Then why did PG&E deploy an old-style meter (the ones with seven hands or so) when our digital one with time-control features and all that croaked? This old style meter looks brand new.
-- Regards, Joerg http://www.analogconsultants.com/ "gmail" domain blocked because of excessive spam. Use another domain or send PM.
One solution that I saw was an inverted siphon between the mixer output pipe coming out of the wall, and the shower head. The pipe was about 6 ft long. There was a bi-metallic thermometer clamped to the entry point. My guess is that it would give about a 3 second warning of impending thermal excess. The installation looked commercially done and may have been part of aftermarket kit. As I was a visitor, I didn't give the shower a proper test flight.
It would be fairly trivial to build a proper mixer, with electronic (or bi-metallic mechanical) temperature control and independent flow control. There were some on sale in Israel in the early 1970's when I was there. It's just that the apartment where I was living didn't have one and apparently nobody thought the cost was justified. People can get used to almost anything.
I once had my bathroom sink setup as in a medical office or surgeons wash room. Limited manually adjustable temperature (to insure self sterilization) and foot switch operated flow control (to prevent contaminating the hands). It saved considerable water and by implication, considerable energy heating the water. My ladyfriend at the time found it "inconvenient" so I reluctantly removed it.
An IR faucet adapter:
The same device could easily be installed in a shower, with foot valve operation. Set the temperature with a controlled mixing arrangement and adjust the flow (or more crudely on/off) with a foot switch. It's even patented:
So, what's preventing such installations in the home? I once discussed the issue with a local doctor, who was building a new house at the time. The Uniform Building Code for residential dwellings won't allow such innovative plumbing. It's perfectly acceptable for commercial and hospital, just not residential. I'll supply a suitable conspiracy theory when I have time.
Hmmm.... I still have the parts of the foot operated sink valve somewhere. I should try to resurrect it.
Incidentally, one of the old but fun problems with hospital water control is selecting the temperature. One set of regulations demanded that the water be hotter than 52C in order to minimally self sterilize. Another set of regulations from a different agency, demanded that water be no warmer than 52C to prevent scalding. This was about 10 years ago, and hopefully a suitable compromise has been reached by now.
"Control of nosocomial Legionnaires' disease by keeping the circulating hot water temperature above 55 degrees C: experience from a 10-year surveillance programme in a district general hospital."
Google couldn't find anyone using a rooftop solar water heater as a drinking water purifier or pasteurizer. Stand alone yes, but not part of the water heater pretzel:
Yet another opportunity ignored.
-- Jeff Liebermann jeffl@cruzio.com 150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558
My wife works in a hospital where one inspection agency requires plastic-bag liners in trash cans, and another agency forbids them. They adjust according to which inspection is scheduled.
John
A friend had the same sort of problem with trash can lids in his restaurant. The county health inspectors insisted on them and the state inspectors gave him a major ding for having them.
-- Keith
One more for your collection. OSHA requires rubber mats in the food preparation areas in order to prevent slip and fall due to slop on the floor. Some other hospital safety agency forbids such rubber mats to facilitate slop cleanup and prevent filth accumulation in the mats. The hospital currently uses the same strategy. Rubber mats are either deployed or well hidden depending on the scheduled inspection type.
-- Jeff Liebermann jeffl@cruzio.com 150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558
Wait a year; that's Obama's energy plan too.
-- Keith
I just interviewed for a position as a network engineer for a hospital group. They were telling me about the regulations regarding 802.11 gear, it's enough to make your head spin.
The certification process is in a word, ridiculous.
In about 1993, before HIPAA, I was working with a large medical office management group. The problem was that office space on the hospital campus was expensive, so they moved across the freeway to a cheaper location. The problem was that the cost of a T1 was rather. We were looking into wireless. All that was available in 1993 was Wavelan
802.11 at 2Mbits/sec (half that in thruput) and some 900MHz stuff from OCT. Good enough to replace a T1. I submitted my proposal to the hospital bureaucracy which was immediately rejected by the safety committee. Safety? Yep. They didn't want their patients "irradiated" by all that evil wireless. I eventually threw together an IR system, that actually worked, but only to about 100Kbits/sec. It also had the irritating habit of losing focus twice a day as the thermal inversion layer hit the beam over the freeway.A few years later, Wi-Fi became the high fashion buzzword, where everything from heart monitors to crash carts were being deployed in the hospital. They even have a Cingular cell site on the roof of the the cardiology unit:
So, in 2003, someone figured it was safe to resurrect the idea of the wireless link across the freeway. They submitted roughly the same plans, and were again rejected on the grounds of RF safety. In addition, HIPAA requirements had just become manditor, and nobody had a clue whether wireless was acceptable. That decision was in the hands of the attorneys, who supplied the tranditional judgement, that wireless was a potential problem and should be avoided. Never mind that in 2003 there were already a dozen wireless access points scattered around the hospital (not counting those installed by the doctors for their own use).
Incidentally, I proposed and tested delivering Wi-Fi to the hospital rooms via the HVAC ducting used as waveguide, which sorta worked, but was also deemed a potential can of worms.
The local hospital is owned by Catholic Healthcare West. I have to restrain myself not to call the process the "blessing" of the hardware. Also, I've had to survive an insurance company audit of the medical offices equipment and procedures, which makes HIPAA wireless certification look trivial by comparison. (I haven't done any of that since 1996, which explains why I'm still sane).
Actually, it's apparently becoming somewhat easier these days. Some wi-fi vendors are including regulatory and certification compliance reports in their security packages. For example:
-- Jeff Liebermann jeffl@cruzio.com 150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558
For Washington they have had Boeing to keep the crazies in check. But i think it has been moved to Delaware, the notorious corporate homeland.
Car?:
It was released on DVD to the home video market on November 14, 2006 by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.
During an interview with CBS News, director Chris Paine announced that he would be making a sequel called Who Saved the Electric Car? This idea was later scrapped as there were not enough topics to discuss.[1]
"The sequel was later scrapped as there were not enough topics to discuss."
?
A ford Fusion for what? MPG 20/29! Cripes my Toyota pickup truck gets better than that! Obviously nobody ESPECIALLY those at GM have ANY intention of dealing with running out of oil! They also seem to prefer taking a backseat in the auto industry allowing other companies to actually be number one.
Not only is there the ELECTRIC car fiasco, but there is much more as well!
Consider the electric car. Yes, there are battery problems: Lead acid are heavy. Ni-MH tend to discharge just sitting. and Li-Ion are very expensive with a 5 year life. BUT, the key is that these cars run on COAL and not OIL! That means that even though they leave something to be desired in performance, you still get to keep driving to work every day even when gasoline hits $100 a gallon.
Which brings up the point. Cars have various functions. Yes a nice high performance gas car does a lot of things nicely. It has power, it has range, it has comfort. But a great deal of driving is just going to work daily through slow city traffic. So an electric is ideal for that. You recharge at night and go to work each day. No wonder people loved them. The idea of using an electric to perform ALL your driving is dumb. But splitting out your commuting driving for electric makes great sense.
And in the meantime, hey I'm driving a "classic" Geo metro! 45/55 mpg (actually measured by me!) Now go look at current offerings by auto makers! NOTHING comes close. It seems that building a Geo is sort of like making a mummy, everyone has forgotten how to do it! Cripes, I LOVE that little car but support from GM is nil, they have offered NOTHING like it for years, and pretend that this "technology" doesn't even exist! It's downright criminal!
And that's not even the limits! One could use aluminum and carbon fiber construction to go for some "real" mileage! But instead all we have is a huge scam and wringing of hands as if nothing can be done. I've got it, lets all drive to work in gigantic high-profit SUVs that GM will happily supply [and then demand a higher salary to pay for the increased fuel costs] You want a formula for disaster? There is one for you! And GM will support you in it.
I totally agree. I am not totally satisfied with my 1997 Saturn SW1 average
33 MPG, but models made after about 2002 are much worse. I think after 9/11 gave us an excuse to invade the Middle East to get cheaper oil, the car companies and energy giants decided that they could sell power and performance rather than economy, and get richer doing so. And when that plan backfired (or maybe it worked as planned), it was found that everyone (except the middle classes who had bought into the big bad car/SUV scam), could get even richer when demand soared and prices went up to what they are today. They will likely stabilize when US prices reach par with the rest of the world at about $6-$9/gallon, and by that time many people won't have jobs to which to commute, and they will have had their SUVs repossessed.Paul
Bizarre article about Geo Metros:
Paying $6k for a car that formerly fetched $1k? Hmm... $5k still buys >30,000 miles of gas even at 25mpg...
They also point out that Metros didn't have ABS or airbags but that adding them would have increased weight, the "enermy of high EPA ratings." Come on... how much can a couple of airbags and ABS brakes add to the weight of the car? Certainly < 100lbs.?
I am surprised that something like a Honda fit only gets ~34mpg on the highway... I suppose it's the fact that the engine is much more powerful than those in Metros?
---Joel
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