Herodotus wrote in
:

That's what I admire about you Larry - a true lateral thinker.

Seriously.

I'd be interested to see what results you get.

cheers
Peter



I like the idea of using those gel cold packs instead of the heat sinks.
They probably will absorb much more Btu than just Aluminum.

I have all kinds of crazy ideas I like to think is based on some basic
knowledge of science, in this case thermodynamics. For many years, my
electric bill with electric heat and for the last 4 years simple $100
but very efficient Korean window air conditioners has been less than
half of my neighbors'. I wasn't too interested until the main heat pump
failed and I thought I'd have to pay through the nose using simple
electric heaters as it was in the winter, January, our coldest month.
Oddly, the house didn't simply freeze up and I found that only 1800
watts of two "milkhouse" nichrome-wire warm air heaters kept the place
as warm as toast for me and my parrots. They even cycled on and off
quite regularly. I began to wonder why as some neighbors were over
$400/month with electric strip heat in central heating systems in these
cheap trailers.

What I discovered was it was my crazy lifestyle as a pack rat that was
the cause of the low bills! I'm quite a packrat. I collect 'things' I
find fascinating or remotely useful, especially from thrift shops on the
truly cheap. My 14x70 yacht is loaded to the gills with my collections,
some useful, some forgotten. I'm a loner, most of the time, so who
cares? I love my stuff. Some times I go through and find things I
haven't seen in years. Every day is like Christmas morning...(c;

It was this crazy obsession of mine that was causing the low bills! All
the stuff piled up all over the house creates two phenomenon I could
measure....THERMAL LAG merely from the Btu stored in the "stuff" during
the day with the sun coming in the windows....and the "stuff" radiating
it into the cooling house all night...into a much smaller airspace than
the usual empty house beautiful's 8 acres of perfectly clean white
carpet you aren't allowed to walk on in shoes has. The other phenomenon
is INSULATION. If "stuff" is sitting on the floor, because there is no
place else to put it left...(c...it creates a tremendous R-value of
insulation as the heat can't simply escape through a tiny bit of clean
white carpet noone is allowed to walk on in shoes plus a little
fiberglass insulation under the floor. Hell, in some places, my floors
have 3 feet of insulating "material" over the carpet...in addition to
being a heat storage medium.

Throwing away that "stuff" is a mistake! It lowers your power bill!

I suppose (on topic) the same is true on boats. An empty boat being
delivered to its new owner with nothing in it heats and cools off much
faster than a properly fitted out cruiser with 3000 pounds of tools,
oil, spare parts, insulating books, and all that stuff you've forgotten
about stuffed into the storage space under the settee....keeping the
boat cooler in the day and warmer at night.

Well, the neatniks don't last long around here. My friends love to come
by and just go exploring. "What's this?", they'll say, holding up
something I probably haven't seen in 2 years. "I dunno. You want it?
It's yours.", I reply turning back to my keyboard or Heineken's keg
filling my glass. I love to give stuff away because I'm a packrat and
can't stand to just throw stuff out! What a waste. Someone got curious
about an Ionic Breeze high voltage ion generator they sold for big money
here in the States. I paid $5 in a thrift shop. It's gone....I helped
him load it because he was carrying other stuff I'd dumped on him
earlier...(c; My friends' boats are full of cable I'd just dragged off
spools in the shed out in the yard. Radio Shack was selling stuff in a
store to get rid of it, and I bought the whole lot of cables for $100
cash. We could hardly carry it out to the van! At the rate I'm giving
it to friends, I'll run out in June of 2284...(c;

That R-12 fridge I bought this morning brings my count of small fridges
up to 6 I know about, at the moment. Somebody's beer is gonna love the
new cooler pretty soon. I gave 4 away last summer...(c;

$1000 fridges my ass....