Root Observations: October 2005 Archives

Have you ever noticed how some times people don't operate an appliance/machine properly because they don't understand how it works? Often, it's because they've never been told or seen an instruction book. There are probably a lot of things I think I know how to use, but don't.

One of the most annoying things I find that people don't know how to work are thermostats. You know, the device that turns your heating on in your house or office. Thermostats have a scale of temperatures, the one in the photo goes from about 4 degrees centigrade to 32 degrees centigrade. 4 degrees means that it will turn on to prevent frost, 32 degrees is probably too hot for comfort.

What do you do when you feel cold? Most people turn the thermostat up, but in reality that probably isn't a solution. A thermostat will turn the heating on when the temperature falls below the temperature it is set too, and it will turn off when it goes over that temperature.

So, you get into work in the morning and it feels cold. The temperature on the termostat is set to 22 Degrees. It seems most people will then turn it up to 30 degrees. When I ask why they say "because its cold and it will warm the room up quicker". This is the point - it wont warm the room up any quicker. The heating system output is unchanged by the thermostat - a thermostat sets the heating on or off. All that will happen is that eventually the room will heat up to 30 degrees at which point someone will walk over to the thermostat and turn it down. Typically they turn it down to 16 degrees, no doubt thinking it will cool the room down quicker. When the temperature eventually reaches 16 degrees people will be cold and turning it back to 30 degress.... and on it goes.

If you feel cold when you get into work in the morning (or home at night for that matter) the problem isn't the thermostat not turning on the heating when the temperature falls below it's setting (22 degrees in this case) - it's probably that the heating system has an overideing on/off switch on a timer, so the office isn't heated overnight and the house isn't heated during the day when it's empty. The solution is to change the timer to turn the heating on before people get into work/get home. Once the room is at 22 degrees the thermostat will turn the heating off by itself. Perhaps these graphs will explain it better:

So why are we able to set the temperature then?
As humans we prefer different temperatures for different activities, doing the house work will probably warm our bodies up and therefore we will prefer a cooler ambient temperature (say 18degrees). Sitting down at night to watch a movie and we may prefer it slightly warmer (say 24 degrees). Working in an office with little movement we may prefer 22 degrees, whereas working on a trade counter which involves a lot of movement we will probably prefer 20 degrees. Every day we prefer something slightly different, and that's why we have the control of a thermostat through a range of temperatures. Including a "Frost Protection" setting of around 4 degrees, for when the office is closed over christmas and we wouldn't want pipes to freeze in our absence.

So, the next time you feel cold at home or the office, don't jump up and put the thermostat on it's maximum setting, move it up by a couple of degrees then go and check to see the heating timer is set correctly.

When I think of my Granddad, one thing has always sprung to mind. It's a song with the lyrics "you won't get me I'm a part of the union, you won't get me I'm a part of the Union...". (Text really doesn't mean much when you think of songs, so If I ever get round to it I'll see if I can put an extract here too.)

My Granddad was a Union Man. I remember growing up and him talking about political things and I'm sure he must have mentioned the unions several times. I can't remember anything specific that he said about the unions, but I have always associated that song with him. The song "PART OF THE UNION" was released by The Strawbs in 1973 - 3 years before I was born.

Fast forward a couple and a half decades. In 2003 I finally got round to having some guitar lessons. The teacher, Dave Lambert, used to teach my dad many years ago. Dave is an exceptionally good teacher. I also knew he'd had some songs in the charts many years before, including one called "Lay Down". Now, I've never been very good remembering names, so I didn't know that the band that recorded "Lay Down" were "The Strawbs". Dave Lambert was (and is) a Strawb.

For several months I had no idea that I was being taught to play guitar by one of the musicians who recorded the song I associate with my Granddad.

I've been thinking lately how little we know about each other. I got thinking about this when someone described me as a "gamer". They were surprised to discover that I play a game called "Warbirds" with some other people over the internet.

Warbirds probably deserves it's own blog entry, but for now it's basically a flight simulator where multiple players get to shoot each other out of the sky. It's not encouraging war or violence, it's fun and it's a challenge. Seeing as I don't watch much TV (the occasional documentary, just never been interested in the soaps) it's a bit of me time too.

I always thought it was quite logical for me to find that sort of program. People who know me are quite likely to know that:
a) I have always loved flying
b) I find computers easy to work with
c) I like to keep my mind occupied (I have always liked stragey games, from Risk when I was growing up to SimCity and the like as I got older).
A Flight Sim, on a computer, where you have to achieve some very specific goals against other people - many who are highly skilled, covers all of those things nicely.

So, back to "Secret Lives". They are not really secret things that we keep from each other but when we meet someone, what do they do with themselves in life?
Where do they like to go on holiday?
What was their earliest memory?
What thing are they most proud of?
Who do they count among their friends?
What do they want to achieve in their remaining life?
What are they doing to achive it?
What have they done in the past?
What sports do they enjoy?
Did they represent the country at the Olympics?

They're not things that people deliberately hide, but things they just don't mention.

I guess it's my curious side that's asking all these questions. For all I know their is someone I know, perhaps I've been seeing them for years as they supply my business or perhaps I know them from a technical newsgroup and have only typed messages to them, has an interest very similar to one of mine but that we've never mentioned to each other. Perhaps, just perhaps, I know the same person twice, if you see what I mean. I noticed that once I started running (during this summer, although I've done very little for the last month) I met quite a few other people that either were or had been keen runners.

I guess, all of this is made harder by not knowing ourselves that well. I believe we are always changing as we grow, and for a while we may be interested in one thing and then over time that interest will fade to be replaced by something else. I'm sure that eventually my interest in Warbirds will fade and I will move onto something else. In fact, I'm also keen to know what the next new thing in my life will be. As we all go through so many phases of life I guess it becomes less likely that we speak about them.

So, if you are reading this, you know me, and you also have a Blog then let me know where yours is. Then we have one less secret between us. My thoughts are now wondering onto "I wonder how long this blogging phase of mine will last".