The price of gasoline in Germany is reported to be $9/gallon (converted to units most of my readers can visualize). The price of diesel is $10 a gallon. Source
Eaton Rapids, we have ignition
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| Watching brush burn counts as light duty |
Temperatures near the 20W heating mat
Concerns were raised in the comments of an earlier post about the potential for fires when using heating mats near cardboard.
The mats are 20" long by 10" wide. They are sized to sit beneath standard, nursery seedling trays. Twenty Watts spread over 200 square-inches is not a lot of power density.
The good news is that I have inexpensive ways to get data. That means that I don't have to rely opinions.
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| The temperature at the top of the potting soil. |
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| The temperature of the heating mat directly beneath the pot. |
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| The temperature of the cardboard directly beneath the heating mat where the previous image was measured. |
In other, local news
I purchased my 2026 fishing license yesterday.
I went fishing at the mill pond just a few blocks away from where I purchased the license.
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| Panning from left-to-right across the pond |
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| A little bit to the right of this image there was a goose who was sitting on a nest. |
I suppose with your spot heating data that you've never had an electrical heating unit malfunction?
ReplyDeleteA total burn out of a family last spring. Most expensive garden ever. Just the ICU for smoke inhalation of the kid was pretty expensive.
Might I suggest a few dollars of something nonflammable like maybe metallic bubble wrap?
I'm sure someone on this list might even have a better nonflammable insulator to suggest?
Sport fishermen don't prebait their fishing spots, I guess. Sure makes kids happy when I take them fishing, but maybe it's the ice cream later.
Electric blankets should be outlawed. The idea people are allowed to wrap their loved ones in these cocoons of potential immolation is madness.
DeleteElectric blankets and heating pads cause approximately 500 fires in the United States annually. Almost all of these fires involve heating devices that are more than 10 years old. Common causes include frayed cords, overheating from improper storage (folding), and leaving them unattended.
DeleteUnderneath my heatmats I use a commercial (pink brand) foam board that is about 3/16" thick at most with a R value of 1. I believe the intended use is for exterior walls under vinyl siding. I also cut narrow strips to wrap the seedling trays sides to help direct the heat into the trays.
ReplyDeleteThose are, indeed, inflammatory comments. I think if you soaked that cardboard in something that vaporizes at a low temperature, it would keep them cool enough to not burn. Maybe alcohol or benzine of some sort. You could even rig up a basin and pump to run the coolant across a mat like a cooling tower on a large building.
ReplyDeleteI thought about some foil lined Styrofoam insulation. But that may be too simple.
'... converted to units most of my readers can visualize ...'
ReplyDeleteThat upsets me. Not as an affront against my person, but that it reminds of the inadequacies of my fellow Americans.
We as a nation are where we are directly because of the sloth so often exhibited in H. Americanus.
I'm an ex-pat living in Germany and can confirm the prices. When I got (diesel) this morning, pulled into the local Aral gas station and it was €2.30/liter. Five minutes later, thankfully AFTER I had filled up, they raised it to €2.46/liter! So that's about $11.00 per gallon!
ReplyDeleteNot all sites agree: https://www.fuel-prices.eu/rankings/
ReplyDeleteCurrent UK fuel prices are around $7.20 for petrol (gas) and $9 for diesel, refinery closures mean that much of that is now imported. At the moment the excitement is all about jet fuel, again refinery closures have made UK more dependent on imports from ME, and the news is full of "last tanker through Straight of Hormuz" due now.
ReplyDeleteAnd still the numpties in government are running down North Sea oil, and refusing new licences at the same time as buying Norwegian crude from the same field - totally crazy!!!
In North West Spain I filled up yesterday with gasoline at 5.83€ per US gallon.
ReplyDeleteShould add that Portuguese drivers are saving 20€ per tank by filling up in Spain.
ReplyDeleteGas prices at the station are confusing. This year until last week, #2 diesel was 4 cents less than 87 octane. Monday this week diesel is now $1.44 more than 87 octane.
ReplyDeleteAugust and September last year, 87 was priced higher than diesel.
The above is from a station which services a lot of commercial trucks and farm machinery.
Joe, I’d like to get your take on this:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.vigilantfox.com/p/conspiracy-theory-no-more-the-truth
In Muskegon
My not very informed opinion is that when we are taught "science", we are first taught very simplistic and absolute concepts. Example: A hydrogen atom is a tennis ball orbited by a tiny styrofoam ball tethered to the tennis ball with a strand of uncooked spaghetti.
DeleteAs we learn more, those absolute models are softened and edited and added to. Styrofoam balls become untethered and shared with other tennis balls and then become waves which then become probability density clouds.
And you gotta admit, there isn't anything much simpler than a hydrogen atom.
So skin and cell-walls are porous. Virus and bacterial "swap spit". Foreign genetic material is hoarded in the body for decades (look up microchimerism for an example).
Does it impact our health? Heck if I know. Most of our DNA is "non-coding" and scientists speculate that it came from virus that got frozen into the DNA spiral when it was replicating at the same time the DNA molecule was replicating...so there it is....like a fly trapped in a teardrop of amber.
Obviously, our bodies have ways of working around "junk" DNA. But that still doesn't answer "Does it impact our health".
-Joe