Wanted: a "Save energy, be more secure" howto

[Duncan Lithgow]

On Mon, 2005-03-07 at 16:27 -0800, Brian Mury wrote:
> Of course an electric heater is 100% efficient. A lightbulb is not
> 100%
> efficient - it's job is to produce light, but it has loss in the form
> of
> heat. An electric heater's job is to produce heat - and it has loss in
> the form of what? Heat? Every bit of energy consumed by an electric
> heater generates heat. All of it. Every last bit.

Sorry Brian - I think you need to do some homework on this one.

- Anything which gives out some light is giving out less heat.
- Anything which gives out some noise is giving out less heat (thou this
depends _marginally_ on the surface the sound hits)
- A computer screen and several components convert electricity to
electro-magnetic fields
- All those capacitors also loose energy - I'm not sure what it is lost
as, maybe heat - possibly chemical changes
- A computers fan is actively using electricity to _cool_ space.

It's never a good idea to claim anything is 100% good at anything.
Electronics and thermodynamics are a bit more complicated than at first
sight.

Duncan