Did you mean mini ITX? I'm using two of those in always-on servers, and one in the small communal PC in the living room. I'll be converting the Asterisk box (to-be) to one soon; currently it's running voicemail for the dedicated PBX.
Haven't added it up on all the UPSes, but the other always-on machines are mostly 300MHz PIIs (the most economical PII CPU). One of the mini-ITX machines runs off a CF card and has no hard disk. Another, at
"Heat pumps produce some noise - similar to that of an oil fired boiler. Unlike a boiler, they also produce vibration. For this reason, heat pumps should always be installed away from occupied spaces. The best place is in a utility room, or at the back of a garage. Be aware that noise travels upwards, so noise from a heat pump in a utility room can travel upwards to a bedroom. Bear in mind that heat pumps usually run at night, on off-peak electricity".
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not quite as invisible as you suggest. Otherwise the hopeful reliability and freedom from servicing does look attractive, especially on homes built to current standards where servicing of a gas or oil system will cost a significant amount as compared to the fuel bills.
But the cost of additional panels does not double the installation cost. There probably is an economic rationale for installing solar panels where you have a family house with 4+ occupants and where mains gas is not available. My place (single occupancy, condensing combi) has a roof ideally suited to a solar panel. According to SAP2005 and doubling the notional fuel cost of 1.73p/kWh, a 2m2 panel would save me about £20p.a. Needless to say, it's not on the to-do list.
But nearly every week I talk to people who have come up against the 'Merton Rule' which requires new developments of any size to show that
10% of energy comes from renewables - so solar panels are the usual way round, although on flats it makes little sense to do this. This requirement is imposed by planner, not Building Regs. Spending the money on (say) triple glazing would not be acceptable. And this is not NuLab at work: councils of all persuasions have fallen over themselves to copy Merton.
I confess to having mine at 17 overnight, which actually means that it only comes on on the coldest nights being a reasonably insulated already-warm room. But I've got split-zone heating so the living room end of the place is unheated.
I've fitted some switches so I can turn everything off, even those things that would be on standby. I suspect Virgin Media don't like it 'cos they can't run updates at night, but stuff'em, I'm not leaving the set top box and modem on all the time, they draw too much.
We must be made of sterner stuff - when I said ours was off overnight I=20 wasn't quite accurate. It falls back to 7=B0C over night, though I've=20 never heard it come on even on the coldest night.
Yes, the current machines that are perfectly useable are 1GHz Athlons. It's a a while since I looked at ITX based stuff so I expect I can get something at double the speed and 1/4 the power requirement.
The 800MHz fanless version of the Eden, for the desktop The 800MHz fanless Luke CoreFusion, for the firewall The 1GHz fanned Luke CoreFusion, for the house server
These are all VIA chips on VIA boards, and all work fine. The first is an XP machine, the other two are FreeBSD.
The message from "Dave Liquorice" contains these words:
Not me. :-)
But I do have the fall-back temperature set overnight to 13C on both the upstairs and downstairs stats. Despite having a leaky house (heatwise) my gas bills are not too bad. I am currently paying £57 per month which would appear to be around average if the figures quoted in the media from time to time are correct.
The people who turn the roomstat or TRVs up to maximum to warm the house up quicker are probably in a majority. :-)
First of all, the build is massive. Concrete is the material of choice, or tile brick and terracotta.
Rooves are very thick and cemented together.
The eaves overhang, and there are usuallay overhung verandahs or ramadas, to provide shade in the high sun, but allow low level winter sun to penetrate.
The large thermal mass allows peak summer day temperatures to be moderated by lower night time temperatures, especially in windows ar largely CLOSED by day, and opened by night.
Everybody sleeps through the peak heat - 12pm -5pm or 6pm.
Work is done in the mornings, and the evenings. Late evenings are playtime, for sitting outside and drinking cool drinks.
In winter, as mnuch use of solar gain as possible is made. Sun in te windows raises the temperature, and the house stays warm at night. My sister has a house in greece, and a simple solar water panel on the roof makes it ALMOST unnecessary to have a fire or other heating. Just occasionally its needed on very cold days.
In ulktra cold places, wood is preferred for construction, there being no real heat input to preserve, so insulation is far more important than thermal mass. However even here large triple glazed picture windows facing south can provide useful solar input in winter, and will typically have some form of thermal curtains over them after dark.
Mine keeps going off rediculously late, and on again rediculously early. However much I reset it to be off longer in the night it seems to revert to these settings. Also teh programmable thermostat reverts to some rediculously high setting. I have to strip off at times.
We normally have it off, because we sleep almost over the boiler. Its not too loud, but its a quite area.
I have slept curled up in front of many a fire in the past in less well insulated houses.
I happen to LIKE heat. I was on the edge of hypothermia once, spent my childhood in a house with no insulation and no central heating, and never lost an almost permanent state of asthma till I moved to college..then I started smoking..ah well..I was at that time around 5'11 and weighed just under 8 stone.
I am 13 stone and a smidegoon now, and its not as bad as it was..I actually FLOAT in water now.
But if someone gave me the choice between death valley for a day, and
-15C for a day, Id pick death valley every time. As long as there was water and shade.
I dunno why, but when other people are puffing and panting about how hot it is, I am just beginning to feel comfortable (around 23-25C)
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