Is this article a Red Haddock ???

[Harry Bloomfield]

I have heard it said many times, an electric heater is 100% efficient, it does not matter if a fan heater, a panel heater, or an oil filled radiator they are all 100% efficient, but this is not true.

If one wants a room at 22°C at 6 pm, and it is at 16°C at 5 pm, then likely the fan heater needs to be switched on at 5:45 pm, the panel heater at 5:30 pm, and the oil filled radiator at 5:15 pm as it has to heat the heater first, so at 2 kW we are using 0.5 kWh, 1 kWh or 1.5 kWh to pre-heat the room,

Yes, but you continue to get the energy back, once the heaters are switched off.

 

[BS3036]

Easy - an SMPSU would do that, with relative efficiency.

Good luck sourcing the transistors!

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

Good luck sourcing the transistors!

Transistors?

Thyristors?

 

[flameport]

Edison pushed for DC power — smooth, steady electricity that ran efficiently through devices.

Edison promoted DC as that is what he supposedly 'invented' and was therefore financially invested in having it used.
At the time, DC was very far from efficient, as it was next to impossible to convert to different voltages, with the result that voltage dropped significantly as you moved away from the generator.
Nothing electrical at the time required DC, and there were zero benefits from having DC. This is a time before any electronic devices existed, and the only real uses were for lighting and heating. Motors on DC did work, but they were far worse than the AC versions.

If Edison had his way, there would have been tiny little generators everywhere, hundreds in every town and city, just to keep the voltage at a usable level at the consumers. Massively expensive and inefficient, electricity would be for the chosen few only. Mass adoption would never happen.

There was zero innovation or research involved - it was just taking something which worked on a tiny scale and then hoodwinking the gullible into installing it into larger buildings and streets.
Edison later specialised in employing people to invent things and then taking all of the credit for those inventions. Biggest charlatan of his era.

Tesla promoted AC power — easier for power companies to transmit across long distances, but wasteful once it reached homes.

Tesla promoted AC because he had actually bothered to do the research and experimentation to find out how it worked.
At the time, AC was the only way to transport electricity over long distances, and therefore the only way in which entire cities could be connected to electricity supplies.
There was no real waste, as it was all lighting, heating and motors - the motors being mainly based on designs that Tesla had developed and would only be possible with AC.

For modern electronics which use DC, there is a small loss converting AC to DC. However this is tiny, and even if properties were connected to DC supplies the conversion would still be required, as whatever voltage was supplied to a building would not be what was required by the electronic device.

 

[ericmark]

Yes, but you continue to get the energy back, once the heaters are switched off.

But once room not occupied, no gain. What we hope is the room never cools to ambient. Today phone tells me 6°C outside, my thermometer shows me 11.1°C unheated room with door open to heated room, 18.1°C my bedroom, 17.2°C the flat under main house, not heated, but boiler is there, 20.1°C the living room. Dining room at 14°C and hall radiator TRV 13°C the hall thermostat 17.5°C, so I would say likely with no heating on, for 12 hours, house around 10°C, so room used once a day, only likely 4°C higher than ambient. So no not getting the energy back.

 

[BS3036]

Transistors?

Thyristors?

Which 220000V devices were you proposing then?

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

Which 220000V devices were you proposing then?

How do you suppose, they translate the French AC grid voltage, to DC, then back to AC, at this side of the link?

 

[BS3036]

How do you suppose, they translate the French AC grid voltage, to DC, then back to AC, at this side of the link?

Yes, I know, but they have a larger budget than the average household.

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

Yes, I know, but they have a larger budget than the average household.

Nice swerve, but how do you think they do it?

 

[BS3036]

?

The whole point was that ebee was promoting the 'truth' that DC was a better form of distribution, but that greedy industrialists wanted to do it cheaply using ac. As he didn't want distribution to cost anything either it lead to the conclusion that either distribution should be at 12V dc which would result in unacceptable waste, or that it should be at a higher dc voltage which would result in the need to transform this higher voltage on the premises. Which I was suggesting is impractical at that scale.
The article then went of into realms of fantasy involving 'cleanly flowing dc electricity', and being able to smooth it out with dummy capacitors filled with sand. As these stupid scam devices get raised here once every two months, I couldn't see the point in suggesting that there may be truth in these ridiculous statements.