random selections of people of renown. For instance the main Founding Fathers are a great example because they all were relatively young when their names become inexorably etched into history, yet their final life expectancy is again well into the 70s. The youngest major founding father to die was Hamilton, in a duel - at 49. Then Hancock died at 56 - likely of gout which can be caused by things like excessive indulgence. Next up was Washington who died at 67, probably more of the cure than the disease - he was leeched to the point of being pale as a ghost on his death bed. Jefferson, Franklin, Madison, Sam Adams, John Jay all lived to their 80s. John Adams made it to his 90s.

---

I am not trying to claim these samples are representative. These were wealthy individuals who would be relatively immune to famine, war, and other such factors that could have a catastrophic effect on lower classes. But when speaking of life expectancy, I think we are implicitly asking the question 'how long could somebody reasonably expect to live xxxx years ago without access to modern medicine and technology.' And that's what this sampling of people answers.

[1] - https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18359748/

Re: Freeing a Xiaomi humidifier from the cloud

#47
post #29
post #2

On a tangent note: don’t use ultrasonic humidifiers. Unless distilled water is used, they create a shit-ton of pm2.5 particles. Use evaporative humidifiers (just disks with myriads of small notches for water to cling on and a fan): https://us.smartmiglobal.com/pages/smartmi-evaporative-humid...

I found this too. I wonder why they don't just accept a PUR water filter on the input side. I also wonder why mini-split heating systems drip and pool water outdoors instead of pumping that distilled water back indoors for humidification.

During summer dehumidification is needed in most areas.

And it is really not distilled water. It gathers dust and so on from air. Distilling in more so closed circuit, where as those are very much open.

Re: Freeing a Xiaomi humidifier from the cloud

#49
post #29
post #2

On a tangent note: don’t use ultrasonic humidifiers. Unless distilled water is used, they create a shit-ton of pm2.5 particles. Use evaporative humidifiers (just disks with myriads of small notches for water to cling on and a fan): https://us.smartmiglobal.com/pages/smartmi-evaporative-humid...

I found this too. I wonder why they don't just accept a PUR water filter on the input side. I also wonder why mini-split heating systems drip and pool water outdoors instead of pumping that distilled water back indoors for humidification.

You’d need a reverse osmosis system, not just he charcoal filters like that

And the condensate water from an AC evaporator coil is not anything like distilled water, dust/bacteria are also in it.

Re: Freeing a Xiaomi humidifier from the cloud

#50
post #8
post #2

On a tangent note: don’t use ultrasonic humidifiers. Unless distilled water is used, they create a shit-ton of pm2.5 particles. Use evaporative humidifiers (just disks with myriads of small notches for water to cling on and a fan): https://us.smartmiglobal.com/pages/smartmi-evaporative-humid...

> Use evaporative humidifiers You don't have to buy one either. A suspended wet towel with a fan blowing on it will work very well. If you want to get fancy, have the last inch or two of the towel sitting in a tray of water.

That's a permanent bachelor design aesthetic.
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