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German digital signage ban prompts confusion

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391–400 of 457 posts

Re: German digital signage ban prompts confusion

#391

Interesting to see most of Western Europe go where we, Romania, were back in the 1980s under Ceausescu. Just today I was thinking about how one of my fondest memories as a kid (because it involves me, my parents and our home from back then) is of my dad teaching 5 or 6-year old me how many stairs there were in our block of apartments between two consecutive flors, so that I could use them even after the sun was down,…

Kind of an odd question, but out of curiosity, did the first set of stairs, the one on the ground floor going up, have an "even" or "odd" number of steps? Did the following sets of stairs on higher levels have the same number as the ground floor set or a different amount? Assume "odd" means that when starting on the ground floor, if you were to go up two stairs at a time, you would have to akwardly go up one stair on…

That’s a good question, because now that you asked it I remembered that there were some buildings that did indeed have that odd number of steps you mention, on the ground floor going up to the first floor, that is. I remember that I was finding that strange.

Each block of apartments had 16 steps between two floors. The building we were living in had those 16 steps “split” in two, that is you were climbing 8 steps from a given floor, there was a small “platform” of 3-4 meters, and then you’d climb another 8 steps until the next floor itself, after a change of direction “architected” through that platform I mentioned. And then there were the bulldings where you’d climb 16 steps straight. I liked the 8+8 version better, imo it gave the architect the chance to add more and larger windows to the staircase, and hence more light, the 16 steps straight staircases seemed to have smaller windows, hence less light.

Back to the odd number of steps on the ground floor, I think there were 15 or 17, can’t remember exactly how many.

Interesting discussion, I have to admit, I sometime compare the staircases from today’s buildings to those I knew as a kid, and it seems that today they don’t care about light coming in or “ergonomy” or anything like that (there’s also the very interesting discussion of the “perfect” height for a given step).

Re: German digital signage ban prompts confusion

#392

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except, modern AC is pretty efficient. I have a decent monoblock cooler in our apartment in Berlin. I also have a 1-second sampling power meter. The AC unit uses about 700 watts when active cooling, but of course it cycles so that's not all the time. We also only run it when it's 30+ during the daytime. Overall, it's only added about 15-20kWh to our monthly usage. (2-person household, about 200kWh/month average)

Which brings us back to the original question: > What on earth are people spending electricity on? It's exactly that. An AC, probably one additional appliance among others, adds another 10% to the total and somehow we manage to frame this as efficient and thus the right thing to do.

That seems an entirely reasonable incremental usage. In particular when the using A/C allows you to sleep and not running it means you get too little sleep and of poor quality. When the nights at 30-35C and the humidity high, an A/C can be a blessing.

Re: German digital signage ban prompts confusion

#393
post #312

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you thinking strictly in terms of massive, multi-national companies? For myself, it would be far more handy if I had seen ads for local plumbers, chimney repair, barbershops, etc. I try to support my local economy whenever I can, and I don't mind paying a premium for smaller shops since they usually do a better job, or are at least incentivized to do so. When it comes to something like buying a car, I don't want…

>I can absolutely think of cases where I would have liked to know what services are available for specific products, like chair making, or a project I have in mind, rather than having to ask around to figure out who even does it in my area. We had this, it was called phone books. And I guess a phone book is technically advertising, but there's clearly a difference between info and manipulation.

Yellow pages, also.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_pages

I don't mind advertising whenever I am actively looking for something.

What I have problems with is seeing ads when I don't want to see them.

Re: German digital signage ban prompts confusion

#394
I want to do 2 things here where i live in San Francisco, anyone have advice for me on where to start?

1 - I want to start or join a coalition of folks looking to get this implemented in California

2 - I want to contact the city/owner of the specific digital signs right outside my window of my apartment that are on 24/7, loud, and have their glass broken monthly and then wait for the glass to be replaced for weeks. It's a public hazard.

Re: German digital signage ban prompts confusion

#395
post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Average power usage for a 1 person household in Germany is 1300 kwh/year (roughly, numbers vary, but not to a degree that it matters). That's about 150W sustained. So 1500W for a large sign, that's like 150 high power LED light bulbs, I guess that checks out. Anything that reduces ads in the public sphere is fine by me.

Not sure where this number comes from. Statistisches Bundesamt says it's 1,958 kwh. https://www.destatis.de/EN/Themes/Society-Environment/Enviro... Interestingly, for 2 person households they state 3,196 kwh and for 3+ person households 4,919 kwh. Energy consumption scales worse than I expected. I assumed there would be more synergy in shared households.

Interesting that the equivalent in the US is about 10,000 kWh p.a. The delta is so large I thought there might have been a monthly/annual confusion.

I have lived in both countries and it didn't feel like there was much of a difference in electricity consumption.

Re: German digital signage ban prompts confusion

#396
post #367

The ads angle, in my opinion, is the least important piece of this news. What shocks me really is how Germany, one of the (if not THE) most advanced societies on Earth, came to a point where it can not produce enough energy to sustain it's needs. Western civilization has a masochistic saviour complex, and will freeze to death in winter in the name of "saving the world". I, living in a 3rd world country, can only look…

Germany is well able to produce enough energy to sustain its needs. It actually had to produce quite a surplus this year so far to support the European grid as a lot of French nuclear power plants had to be shut down for unscheduled maintenance and due to the drought. But of course, gas is scarce, as Russia is only supplying a fraction of its normal supply, so there is a lot of reason to be energy efficient. Also, as…

> Germany is well able to produce enough energy to sustain its needs

> But of course, gas is scarce, as Russia is only supplying a fraction of its normal supply

So what energy can Germany actually produce on it's own? Because this just makes it sound like Russia is doing the actual work here.

Re: German digital signage ban prompts confusion

#397

I want to do 2 things here where i live in San Francisco, anyone have advice for me on where to start? 1 - I want to start or join a coalition of folks looking to get this implemented in California 2 - I want to contact the city/owner of the specific digital signs right outside my window of my apartment that are on 24/7, loud, and have their glass broken monthly and then wait for the glass to be replaced for weeks. I…

The term you are looking for is “sign code”, and you can find info regarding the SF laws around this here: https://sfplanning.org/general-advertising-sign-program

I don’t know if you’ll have any impact at all though regarding your situation. You’re in a big city where this kind of stuff is part of life. Your best option is probably to move.

Re: German digital signage ban prompts confusion

#398

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It greatly depends on where you live, and season. In my apartment in Bucharest, especially during the summer, clothes dry indoors in ~4h, and a bed sheet takes maybe 6h. In the winter, the time is usually double. Still, drying clothes indoors has no ill effects, I have no idea where you got this. It's definitely better than exposing them to high temperatures like in most apartment tumble driers.

> during the summer, clothes dry indoors in ~4h, > drying clothes indoors has no ill effects Maybe the first is why you think the second is always true? Where I live if I just leave laundry on a drying rack it won't dry for days, and once it is dryish it already smells stale and mouldy. I'm glad that it works for you, but maybe the advice differs based on location, climate, maybe even architectural choices.

That's literally what they said in their first sentence.

Re: German digital signage ban prompts confusion

#399
post #390
post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

2 person household without much saving is ~1500kWh in my experience. LEDs and laptop instead of desktop computers lowered these stats quite a lot for me. I'm sure if I bought a newer fridge it would also help.

1500... per year? I use more than that by myself per month. Granted, I have all electrical appliances, heat, and a car, but even without those I have to imagine I'd still use significantly more. Thank god for being on hydro I guess.

That's got to be your car, otherwise the number is insane for one person. Maybe check if something is drawing more power than it should.

Re: German digital signage ban prompts confusion

#400
post #315

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1500W of LEDs is... rather bright; on the order of 150000 lumen. I guess there will be significant losses perhaps, but I sure hope most signage is using a lot less than that.

For context, this is what 100W of LED looks like [1]. Those signs don't come anywhere close to this. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FsrAV1Qh4fs

That's what it looks like when you have a small module and put it in a flashlight. What does it look like as a 15m2 billboard?
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