I put a high value on inverter compressor, so the fridge's heat pump can run at low power all the time. Instead of being regulated on and off, with that loud "thunk" sound.
A fridge from 70 years ago has better features than the fridge I own now
201–210 of 531 posts
Re: A fridge from 70 years ago has better features than the fridge I own now
#202Earlier quoted context omitted.
On a serious note, how heavy does an object have to be for gravitational lensing or bending to be noticeable with a naked eye? s/visible/noticeable s/noticeable/noticeable with a naked eye s/lensing/gravitational lensing
Depends on how you define "noticeable". If you can measure a small enough distance, you can see the lensing effect of any object.
Noticeable with the naked eye.
Re: A fridge from 70 years ago has better features than the fridge I own now
#203Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah but I'd bet the one we see in the video is probably still working, while I'm on my third fridge in 20 years. I think that negates any energy efficiency gains
Why doesn't everyone have old fridges then? You only buy new when the old one breaks down right? But if the old ones were so sturdy why were they all replaced? I expect there's some survivorship bias at play here.
> You only buy new when the old one breaks down right?
Are you kidding? You must not live in the US.
People buy new phones despite the old one working. My phone is almost 6 years old. No one I know keeps phones around that long. Becoming rare to see anyone keep one for even 4 years.
I lived on cheap, used furniture. There's a glut of it, because people buy new furniture despite their old ones being just fine.[1]
People often change their cars even though they're not even 10 years old.
They change their shirts even though the old ones are not worn out.
And so on. There are not that many things people keep till they break down.
[1] They cost about 10% of a new one. Heck, do this experiment: Buy an expensive table/bed. Don't even assemble it. Immediately put it on the used market. Note how know one will buy it for even half the price. I have one that I can't sell for 20% of the price. Unless it's some fad item or office chair.
Re: A fridge from 70 years ago has better features than the fridge I own now
#204Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Commercial ovens have no or minimal heat insulation This seems counter intuitive to me. Why would I not want more insulation in an oven that's going to be used a lot more? Seems like the cost of the insulation would be amortized more quickly than in a home kitchen, since a commercial oven is presumably being used a lot more?
> Why would I not want more insulation in an oven that's going to be used a lot more? Primarily different regulations. Everyone interacting with a commercial oven is a trained professional getting paid to be there and the space is designed to a certified standard. This means you can focus more on pure performance and less on liability stuff. And commercial equipment, because it needs to last long, is optimized for ma…
Insulation on a home oven is to protect the kids (by trying to keep the outside from being finger burning hot) and to let the heat slowly dissipate into the kitchen.
A commercial oven runs all day when it is being used, so it will eventually get hot no matter how much insulation you have unless it's somehow cooled or can send waste heat elsewhere.
Re: A fridge from 70 years ago has better features than the fridge I own now
#205Earlier quoted context omitted.
I mean, in general, things we buy today are a lot more "affordable" while being lower quality. Googling says the average cost of a refrigerator in 1950 was $250 to $400 (for 10 cubic feet -- a fridge today is 20 to 30 ft^3), which would be $3K to $5K in 2023 dollars. If you pay $3K to $5K for a fridge today (for a fridge 2-3x as big as the 1950 fridge), do you get a better longer-lasting one? I'm not sure.
$4K will get you a nice solid-state (thermoelectric Peltier-effect refrigerant-free) research-grade fridge from Fischer Scientific, only 5.5 cubic feet though. Five-year warranty.
Peltier is very inefficient cooling. Nice for reliability and lack of vibration, not nice for your electric bill.
Re: A fridge from 70 years ago has better features than the fridge I own now
#206Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's also a consequence of constant R&D improvements. We can make appliances that last for 20 years or more, sure, but then when 20 years pass you have an appliance that is 20 years old and doesn't have any of that new stuff that came out in the last 20 years.
There is a level where you don't care about more improvements. Fridge is a box of cold stuff. I don't need much more than that. Sure it could be slightly more efficient but even 20 years old ones are pretty efficient, and I'd rather just slap an extra solar panel or two on the roof rather than replace whole fridge and junk the old one.
> Fridge is a box of cold stuff. I don't need much more than that.
The entire premise of TFA is essentially that you're wrong.
Re: A fridge from 70 years ago has better features than the fridge I own now
#207This reminds me of the same types of complaints around air travel now versus the 50s/60s. Both ignore the relative costs and the fact that you can still buy high-end fridges or first class tickets if you are willing to spend the same amount of money that you would have had to back then.
> you can still buy high-end fridges or first class tickets if you are willing to spend the same amount Can you, though? Or has the maker of that high-end $1500 fridge been brought out by the maker of $500 fridges? Are the two brands made in the same factory, to the same quality standards, while the owners laugh at those chumps who are paying 3x the price just to have a different sticker on the front? I've brought hi…
Sorry, but $1500 is not high end. Not even close.
Heuristic: If you can buy it at Lowe's/Home Depot, it probably isn't high end.
Re: A fridge from 70 years ago has better features than the fridge I own now
#208Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Commercial ovens have no or minimal heat insulation This seems counter intuitive to me. Why would I not want more insulation in an oven that's going to be used a lot more? Seems like the cost of the insulation would be amortized more quickly than in a home kitchen, since a commercial oven is presumably being used a lot more?
Insulation distributes heat release over time, at the cost of temperature control. If its going to be used all the time, especially with multiple units, distributing release over time doesn’t change much but the delay between first turning it on and full effect to the surroundings, and the impact on temperature control is still there. Insulation is only effective with intermittent use.
No. If it was only effective with intermittent use then we wouldn't insulate water heaters as they're 24/7.
Insulation slows heat flow and thus means the hot side rises to closer to the temperature of the heat source and thus there is less energy transfer.
Re: A fridge from 70 years ago has better features than the fridge I own now
#209[dead]
Re: A fridge from 70 years ago has better features than the fridge I own now
#210Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'll recycle a comment I made in another thread a few years ago: When clearing out my grandmother's house a few years ago, my uncle and I almost broke our backs trying to get the freezer out. It felt like it weighed a ton, even empty. My grandmother told us it had been a wedding present, and that they had been totally awestruck at the time at the generous present from her parents-in-law. After all, a decent freezer c…
2,000kr is $300. If you earn that in five hours, you make around $10,000/month after taxes. So more than double the median of $4,632/month. But okay, even at that median, I guess it's just two days of work. Are you sure you had to work 5 months for a freezer at median work in 1950? Seems nobody would buy them then.
Some context - I’m assuming that OP is Norwegian:
2000 Norwegian kr (NOK) = 198 USD
2000 Swedish kr (SEK) = 191 USD
2000 Danish kr (DKK) = 296 USD
2000 Icelandic kr (ISK) = 15 USD