8 is serious. 9 is Pacific subduction rupture. 7 is not really top news of the day. People with friends and family exposed don't really appreciate being false-alarmed with 7s and 6s.
273 people died from a 7.0 earthquake in Kumamoto in 2016.
7.1 Earthquake in Japan
141–150 of 253 posts
Re: 7.1 Earthquake in Japan
#142Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you aren't using induction, it's also slow, slow to heat, slow to cool. Yes you can get used to turning the heat up 5 minutes before you want hot. A down 5 minutes before your food is done. But it's a pain.
Induction is the trick. It's nearly as fast as gas.
Sure, but it imposes its own limitations as the previous poster pointed out. There is no 1:1 swap-out for cooking that doesn't require either changing out your cookware or settling for a frustrating and slow cooking experience.
Also (this is a US perspective - perhaps Japan's labor costs are different?), running new heavy duty (240v, high-amperage) power cabling from the main breaker box to your kitchen is another huge cost barrier to electrification - this could easily cost many thousands of dollars. Which is why even places like California, which are happy to add costly burdens to homeowners in the name of "green," are only trying to push electrification in new builds.
It's true though that in a new build, if you have a roof chock full of solar panels and a big battery, getting a heat pump furnace, induction cooking, and all the rest of the electric appliances is super economical and awesome.
Re: 7.1 Earthquake in Japan
#143Earlier quoted context omitted.
I like how the video shows that you can detach the knob to clean the now flat surface ... instead of just putting the knobs somewhere other than the flat surface where food is likely to spill.
This is… literally the only surface that stoves in this form factor have?
This form factor is installed by literally cutting a whole into a flat surface, nothing limits you to only one hole.
Re: 7.1 Earthquake in Japan
#144Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you have a link to an "eco-cute" water heater, I would like to learn more. Thanks.
All the big Japanese makes have them. They basically look like a water tank with the outside portion of a mini split air conditioner hooked up next to them. With my power company in Japan, by going "all-electric" (having an eco-cute and induction stove), I qualify for a rate plan where I can trade off solar power peak hours (half price) for the duck curve hours (double price), so I have my water heating only running…
The bath intercom always cracks me up. I’m sure it makes sense in bigger, maybe multi-level houses; but I can’t imagine myself ever using it in my 2LDK.
Re: 7.1 Earthquake in Japan
#145Why does this earthquake, of similar magnitude, get so much more attention compared to the recent Venezuelan earthquake last month that was 100x more devastating? There was no commentary on HN about it.
Re: 7.1 Earthquake in Japan
#146Earlier quoted context omitted.
Electrical is inadequate power delivery-wise and requires completely different cookware to the point that it's a different cuisine. For example to replicate a gas burner you have to have above 15KW continious power. Good luck wiring that into your apartment, or feeding this with local solar. Or even finding an induction stovetop that won't melt its insides in a year or two at a measly 5KW.
Something doesn’t make sense here because an electric kettle operating at 120v at less than 10 amps will boil water much faster than the large burner on my stove.
That's kind of a special case, one couldn't pick a situation more tuned to the strengths of electric. The big burner on the stove heats the air up a ton, including a huge amount of heat going around the pot, straight up around the edges. (Add more inefficiency if the pot is uncovered). Whereas the electric element in the kettle is inside there conducting almost all its heat into the water and the insulated kettle is great at keeping the heat in (my kettle doesn't really get all that hot on the outside).
Stir-frying in a wok, for instance, will not be nearly as lopsided a win, but it will still be more efficient.
Re: 7.1 Earthquake in Japan
#147Earlier quoted context omitted.
I see some places in the Japanese countryside where homeowners get propane tanks delivered to them for cooking? I believe in an earthquake prone country, this is safer than having natural gas piped to their homes? The problem I think is that Japanese culture values hot baths daily. Heating water for the bath using electricity is still too costly.
Where I live in the US (near Seattle), there's no piped natural gas, most detatched houses have a 250-500 gallon propane tank. Seattle has piped gas, but my county never had the density to justify the expense to install distribution piping and now its disfavored. My house has a second tank for a backup generator. We use the main tank for our stove/range, water heater, clothes dryer, and a decorative fireplace that's…
Wow that's interesting. If you have to do it all over again, would you still get the heatpump?
Re: 7.1 Earthquake in Japan
#148Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is… literally the only surface that stoves in this form factor have?
This form factor is installed by literally cutting a whole into a flat surface, nothing limits you to only one hole.
I genuinely can’t tell - you’re aware that this is a standardized form factor, and they didn’t invent this just for this particular device, right?
Re: 7.1 Earthquake in Japan
#149Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you have a link to an "eco-cute" water heater, I would like to learn more. Thanks.
All the big Japanese makes have them. They basically look like a water tank with the outside portion of a mini split air conditioner hooked up next to them. With my power company in Japan, by going "all-electric" (having an eco-cute and induction stove), I qualify for a rate plan where I can trade off solar power peak hours (half price) for the duck curve hours (double price), so I have my water heating only running…
Hey thanks. I'll be reading these in-depth. I am fascinated by Japanese appliance tech-wizardry. LOL about the mom using the intercom to get the kids out of the bath.
Re: 7.1 Earthquake in Japan
#150Kumamoto is barely finished rebuilding from the last quake, you can still see cracks in structures as you drive down the road. This is really horrible; not to mention the city is already beginning to depopulate as the youth move north to Fukuoka.
It's my understanding that small to medium sized cities (and rural areas) depopulating is going on now throughout almost all of Japan. One of the things that really surprised me recently is how low the cost of real estate is for an older, normal middle class home in some sparsely populated areas of Japan.
Apparently the declining population and younger people not wanting to live in their parents' rural countryside home is having a significant effect on property values.