About monitor modding...

[Wiggo]

Unfortunately AirCon in Australia is pretty expensive to run so a lot of houses don't have it and curtians don't help all that much. :(
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[Bustout]

Unfortunately AirCon in Australia is pretty expensive to run so a lot of houses don't have it and curtians don't help all that much. :(
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Oy! It's expensive as all heck to run here too, (energy crisis not withstanding). But in true american fashion, spend now, file for chapter 11 later. : party ha

[Shepps]

Here in the UK ur more worried bout water than heat lol

[Wiggo]

Well keepin' warm is not a prob here but keepin' cool is something else. :smokin:
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[Albinus]

A/C is growing in popularity here, but very expensive. For instance, our 3-monthly power bill is about A$150, but my aunty who has A/C pays about A$500 :eek:

And I have more computers running than she does... the A/C really slurps up the juice :thumbs do

[SegiY]

Rumor has it that if you tape some C4 onto the side of a monitor and toss it off a resonable building it will detonate :flames:

[zeradul]

Hmm, how state of the art are your new buildings in Australia?

Todays houses here can be built with such good insulation its insane. R21 - 45 standard !?! Wrap the house with a few good vapor barriors, and some tyvek. Decent siding and good windows, and insulate the attic, and AC doesn't cost that much. My family has a 20 year old house, and we keep the inside temperature at 70 degrees, year round, and even during the hottest of periods, we have one month where it is pretty consistantly 95-100 during the day, and drops to 75-85 at night, and humid as heck, and even in those conditions our AC bill still only accounts for about 30% increase in our bill. But then again, you can use an air conditioner really inefficiently. Setting an AC unit on a thermostat is dumb. Long cycles are WAY MORE efficient than short little cycles. Running an AC unit at night is WAY MORE efficient, beucase it is easier to dissipate heat in a cooler medium. Keeping your house cool, and keeping airborn moisture out is KEY, because an AC unit can only cool dry air, and if there is moisture in the air, it has to expend energy to condense it before it can cool anything. But Like I said, good insulation is key.

I have an uncle that grew up in the US and now lives in Germany, and when it came time for him to build a house, he had the opportunity to buy american materials, and ship them over, and then splurge and have some of his US friends who are building contractors go on vacation to build his house, and not only did it go up twice as fast as an equivalent german house, their house is by far more efficient. It cost almost the same to build, and operational costs are way below the average house there. My Grandpa went to help, and he was amazed at the lack of standardization. He bought some plumber tools, and NONE of them have any size settings, they are all designed to fit ANY size, because of all the wierd standards. They are the wierdest tools, they all have pretty clever ways of securely fastening themselves to any size.

I'm not saying australia is like that, but honestly, new german construction on the average residential house is similar to that of US houses in the 1930's. Lack of efficient methods to doing almost everything. My uncle says that while they were building, on a daily basis people would come and spectate. Comment on how foolish it is to build a house out of wood, (opposed to bricks, and concrete)

I'm just saying its wierd how resistant to new ideas people can be.

[Wiggo]

It's not the technology used here in building houses but the price they whack us for usin' power. :(

[zeradul]

What is your main source of power? I'd think you could pull off nuclear and get your prices down.... You're not shipping in coal are you?

[Wiggo]

We have plenty of coal though most of our power comes from hydro-electricity but companies want to make suare of makin' a buck and the 1 nuclear plant here has 3/4 of the population wanting it close. :smokin:

[zeradul]

people are paranoid and ignorant about nuclear power, its clean, cheap, and safe if maintained correctly...

[Bustout]

people are paranoid and ignorant about nuclear power, its clean, cheap, and safe if maintained correctly...

That's so very true! I'm pissed off about the stupid liberals in office here in California. They would rather save a spotted, two toed, one humped, three spleened, albino, tree leach than put up a new nuke plant that will help lower the cost of living here for the Human inhabitants of the state. Paranoid pricks!:shoot2:

[MySTiCuSS]

Nuclear power? You now what happenend in Tsjernobyl!

[Albinus]

Wiggo - 101 in Australian power ;)

There are NO nuclear power stations in Australia. We have a nuclear reactor for research purposes, which also uses 30% uranium instead of the normal 3%. Coal delivers about 85% of the electricity required in Australia. Hydroelectric provides 13%, and gas and diesel generators make up the remainder. The Snowy Mountains scheme which was built in the 1950's is not providing ample hydroelectric capacity anymore. The only state that is almost totally supplied by hydroelectric is Tasmania.

In my state (Queensland) the ratio is about 97% supplied by coal - our state's largest export. The remainder is supplied by hydroelectric schemes, most of them small. We have one on Wivenhoe dam, west of Brisbane which is activated for the 5PM rush hour. In the early hours of the morning, the water is pumped back into the dam. And it still operates at an energy surplus.