{"id":1775,"date":"2010-02-04T19:53:36","date_gmt":"2010-02-04T18:53:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.chaosnode.net\/blog\/?p=1775"},"modified":"2010-02-04T19:53:36","modified_gmt":"2010-02-04T18:53:36","slug":"the-umbrella-effect","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chaosnode.net\/blog\/2010\/02\/04\/the-umbrella-effect\/","title":{"rendered":"The umbrella effect"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

It does not look like an umbrella, but I can explain…<\/em><\/p>\n

As I start writing this in the evening, it is -2.5C outside the neighbor’s house. \u00c2\u00a0I know this because the neighbor has a thermometer that broadcasts its measurement. \u00c2\u00a0And I know this again because I have a thermometer in two parts, probably the same model, which does the same. \u00c2\u00a0The part that was meant to be outside, I placed in the bedroom instead. \u00c2\u00a0Much to my surprise, the temperature in my bedroom stubbornly stayed well below the freezing point, except it did not feel that way and when I went and looked at the thermometer it showed plus grades. \u00c2\u00a0(Each part has its own LCD display, just in case you want to look at it directly.) \u00c2\u00a0So I changed the channel and continued to get the freezing temperature on the old channel. \u00c2\u00a0Evidently my base station picked up a signal from outside that overrode the signal that had passed through a few walls, so it is probably my nearest neighbor. \u00c2\u00a0Even so, it is a couple good stone throws away, so it was a bit of a surprise.<\/p>\n

Anyway! \u00c2\u00a0It may be -2.5C now, but it was -12C in the morning. \u00c2\u00a0And who can my neighbor thank for that shift? \u00c2\u00a0Today in my lunch break I went and bought yet another space heater. \u00c2\u00a0Because as Wikipedia correctly points out, air-to-air heat pumps are less effective than plain space heaters when you have freezing temperatures outside. \u00c2\u00a0This is because it takes a lot of energy to extract the little heat from the freezing air, but also because you frequently need to stop and defrost the outside unit so it doesn’t get covered in ice. \u00c2\u00a0(Even cold air holds some water that is deposited as ice when it is cooled even further.) \u00c2\u00a0The frequent periods of defrosting outside were felt inside as rapidly dropping temperature, especially at my feet. \u00c2\u00a0Even with thick socks, it became quite unpleasant to sit in the home office. \u00c2\u00a0And it was chilly enough that even my fingers grew cold. Not to mention having to wear an outer jacket inside.<\/p>\n

Now that I have the space heaters, temperatures are up almost to the freezing point outside and I don’t actually need it. \u00c2\u00a0But that is the umbrella effect for you. If you don’t bring an umbrella, it rains. If you bring an umbrella, the sun comes out. \u00c2\u00a0Obviously it is better to have an umbrella and sun, even if you look stupid. \u00c2\u00a0The real problem is that you forget your umbrella in town. \u00c2\u00a0But that is unlikely to happen with the space heater.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It does not look like an umbrella, but I can explain… As I start writing this in the evening, it is -2.5C outside the neighbor’s house. \u00c2\u00a0I know this because the neighbor has a thermometer that broadcasts its measurement. \u00c2\u00a0And … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1775","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-slice-of-life"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chaosnode.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1775","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chaosnode.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chaosnode.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chaosnode.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chaosnode.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1775"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.chaosnode.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1775\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1777,"href":"https:\/\/www.chaosnode.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1775\/revisions\/1777"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chaosnode.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1775"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chaosnode.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1775"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chaosnode.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1775"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}