People are stupid with theromostats.
In a park's Public toilets I went into (legitimate reasons) - it had 2 thermostats - neither had stops to prevent them being set to silly settings. Clearly there to prevent freezing - using electric heaters. One was on highest - one on the lowest. Probobly every kid that comes in twiddes with them.
Also they were fitted above the heaters
And the aircon on as the windows don't often open!
There's a solution in a box, containing magick electronics, doing its ingenious thing: if one calls for hot water by opening the hot tap briefly, the pipe near the heater will heat up, and two temp sensors along the pipe note that first one, then the other get hot. Once this happens, the box fires up the circulation pump until the return is hot. One waits a bit and gets "instantaneous" hot water. Advantages are that the pump isn't running al the time, as this costs electricity and increases heat loss and heats the cold pipes. No wires, no plumbing, just unplug the pump from its timer and plug into box.
Works fine if one wants a hot shower, and hits the hot water for a second, brushes teeth with cold, then showers. No good if you want hot water immediately... (It's a kludge, fixing a problem which one shouldn't have in the first place, but I like it anyway. Nice hack.)
Thomas Prufer
They may have been "Placebo Thermostats", with the real ones hidden?
Thomas Prufer
And stuff a sacrificial ISO7810 sized gift-card in the central "off" switch?
Or tear up the room service menu and use that.
Switch off the TV (what's *that* all about?)
Throw the immense pile of cushions on the bed into a corner.
Untuck all the bedding.
Work out how to close the curtains and operate the shower.
Thomas Prufer wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:
That would take a degree of intelligent "out of the box" thinking that would be beyond the Council or its contractors.
Interested why you'd want cold water anywhere in the house? Except for drinking?
Obviously any cold pipes in the house will attain ambient temperature. But it would make sense to keep them clear of central heating etc pipes.
I imagine that's what he was referring to. Nowadays we expect all cold taps to be drinking water and to come from the rising main, and for that water to be cold. When I was a child, it was common for houses to have most of the cold water from the hot water header tank, so you hade to traipse downstairs in the night if you wanted a drink of water.
Do the building regs still allow *new-build* houses to have header tanks for hot and cold water, or are they now required to have hot and cold on the rising main, with the hot water either being heated on demand (combi boiler) or else supplying the hot water cylinder at mains pressure. In other words, do any newly-built houses have 22 mm piping to increase the flow rate from a tank in the loft, in an attempt (usually a poor attempt!) to match the flow rate of hot and cold taps.
My first house, built in the early 80s, had a tank that was built onto the top of the hot water cylinder, not even on in the loft, so there was very little head of water (probably about 2 or 3 feet) to feed the bath. If I'd wanted a shower, I'd have had to use an electric one, because the shower head would have been above the water in the tank!
It was great when I moved house to have mains-fed hot water from the cylinder, and our present house has a combi boiler so there isn't even the problem of the cylinder running cold - we have hot water for as long as we like.
Last time I used an hotel was oop North. A Premier Inn. In the winter, and not cheap giving the last minute booking. Building was near new - the gardens still being finished. The reception and hallways etc were fine - the actual room freezing. And the only heat an air-con unit which could also heat. Which didn't reach the bathroom. Add to that the usual 5 watt maximum lights and it was anything but Premier.
Turn on all the lights, which collectively generate 1 candlepower.
Back in the late '80's and early '90's, I got shipped around Europe to investigate problems in their national videotex systems (such as Prestel in the UK). This usually meant staying in a local hotel for a couple of weeks, and reading through crashdumps printed on fanfold paper in the hotel room in the evenings. (This was before the days of laptops and access to Internet fropm hotels.)
I would turn on all the room lights which produced bugger-all light, and then try and read a listing printed on a line printer which had never had a replacement ribbon fitted in its life - damn difficult to see what you are trying to read.
I eventually carried a couple of bright light bulbs with me, and usually ended up taking off a lightshade or two so the fittings let out some light.
Reminds me of an interview I heard with the traffic controller of New York, probably 10 years ago now. He was discussing the numbers of pedestrians versus vehicles. The chap mentioned that they had not been connecting up the pedestrian crossing push buttons for at least 20 years, as they didn't want pedestrians messing up the signal timings. However, they still fit the buttons, because the pedstrians expect them to be there.
I think some buttons just start a visual Countdown Timer. The button didn't influence the timer - it merely started the display.
In Germany, they have buttons to press that do call for pedestrian green.
They also have little yellow boxes, very superficially similar, that have a circular inset on the bottom with a triangle pointing across the relevant intersection (in case there are several at a lamppost). These vibrate when the pedestrian light is green, and faintly buzz. These are there to provide a tactile green for the blind (some intersections also have beepers to allow orientation by hearing).
Lots and lots of people fondle these beacons to accelerate the green light...
Thomas Prufer
Most UK crossings have sound, and tactile green, although not everyone knows about it!
They prosecute you for crossing against the red, don't they?
There's a milled rod under some of them that oscillates when it's safe to cross.
That's right. With some, it's a milled 'nub'.
Reminds me of the common sight of isolating switches for hand dryers right next to the dryer. This might not breach any regs, but is an invitation to operate the switch (when a previous customer has turned it off to stop electicity wastage or whatever) with wet hands.
They theoretically might be able to write a ticket, yes. Never seen or heard of it being done.
Practically, the most I've seen or heard was bystanders berating someone for crossing on red in front of a bunch of first-grade schoolchildren, as setting a bad example.
This is more of a disc, with a triangle pointing into the direction the thingummy applies to.
Thomas Prufer
The ones in London have a milled cone that rotates slowly when the green man[1] is on
[1] Or the Green Gay, Green Trans or Green Kids:
Not a joke - I have seen 3 of the above with my own eyes 2 weeks ago at Trafalgar Sq.
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