Curiosity Stream is a Netflix for geeks. And I love it!

Few days ago I was watching Tom Stanton on Youtube, this guy makes a lot of weird gadgets and contraptions in the name of science (you should really check him out, links will be below) and his sponsor for the video was Curiosity Stream service. I remember how much I loved watching documentaries on TV when I was a kid and that nostalgia made me check it out. Curiosity Stream looks and works in a similar way as Netflix, but instead of action movies and comedy, they have tons of videos to stream that touch science, engineering and nature, on our planet and beyond. So, if you’re interested in any of that, I highly recommend Curiosity Stream.

I’ve been glued to the screen for few days now, watching Space stuff and it’s pretty cool. Especially since most of videos are shorter clips with more straight to the point content, so you can easily fit the viewing/learning moment almost in any point of the day opposed to Netflix’s commitment of hour and a half to two hours per video. They do have episodic stuff and longer content, but at least Space has a lot of 10-20 minute videos and they are pretty cool.

And what’s also attractive is the price. A subscription for whole year is almost the same as Netflix for just 1 month and they have few different plans that go up to 4K, but there are also cheaper plans that still have pretty good quality. And just like Netflix, you can watch it in your browser or on your mobile device, be it Android or iOS using dedicated apps.

This is not a sponsored blog post even though I’ll be posting a referral link, but isn’t mine. It’s Tom’s. He hooked me into this stuff so lets help him out a bit and it’s a win win for everyone 🙂

Check out Tom Stanton’s Youtube channel:

https://www.youtube.com/c/TomStantonEngineering

Tom Stanton’s referral link for Curiosity Stream (you’ll support him and also get a cheaper subscription):

https://curiositystream.com/TomStanton

Curiosity Stream homepage:

https://curiositystream.com

I hope you guys will enjoy it as much as I have 🙂

Common design flaws in robot vacuum cleaners

I’ve been using 2 robot vacuum cleaners (Midea MR06 and Rowenta Series 60 Anti-Allergy) for a while now, one particularly in the room with computer and bed where dust just never seems to be really gone. I’ve also got quite some experience with entire range of iRobot models and watched quite few tests online to really understand robots quite well. And here are some common design flaws that I want to point out so maybe vendors will fix or improve them. Or just for users to know what to look for when buying one. I’m mostly going to point out the above models, but I’ve also seen a lot about Dyson 360 as well as bunch of “no name” Chinese robots that have the following problems… I hope robot vendors will read this as well as users when looking for new robot. Just decide if mentioned design will be a problem for you or not and then narrow the choices. The list will probably get really long, but I’ll make categories so you can easily jump to things that may interest you more.

Ok, lets go. 🙂

Chassis design (Height)

A lot of robots are pretty standard size, give or take few millimeters. There are 2 models I’m aware of that really stand out. One is Rowenta Explorer Series 60 (RR74xx) models that are super slim at insane 6cm of height only. And at the other extreme, Dyson 360 Heurist at 12cm is one of the tallest robots out there. While being lowest may be beneficial in some cases where you want it to go under, it’s sometimes also a curse. My Rowenta Series 60 can go under my 4 wheel cabinet just enough so it cleans a bit underneath it where other robot bumped into its edge right away, but it also managed to drive itself underneath my office chair and managed to get stuck between 5 wheels of the chair and error out there because it just couldn’t find a way out. Now I need to park the chair and spin the base with wheels so they don’t leave enough space for robot to roll underneath again.

Chassis design (Rubber bumpers)

The biggest design flaw I’ve noticed is poor protective rubber bumper placement. Or lack of it entirely. Roomba S9+, the most expensive robot from iRobot doesn’t have any. Yet it uses front face bumper to register some collisions. You have no idea how ugly robot looks after it has some range on its clock. Entire front glossy as well as matte plastic full of scratches and dents. It’s not a pleasant sight. Dyson 360 has the same problem. Being tall and without any rubber bumper, it’ll look all messed up and worn out over time. These may have advance sensors and cameras, but they still hit into things. Not to mention it will eventually also damage furniture and equipment in your home with repeating collisions.

Some are a bit better by having a silicone/rubber bumpers in the front in a form of a strip, but they are often either placed way too low or way too high, so it keeps hitting things with plastic. Why is it so hard to place two rubber strips, one at the lowest point and another at highest? Chance of getting something in between becomes very unlikely. I’ve added a strip of self adhesive window gasket on one robot at the highest point and then it stopped hitting things with chassis directly. Looks a bit ghetto if you look close, but why wasn’t this done properly in the factory?

Docking station avoidance radius

One of biggest issues a lot of robots have is docking station avoidance algorithms. Midea robot often literally ran over its own docking station when cleaning. Never got stuck, but it makes funny noises. And it cleaned dust of the station which was useful. Rowenta, avoids it in a moderate arc. Similar with iRobot. But I’ve seen some that avoid it in 2 meter radius which is just ridiculous. I have my robot under the desk and such huge avoidance radius would mean it would never ever even clean underneath the desk.

Docking station finding when returning

It’s funny how some robots have issues returning home. Usually those with cameras do just fine because they have a visual representation of the room and where they started, but a lot of camera-less systems seem to just get lost and stuck somewhere after they finish. Rowenta Series 60 for example is often acting like a dork. It has the dock in sight, like 1,5m away yet it bumps, rotates and drives in opposite direction. It usually finds way back, but it’s just funny how it’s almost there, but doesn’t see it. Midea on the other hand looked like it had a rough idea where to go for docking and then looked up the dock when in range. When it couldn’t, it followed the walls until it found the dock. Because you usually place the dock somewhere against the wall. Which is a neat trick. At worst it’ll do a larger circle around room, but it’ll find it.

Cleaning start condition free or from dock

Apparently some robots are not aware of the starting condition. Meaning, if you take it off the dock and for example carry it to a different floor and send it to work there, it’ll just fruitlessly try to find the docking station after cleaning is done. I don’t have enough info how common this is and at least for Midea it seems to be aware whether it starts from the dock and when it doesn’t. When started manually off the dock it always instantly stops and says “Cleaning completed” when it’s done. But when it starts from the dock, it tries to return to it. Which is a very basic but neat thing.

Side brush design

There are several quite common design flaws when it comes to side brushes. And it’s pretty amazing or shall I say shocking that so many vendors mess this up.

Most common problem is that side brushes spin way too quickly, flicking debris around. This especially becomes problematic with camera navigation which is very systematic and anything it flicks into the area that was marked as “already cleaned”, it’ll never return there to pick it up.

Another issue are designs with single side brush, most commonly used by Roomba robots. Sure it has logic so it always does the wall following cycle with the correct side, but the issue with single brush is that only one side is sweeping debris and dirt inwards toward the main roller brush. Which often means the wheel on side without the brush is driving on dirt, smearing it around. Where dual brushes create a super wide zone that’s moving dirt inwards where main roller brush picks it up and collects in the dust bin. And dual side brushes in most cases also sweep against the wheels, cleaning them as well as brushes itself.

Third issue are very short side brushes. Again, most noticeable on Roomba S9 series. Single, very short brush. Not only it just twists in a really weird way on carpets, its reach underneath furniture and against walls is quite noticeable as it often leaves debris near walls and just doesn’t clean dust under furniture where it’s only few millimeters of gap between furniture and ground.

Main roller brush

There are generally 2 different designs. Dual brush design which is patented by iRobot and single brush design used by everyone else. Roomba dual brushes rotate in opposing directions, inwards. This can help grabbing larger objects and using rubber brushes without bristles helps with pet hair and just hair in general coz it doesn’t get tangled up on roller brushes. Downside is they also tend to flick things instead of picking them up. Also makes robot easier to climb on carpets.

Other robots, well at least I can fully confirm for Midea and Rowenta S60 use a rubber strip right behind the roller brush, acting like a scoop. It’ll never flick anything past it because the rubber strip is all the way to the ground and brush is rotating against it, brushing up any and all debris into the bin. Downside is that these scooping rubber strips tend to catch on carpet edges, causing robot to have problems climbing thicker carpets.

Another funny design is yet again with Dyson 360 where wheels (well, “Tank Tracks”) are actually in front of the roller brush as it’s driving around. It’s funny because it means its own wheels always go across all the dirt, increasing chance of things tangling up into drivetrain as well as smearing dirt or rubbing it into surfaces instead of picking it up first and then driving own wheels across clean surface. All others have roller burshes in front and those that do not have side brushes that sweep in front of wheels which neatly solves that “issue”.

Dust bin design

Of all robots I’ve seen and even used, Midea MR06 has the best dust bin design I’ve seen. Period. Full stop. It has a lot of space, one way ingest hatch, large prefilter, large main filter, easy access to all its parts, easy access to main filter and the dust bin can easily be taken out of robot whether on dock or not. Benefit of such design is super easy maintenance and super high efficiency. One way hatch ensures spiders and bugs that it sucks into the bin can’t escape. Which is super neat. Large prefilter and main filter ensure robot can pick up huge amounts of dust without ever getting it fully covered in dust. Usually entire dust bin is absolutely filled with dust chunks before it even clogs the prefilter. Design on MR06 is so good it once managed to gobble up entire really thick crayon that my nephew dropped under the sofa. When bin was already almost full of dust. That’s super impressive.

Rowenta S60 for example has easy to the dust bin itself, but has no one way hatch on the dust bin entrance which is rather narrow so it wouldn’t ever be able to pick up that crayon, prefilter is attached to main filter and both are tiny. Which means dust will build up on prefilter and clog both prefilter and main filter, way before dust bin is even full. Roombas with microfilter have these weird boxes with this bizarre plastic trap hatch that doesn’t really serve any purpose and higher end models like E5 and E6 have dust bins that have a very rough prefilter with no way of getting inside the dust bin for easy maintenance. Both Rowenta and iRobot are huge companies and you’d expect them to do better than this. I’m still looking for a way to make a larger prefilter for my S60. Would be relatively simple if I had a 3D printer, but I’ll think of something. Currently I’ve added standard vacuum cleaner motor filter of same size as main filter which seems to help a lot. But it’s still same size as main filter. I want to make a prefilter of same size as the entire width of the dust bin and make it removable for easy cleaning. That should help it hugely.

And lastly, what annoyed me the most with Dyson 360, the orientation of the dust bin when on dock. The dust bin on the robot is facing wall, not the user. Which makes it very clumsy to take out of the robot.

Wet cleaning attachments are a gimmick

Now to the wet cleaning. My Rowenta S60 happens to have an attachment for wet cleaning, a water tank with microfiber pad underneath. Water slowly drips onto the microfiber pad ensuring it’s wet entire time as it glides across surfaces. I’m not gonna say it’s entirely useless as it did wipe some dirt that didn’t get picked up by brushes and suction, but my god I shouldn’t have looked inside the robot. Wheels were all wet and smeared in wet dust as it was driving across already cleaned (and thus wet) surfaces, side brushes were wet, there was wet dust smeared all over the main roller brush, entire brush compartment, duct from the brush into the dust bin and even inside the dust bin. It’s a maintenance nightmare! Used it once when I bought it and never again.

I have to give credit to iRobot here, but for different approach. iRobot allows robot pairing. First Roomba vacuums the rooms and when it’s done, it sends signal to Braava robots which do the wet cleaning afterwards. This way Roomba will never drive across wet surfaces and smear wet dust all over its internals and Braava, the wet cleaner will really clean only the dirt that couldn’t be vacuumed regular way. Yes, it’s way more expensive, but it’s really the only proper way of doing it.

Coronavirus and dumb people

I’ve been wanting to write about it for a while, but was just to lazy. But now I’m so fed up with dumb people who are so careless and inconsiderate it’s borderline disgusting. So, here are some basic explanations how viruses work and why we wear masks. And how we should wear them because people apparently think we need to protect our chins for some reason…

How viruses spread

Viruses cannot exist on their own. They absolutely require a host which they use to multiply. And that’s sole role of a virus. To multiply. Viruses can survive certain period of time outside of hosts, but they will eventually degrade and fall apart when in contact with oxygen for extended periods of time because oxygen is an oxidizing agent and will eventually kill the virus if it can’t multiply further to prevent its decay. But it can take from hours to days depending on surface they are on. Viruses (and bacteria) can exit our body via bodily fluids. Since they spread through entire body, they also enter bodily fluids and they are secreted through many of our body orifices. Most commonly nose and mouth. And that’s not only when we cough or sneeze, but also during things like simply breathing or speaking. Virus in tiny droplets of saliva can exit our body and gets transferred into another host via exposed mucosa (nose, mouth, eyes). Which brings me to the next point…

You’re not a pussy for wearing a mask

Seeing a lot of mostly “tough” American soldiers posting selfies without a mask in crowded places with “I’m no pussy” tag under the selfie. You’re not a pussy, you’re just a selfish inconsiderate dumbass. The reason we’re wearing masks is to prevent spreading of virus from OUR body. You’re not wearing a mask to protect YOURSELF. You’re wearing a mask to protect OTHERS. Sure there is a tiny protection of your respiratory tract (mouth, nose,  lungs) when you have your body entry point covered by a mask, but unless you’re also wearing a fully enclosed protective goggles too, you’re not really protected as virus can still enter your body via exposed mucosa in eyes if someone coughs at your face without them having a mask on. However, if I’m wearing a mask, talking, sneezing, coughing, laughing, none of this expels saliva droplets with virus because they get stopped by the mask. And if a person I’m interacting with also wears a mask, they are also stopping virus from being expelled from their body. Meaning, if all interacting parties wear a mask, virus basically cannot spread as the range of being expelled from the body decreases so far it cannot reach another person this way. You’re wearing mask to protect others and other wear masks to protect you. Only way to achieve best safety for everyone is for everyone to wear a mask. It’s literally that simple.

Stop whining about how uncomfortable the masks are…

I work with people and that means I have to wear mask up to 12 hours a day because work requires it. Every single day. And while they are a mild discomfort, it’s really not end of the world and if I survived for all these months wearing masks for such long periods every single day, you too can wear a god damn mask when you come to where I work and have to wear the mask for those few minutes. Whining about it and pulling the mask down just shows you’re a god damn weakling that I’m surprised you managed to somehow survive to this point. Only reason masks get really uncomfortable is when they get saturated with water from the moisture from exhaled breath, actually decreasing surface area through which air can pass easily and making it uncomfortable to breathe through because it takes a bit more effort to get the air through than with new, clean and dry mask. Which is why you’re suppose to replace masks roughly every 2 hours. If you’re visiting a shop or a bank for few minutes, you’re not being affected by mask.

And if you’re one of those people who wanders into a store without a mask and then gets into a raging fight with others after they tell you to wear a mask, where you get into faces of others while yelling and spitting, you are the fucking infectious problem. Not only you don’t wear a mask, you literally do the worst possible thing by being angry motherfucker getting into faces of others and yelling, literally making sure you’re spreading possible infection the best you could. So, if you’re one of those, fuck you,  you miserable selfish piece of shit.

How to properly wear a mask?

Properly wearing a mask includes covering of both, nose and mouth while mask has to extend below the chin area, because they are both body orifices that expel the air furthest and that air includes bodily fluids. Just because you don’t see them, it doesn’t mean they aren’t there. They are. So, wear the damn mask covering both, nose and mouth. Just wearing it over your mouth is not enough. Also make sure you pinch the part of the mask that’s contacting your nose. The metal part in it exists for this purpose, so it closes the gap around your nose. And for god sake, stop constantly pulling the mask down to “breathe”, stop touching your god damn nose and for fucks sake, DON’T pull your mask down when you need to cough or sneeze. The mask literally exists for those cases primarily. It’s why you’re wearing it! Pulling it off at those moments literally negates mask’s sole purpose.

Masks that are not appropriate

I’ve seen a lot of people wear various masks and I just want to point out which masks are entirely pointless and shouldn’t be worn because they serve no purpose at all.

• Masks with exhale ports (a one way valve in front of a mask). These are used by painters and carpenters where masks exists to protect you from inhaling foreign harmful particles in huge quantities and make exhaling easier because you’re exhaling the air past filtration stage. With current situation with coronavirus, thanks to the exhale port, you’re literally exhaling all the saliva particles past filter into the air through the exhale port. And since ports are usually facing forward, you’re literally channeling the potentially infected saliva droplets into faces of others. Avoid wearing these entirely.
• Thin cloth like bandanas. The fabric density is so low most of the particles simply pass through. The range of saliva droplets is slightly impacted, but for the most part it’ll only catch actually visible droplets of saliva. The rest will pass through anyway.
• Napkins or cloth held on your face with your hand. Not only it makes you a one handed cripple, you’re also not sealing your mouth as good as a dedicated mask that is shaped to better adapt to contours of the face and you’re literally breathing saliva particles into your hand. Then you’ll probably exchange hands to hold it and spread the virus further with your hand. Just don’t.

Other bullshit myths about masks

There is a lot of dumb conspiracy theories and fearmongering videos and I’m gonna point out their nonsense and how they totally aren’t true.

• Masks decrease your blood oxygen. Which is total bullshit. Normal blood oxygen saturation is between 95-100% and can fluctuate due to air temperature, moisture and obstructions like masks. But will never fall below that level because of masks alone. Anything below that is considered dangerous and you should seek medical attention when that happens because it may cause dizziness and losing of consciousness. Oxygen (O2) and Carbon dioxide (CO2) molecules are so small they can easily pass through ANY mask, even the densest P100 masks which are highest rated protective masks in existence and can filter 99,97% of oil or non oil particulates down to 2.5 microns in size. To put that into perspective, oxygen molecule consists of two oxygen atoms, making it around 0.3nm in kinetic size (0.003 microns). Yeah, there is NO way even P100 mask is stopping oxygen from flowing through the mask and decreasing your blood oxygen level.
• Masks don’t work and they prove that by using vape and how easily it’s passing through the mask in all directions. As explained above, best masks with P100 filtration grade can filter particulates up to 2.5 microns in size. Vape particles are generally between 50-200nm (0.05-0.2 microns). Way below filtration levels of even P100 masks. Only thing people disproving masks efficiency proved they are idiots who don’t understand how masks work. Entirely.
• If masks can only stop particles down to size of 2.5 microns and SARS-COV2 virus is somewhere between 60 and 140nm in size (0.06-0.14 microns), what’s the point then? Well, while masks may not stop SARS-COV2 directly, the thing is, virus is never expelled from our body by itself. It’s always as part of bodily fluids expelled from our body and those are way way larger at around 50-100 microns, we’re talking droplets carrying a virus that are 25 to 50 times larger than the minimal filtration capability of the masks. So, yeah, it makes all the sense in wearing a mask because it’ll stop all those droplets that would otherwise leave your body unchallenged when sneezing or coughing.
• Masks are a way for governments to oppress us. I just love people who keep saying this. But please, explain to me how they are “oppressing” you? You can’t go to store because of a mask? You can’t freely drive a car anymore because of a mask? Hell, they now even say you’re not allowed to enter places like banks without a mask, where it’s generally forbidden to wear face covers. In most places, even if you don’t have a mask and you ask for one, they will provide you one free of charge. So, how? How are governments oppressing you with a requirement to wear a mask? Not being able to go to crowded places is a separate but related matter. It’s not oppression, it’s precaution. Crowded places are a horrible infection vector because while masks dramatically decrease the expelled bodily fluid particles, they by no means prevent that 100%. Some particles still fly out on the side of the mask because it’s not air tight. And if it’s a crowded place and you’re standing next to others even with masks, chances are you can get infected. Sort of basics of fluid dynamics (way how liquids propagate through obstacles and air also behaves like fluid), but I’m not expecting normies to understand it. You just need to believe people who do understand fluid dynamics and say you need to wear a damn mask and still social distance to prevent spread of saliva particles. It’s science, not oppressive regimes. Unless you consider science to be oppressive, in which case, welcome to year 1450. And put down that shiny fancy new 1500€ smartphone. Coz it’s clearly witchcraft.

Final words

There. I don’t expect my rant to reach a wide audience since I’m a small time blogger with tiny following, but if you happen to read this and you see yourself doing all the mistakes or you see yourself being that selfish prick who doesn’t care about others, I hope you’ll change your way of thinking after you learn about it.

I used to be one of those people who said whole coronavirus thing was totally over exaggerated and it’ll blow over as a slightly stronger annual influenza. Just to realize it’s not going to, because people are dumb, selfish and inconsiderate and can’t follow the most basic protection means to decrease the spread. Instead we have a global pandemic that shows no signs of regression thanks to before mentioned dumb selfish people.

Awesome electronic devices teardowns

I don’t do this often, but I think this guy really deserves some promotion. Recently, I’ve started watching this Youtube channel named “bigclivedotcom“. It’s nothing spectacular in terms of visuals, but the content is amazing if you are a tech freak like I am. Sort of like Ashens (some other guy doing gadget reviews on a sofa, anyway… 🙂 ) without the sofa and nasty food, but with soldering iron and multimeter. Them both being British is just a coincidence 😛

This guy tears down but is not limited to electronic devices of all sorts, ranging from LED’s, electric water pumps, demagnetizers, arc lighters, butthole heaters and vibrators to making honey rum and vodka. If it runs on any kind of power, he’ll tear it apart, explain how it works, he’ll comment on device construction, what could be done better or what is already done well and will in pretty much all cases also explain with a blueprint schematic on how circuitry is designed.

He’s also really good at explaining things on “dumb” level so you can understand explanation even if your electrical knowledge is very limited. And I think that’s his strongest point. Dumbing down highly technical stuff so anyone can understand it, but still keeps enough technical stuff so even very advanced viewers can see useful info.

Here is one of his more typical recent videos for a taste…

Pretty cool isn’t it? I’ve already learned so much stuff about things I’ve used myself, but never really bothered to look inside the device even though I roughly know and understand the basics around it.

If you like this sort of stuff, check out his:

bigclivedotcom webpage:
http://www.bigclive.com

bigclivedotcom Youtube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/user/bigclivedotcom

If you have any suggestions for upcoming reviews or questions about his existing videos, you can drop him a comment or even an e-mail. You can find e-mail address on his webpage. Don’t forget to subscribe to his channel because he makes videos quite regularly.

Difference between single and multiple rail power supply units (PSU)

There are countless myths about single and multiple rails used in computer power supply units (PSU), but here is the best explanation I’ve seen which further opened my eyes. I used to be a fan of single rail designs because they are just easier to manage on overclocked systems, but I never thought about benefits of multiple rails. And Tech Syndicate made a great interview with someone from Corsair (they also make some pretty damn good PSU’s).

There are also other vendors like German computer hardware maker Be Quiet! that doesn’t offer switching through software, but they offer mode switching through a physical switch/jumper on the PSU itself. There might be other PSU makers as well, but I’m currently only aware of these two.

Volvo Life Paint

Volvo re-inventing safety. This time around not for cars, but for cyclists and even pedestrians. Pretty cool technology that shouldn’t cost more than a can of a high quality metallic spray paint.

Air conditioning units, the silent power consumers

I had plans to write about this few months ago, but have somehow failed to deliver.

I’m using a split air conditioning unit from Zibro. It’s several years old unit which was one of the highest end units back when I bought it.

I was curious how much it consumes when heating function is running during a winter. I’ve used it here and there when it was really cold. Plugged it through the watt-o-meter and I got my results. Turned it off and that’s when I got shocked…

Basics

While in OFF (standby) state, it was consuming ~90W of power. 90W for doing nothing at all, just being plugged into a wall socket. For reference, that’s almost like having a 100W incandescent bulb turned on 24/7!

At first I thought it’s something wrong with the measurements, but after doing some research, I’ve found out why it is like this. It’s not mentioned ANYWHERE in the instruction manuals and sales people never mention it when you’re buying AC unit.

Split air conditioning units consist of indoor and outdoor unit. And the outdoor unit is the culprit for this rather excessive power consumption behavior.

The outdoor unit also houses the compressor which pumps the coolant around the system and the reason for consumption is the heater within it, that keeps the liquids and particularly lubrication within compressor in a proper aggregate state. If lubrication becomes too thick due to very low temperatures, when you fire up the compressor it will wear significantly faster than with proper lubrication. And because of that, outdoor unit has its own thermostat that keeps compressor at a correct temperature at all times, keeping compressor always instantly ready for a wear-less operation.

Basic calculations

Where I live, winters often last from mid October till beginning of March. Roughly 5 months if we round it up. If unit is consuming power at the rate of 90W per hour, that’s 0,09 kW an hour. Times 24 for a full day makes it 2,16 kW a day. 5 months is roughly 150 days if we count them all as 30 days, making the total power consumption of 324 kWh for each winter season! 324 kWh of wasted power for doing NOTHING at all except being plugged into a wall socket. That’s a lot of power literally being thrown out the window.

For a better perspective, this is the equivalent power consumption to a 400+ liter, two door American style class A++ refrigerator running for a whole year!

Based on further research, power consumption depends on the age, tech level of the AC unit as well as outdoor temperatures. Certain newer high-end AC units have significantly lower power consumption to keep the compressor warm compared to my unit. But still, consuming even just 10W is 10W too much. Use watt-o-meter if you have one and do the measurements yourself. This mostly applies to countries that have winters. If you’re in a region with constant summer, I don’t think it’s even worth bothering. But for regions with winters, it can make a MASSIVE difference to the power bill and the environment.

Solutions

If you do live in region where you have winters and you know you won’t need the AC unit for the entire winter, simply unplug it from the wall. If it’s not running, it won’t be harmed by the extremely low temperatures. This way you’ll eliminate the heater and save tons of power.

Warning and limitation!

If you do live in a region affected by winters and you plan on using AC unit for dehumidification or heating during the winter, you need to plug it into the wall socket at least 12 hours prior actually activating its dehumidifier/heater function. The heater should heat up the compressor in 12 hours sufficiently enough. Then it is safe to actually run the AC unit and use it as usual. The unit will work regardless, but be aware that you’ll significantly shorten its lifespan.

Home light bulb types and uses

I’m quite surprised people still don’t know what are the benefits and uses for different types of light bulbs that can be used in home. I work with these on daily basis and I thought, why not explain their usage to you guys in a quick article. So, here is a tiny guide on what to use, where to use and when to use the correct bulb for the given situation…

 

Incandescent (halogen):

+ cheap
+ turns on instantly+ relatively durable for repeated on/off
+ compact size
+ can operate well at very high and low temperatures
+ dimmable
– high power consumption
– generates tons of radiated heat
– relatively short lifespan (usually up to 2000h)
– doesn’t like shocks and strong vibrations
– slightly more tolerant to voltage fluctuations

 

 

“Old” incandescent or current slightly improved halogen light bulbs are still an excellent choice for transition rooms where they don’t glow for longer periods of time and are often turned on and off in very short intervals. They are cheap and will still operate for very long time in such situations. They are also a good choice for sensor lights that are triggered by motion and for usage in very cold (outdoor lighting for places with winters) or very hot environments (lava lamps, salt lamps, ovens etc). Glowing wire is always dimmable so that can be useful for certain situations.

They are also a bit more tolerant to voltage fluctuations. If you happen to live closer to a power distribution station, these might last longer than other two. They do get their life shortened, but they will most likely survive few of such incidents.

They are not recommended for rooms where they’ll be used for several hours at a time (power consumption) and where no heat should be radiated around it (desk lamps, inside refrigerators etc).

 

Fluorescent:

+ relatively small
+ low power consumption
+ generates very small amount of radiated heat
+ very long lifespan (up to 20.000h)
+ quite compact
= moderately expensive, but can be very cheap
– doesn’t like shocks or vibrations
– takes up to 1 minute to reach full brightness
– doesn’t like repeated on/off unless specific model
– doesn’t like very low or very high temperatures
– not dimmable unless specific model
– they contain traces of mercury
– somewhat sensitive to large voltage fluctuations

 

They are in a way a dying breed of lightbulbs seeing how prices of LED are dropping. But you can get them really cheap now and they can still be very useful for quite a lot of situations, especially for rooms where they might glow for hours without a break and you need a very affordable initial investment.

They however have quite some limitations, the time needed for most to start-up is quite long so they aren’t useful for transition rooms and sensor lights unless you pay premium for quick-start models and even those need few seconds to reach full glow. Repeated on/off shortens their lifespan considerably unless you pay premium for models with 100.000x On/OFF models and they aren’t dimmable unless if you pay premium to get such model. They also don’t like very low temperatures unless if you pay premium for outdoor models. They also contain traces of mercury (usually around 5 milligrams), but I personally don’t see it problematic considering we actually ingest mercury regularly by eating fish. It is an environmental problem though when they get disposed (especially when not done properly).

Unlike halogen, these tend to be more sensitive to voltage fluctuations. Halogens just get their life shortened where these often just die instantly.

 

LED:

+ turns on instantly
+ can be turned on and off very frequently
+ compact size
+ very low power consumption
+ generates no radiated heat
+ extremely long lifespan (up to 50.000h)
+ highly shock and vibration resistant
= loves colder environments, dislikes hot environment
– still relatively expensive
– not dimmable unless specific model
– somewhat sensitive to large voltage fluctuations

 

Latest and greatest, LED is basically the best all-around option. They consume very little power, you can flip them on and off as much as you like, they reach full brightness instantly and while they generate heat, it is not a directed radiated heat, instead it’s released at the back through a metal heatsink and they actually love colder environments, so winters aren’t really an issue for these. In fact they increase their lifespan, because they are cooled properly.

Unlike halogen, these tend to be more sensitive to voltage fluctuations. Halogens just get their life shortened where these often just die instantly.

The only real remaining limitation is the price and limited use in certain situations like lava lamps where bulb has to generate heat, otherwise it just won’t work or for ovens where heat actually slowly shortens the lifespan of the LED elements. The future is in LED for sure.

Still not sure?

Feel free to ask me below, I’ll be happy to advise 🙂

Titanium enhanced devices and objects

To fly away from harassing feminists for a bit, I’ll cover an interesting thing in the field that I also love so much, technology. This time, titanium enhanced devices and objects. How exactly “enhanced”? Read on…

I’m pretty certain every one of you came across something that had “Titanium coated”, “Titanium enhanced” or simply “TITANIUM” written on the box. Be it drill bits, beard shavers, electric hair cutters, knives etc.

We all value titanium as the toughest metal on Earth. Because it has been widely represented in science fiction or action movies and because it’s named after Greek god “Titan” which simply sounds majestic. TITAN. Say that with anger! See? It does sound majestic 🙂

However, few years ago, I’ve come across an interesting revelation that elemental titanium (or pure titanium) actually isn’t particularly stronger than stainless steel. They are very close on the Moh’s scale (around 6 Moh’s) when it comes to hardness, so why the hell they use it to somehow enhance our everyday gadgets?

The trick lays in Titanium Nitride (TiN). It is a titanium ceramic (based on its crystalline form) which is around 12-15 times harder than stainless steel and has a hardness value of 9 Moh’s (Diamond has a value 10, so you can imagine how hard TiN really is) and is usually applied to surfaces that sustain heavy friction. That’s why you see it used on blades and drill bits for the most part. It is applied in very thin layer, usually less than 5 microns (0,005 mm). Because it’s so hard, it will retain sharpness of the blades and drill bits for a lot longer than if you’d use plain stainless steel or carbon steel. You can recognize blades covered with TiN through color which looks very similar to gold (yellowish metallic color).

There are also other forms of enhanced titanium used for similar purposes, like Titanium Carbide or Titanium Diboride, but you will hardly ever see these used for personal care gadgets like shavers. Maybe on rugged military knives and drill bits. These are mostly used for heavy industry and usually have grey to dark grey tint instead of golden.

To sum things up in few words, this thin layer of titanium ceramic (TiN) provides superior wear resistance, superior chemical resistance and is also very friendly to our skin since it is non-allergenic like stainless steel (due to nickel in the stainless steel alloy).

So, the next time you’ll see a device or object that brags with TITANIUM on the box, you’ll know why it says so. It has a cool factor for sure, but mostly because it has very cool characteristics and makes our tools and gadgets last a lot longer for very small price increase.