[rescue] winter heating and folding

[Sheldon T. Hall]

 Ron Wickersham said ...

> it costs exactly the same amount for a watt-second to run the computer as
> a watt-second you buy to put in the electric furnace.   and a watt-second
> (or buying in bulk with kilowatt-hours) is just as much heat.

Great.

> a resistance-type electric furnace is 100% efficient in turning watts into
> heat and so is a computer.    for more capital (and mainenance) cost you
> can get a heat pump that will have a much greater than 100% efficency.

I've had a heat-pump.  It was OK for keeping the house warm, but the air
voming out of the vents didn't feel very warm, so you lost that "stand over
the heat vent on a winter morning" experience.

> tell SWMBO that for the exact same comfort level, you get the
> added benefit
> of doing something useful with the check you're sending to the
> power company.
> the cost of heating the house will be identical.

Distributed computing, here I come!

Thanks.

-Shel