Recent content by Eric L

I think the proposal would use the same Areva-designed European Pressurized Reactor technology that has seen massive cost overruns in France and in Finland. So they were probably looking at those and realizing that the early estimates were a joke. Also, note the delays in construction on these...

That's the problem with these if you use them much. They're cheap to buy and do the job but in the most expensive way at most locations. It's really down to how much it's needed. 4 hours a week is one thing. 8 hours a day will get very expensive. Just a quick calculation. Seeker has 105 square...

What steve67 says is true for the heater types the OP listed. It's not true for a heat pump though as long as the temperature gradient between inside and outside isn't too high. At most places in the UK it's not too high for even an air source heat pump to be 2-3 times more efficient than a...

Yeah, the failure by so many to grasp this simple fact would be a real source of laffs if it weren't so worrisome. The Republicans constantly compare the US deficit to that of a household. Now, if a household needs to raise its debt ceiling, it must negotiate with its creditors to do so. Yet...

A couple points on these scary-looking debt figures: 1. What the US owes creditors like China on a forward basis is the interest on the debt it holds. That's it. This interest is currently running under 2% per year, a level it has been at for some time. That works out to around $26bn/year in...

Here's what, to me, look like the four likeliest outcomes at the moment ranked from worst to best (in my view): 1. Actual default on US Treasuriess after the debt ceiling is not raised, which would almost certainly devastate the global economy. This is still pretty unlikely. 2. A failure to...

There's a contemporary cylinder player that does this:

Since the article authors' reasoning involves counterfactuals and induction, as they clearly note, it trivially involves "big ifs". This in itself is only as objectionable as counterfactual and inductive reasoning is. I'm going to charitably assume that you don't mean to challenge all such forms...

There has been a broad lifting of debt-to-GDP ratios as austerity is being relaxed for the time being. Some of this relaxation is the result of a modest loosening of fiscal policy in Germany in the run-up to their elections (which the IMF praises in the link). And some of it was a relaxation of...

Yes, I think the linked article made that quite clear, although it also noted a new, 440MW unsubsidised pv system in Germany.

I don't know why the Guardian was even bothering with drives when there is free, unlimited storage in the cloud.

Gotta interrupt the speculation on this thread for a quick fact-check: 1. Nukes are proving badly uneconomic, particularly in North America, where the overwhelming majority of recent reactor applications have been withdrawn: That's despite the industry being massively subsidised...

Yes. Almost all of them reduce the speed by more than 50%. Dual-band (2.4 and 5 GHz) versions can supposedly avoid this by receiving from the base router on one channel and retransmitting to the client device on the other.

And probably also warmer. Counter-intuitively, freezers don't work efficiently when it gets too cold. Both the the coolant and the compressor oil need to be above a certain temperature to work properly. Also, defrost cycles don't complete in really cold air, leading to moisture problems.

Just a couple of ideas to add to those above garyi: Make sure the coils on those freezers are kept clean and that there is good air clearance around them. Does the OWL let you see how much they are each pulling? You probably know this, but putting a freezer in a garage is hard on it (due...