Winter Floor Heating effectiveness report

I just thought I'd make a post about how my "system" of the combination of

• Solar Floor heating
• Insulation in floor and Ceiling
• Use of Reverse Cycle AirCon
• Wood burning stove

is working out for me.

With overnight lows of about -1C (so frosts) but typically sunny days of about 18C, I get sufficient energy from that to heat the floor and this therefore takes a significant load off the AC because as the floor (basically) never gets heated by the warm air blowing out of that (so, upper walls and ceiling are heated) the floor heating system then brings the whole house up warmer. This is a typical winter day here:

The time zone indicated by A is where I turn on the R-C A-C and the zone indicated by B is where I lit the fire. Because the house is already warm (and insulated top and bottom) the fire requires just a fraction of what would be needed otherwise. As the sun starts to warm outside I choose that time to then turn on the AC because the exterior heat exchanger will have more advantage in raising the temperature inside if the outside is actually warmer.

Its just like the height difference between two points on a hill. The higher the difference the more energy you need. So even though I'm using technology and electricity to move and amplify that heat I'm still taking advantage of the Sun to do that. So only one component would simply not work, but all four parts work together, consequentially my house is warmed (but not 100% of the time, my power bill is much lower) and I burn less than a quarter of the wood. For example the load of wood I bought in 2023 is still serving and I anticipate that it will provide for this winter entirely too. I'm a big fan of

• understanding diminishing returns
• seeking maximum value for money

I know what it would cost to improve this situation, and so I'm quite satisfied with the additional amenity provided by my existing solar floor heating in conjunction with Reverse Cycle Air-Con and insulation to augment the little wood burning furnace that the house already had delay the need to and reduce how much I burn when I do.

The whole project is well described here: (link)

Addiesdive (budget) Submariner

Some time back I bought a $15 Sanda Rolex inspired watch to "get free postage" (but actually get something tangible on a purchase of the same cost to me) on an Ali Express order. I intended to use it in the gym to time my training and get a second hand to time HR during training. I was surprised how comfortable it was; which was (I expected)  not least because of its weight.

This led me to consider the Addiesdive H3-2QZ which I found quickly enough on Ali for a discounted rate that (including taxes) worked out to AU$50. It arrived on a bracelet (which I took off) and put it on one of my well worn nylon straps (whic was a NATO, but has now been rendered comfortable); as shown below.

The watch feels nice, the bezel rotation (sadly following the sheep trend of being unidirectional so that kiddes at their desk who never dive feel better about its operation and can fantisize about impressing some chick with their knowledge) has a good feel (not too hard, not too soft) and the crown came with a surprising extra O-Ring seal I've not seen on many other watches with screw down crowns

The finish of the watch is good, with barely any "sharp" edges (compared to my Pagani); particularly the Crown is well finished not sharp or harsh and helps the watch to feel like something well over this price. The markers are all nicely placed and the shape is perfect modern dive design language. I've put below two macro shots of the finish of the crown and the edge of the dial

Frankly I don't know how they get it this good for the price, I can only guess that its electro-plated chrome finish on these points

As there are plenty of videos on YouTube about this watch I'll just add one final point about straps. The part of the watch back between the lugs is not well suited to straps (and you can see they've struggled to get the end links on too) because it has no bevel at the back. If you are going to have the drill holes close to the case then you need to account for this (as for instance Seiko does); note the finish of the edges in red arrows and the bevel identified with blue.

Finally I'm using the watch on a $14 leather two piece arrangement and it looks like this:

So now I have a watch that has a handy timer (a defining feature of a diver) as my daily driver; for days where I don't want to wear the little SandaTank.

If that sounds like you too, then just get one.

AI is full of it

So, I wanted to know the specific answer to the following question

but I know what sort of "intelligence" AI has so I thought I'd read that site and see what was said.

The reason for this failure is that AI doesn't actually know anything, all words are just tokens. So when the guy says "its all heat related" he's saying that its resistance NOT impedance at work. Resistance of a metal changes with temperature, while impedance is related to a magnetic field change "impeding" the flow of electrons. Impedance is the combined effect of resistance and reactance in a circuit.

So when they guy doesn't explicitly write "no its impedance" (and wipe AI's chin after its spoon fed it) then AI doesn't notice and just keeps looking for the words that support the question; it doesn't know what a spiral is nor a core nor understand anything.

A good reading on this impedance stuff is found here.

Yep, AI was just like Homer Simpson and gave an answer while not knowing the difference between impedance and resistance when if it was actually reading and comprehending it would see that the answer was the opposite of what it gave.

I hereby crown AI as the new King Wang ... 

Fools led by fools I say

reality

A philosophical post.

 

Since high school (after over 10 years of punishment by Christian Nuns and Brothers) my philosophy of life has been the search for truth and the "minimisation of distortion of reality.

I have tried to live without hope, not expecting anything (either good or bad) but embracing what comes along each day.

This meme reminded me of that choice made long ago.

Longer term readers of my blog will know that I've spent a lot of time on philosophy; not as an abstract but for the very real psychological and physiological problems that confronted me.

For sure I could have committed intellectual suicide by refusing to think, by believing in a distorted reality where "God" was being merciful and loving, but too much harm was visited on me in quick succession to even remotely allow this to sit. I played no part in this, and especially that my wife was totally innocent of my prior sins so why was she punished (by death) as well as her whole family from her loss?

Christians (and perhaps Muslims and Jews) will say "this is a mystery" ... well where others see mystery I see just reality (genetics, age, illness ...); natural outcomes and statistics. To me the others are trapped in a living hell of an iteratively fictionalised character story built on the lines of Psychopathic narcissism, gas lighting and innate  Stockholm syndrome.

I was well acquainted with Stoic views (from my studies of Greek and Roman history at school) but the philosophy of Albert Camus, perhaps this (link) is as good a place to start on Camus if you don't already know his work.

Being Stoic does not mean you don't feel pain, but instead it guides you how to attribute analysis and on how you should direct your responses. I've got a couple of articles on Stoic views here.

So, anyway, maintain your critical thinking, don't devolve into distortions of reality and be Stoic, be Absurdist and be a good human.

Best Wishes