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Power use and HeatPower use and HeatPosted Jun 6, 2008 0:44 UTC (Fri) by wookey (subscriber, #5501)In reply to: Power use and Heat by nix Parent article: Fedora harnesses the power of idle computers with Nightlife
whilst systems this dumb are indeed very common, things are steadily improving as people get programmable room stats, TRVs, boiler managers, and even fancy linux-controlled home-autoation systems. As eneergy prices rise the benefits of having a more flexible control system increase. I agree with your fundamental point that exactly how usefully your computers do or do not contribute to house heating depends on the control system installed.
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Power use and Heat Posted Jun 6, 2008 18:08 UTC (Fri) by giraffedata (subscriber, #1954) [Link] I believe central electric heating is rare in the US, because it's cheaper and more useful to put a separate electric heater in every room. In contrast, gas/coal/oil systems are centralized because it isn't practical to put a burner in every room. Or even a thermostat. I've seen central electric (forced air is worth paying more for for many people), just not very much. I don't know why that would differ between the UK and the US, though.
Power use and Heat Posted Jun 6, 2008 19:09 UTC (Fri) by nix (subscriber, #2304) [Link] Central heating in towns and cities in the UK is pretty universally natural gas-based. Outlying regions might use oil-based heating, storage heaters, or stranger systems, and places with broken or very old central heating or bad insulation might choose to stick electrical heaters in some rooms. Pure house-wide electricity-based systems are unheard of (by me at least): even heating your water with electricity is an emergency fallback for when the gas or boiler goes out. (It's also pretty much a historical curiosity: in thirty years I've never seen a built-in electrical immersion heater used, but they're still widely fitted).
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