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A sauna in Brookyln would save a lot on their electric bill if they switched to heat pumps.

whimsicalism 3y ago
A heat pump would likely not work for a sauna due to the temps required, do you know of a single instance of this being done successfully? I don't think it was a gimmick anyways - they were doing this for a long time non-publicly before it came out and when it did a lot of people said they no longer wanted to be customers.
- arcticbull 3y ago
  I don't know if there's currently a solution for spas that incorporates a heat pump - Purdue has a paper on it [1] - my point was more that incorporating a false economic signal allows maintaining the status quo instead of leading to improvement in efficiency. [1] > I don't think it was a gimmick anyways - they were doing this for a long time non-publicly before it came out and when it did a lot of people said they no longer wanted to be customers. Seems plausible. [1] https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2932&context=iracc https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2932...
8note 3y ago
If I were to design such a system, it would have a heat pump between the crypto boxes and the sauna insides. That way you've got some isolation between the possibly steamy air in the sauna and the chips, and you can run the chips cooler
- arcticbull 3y ago
  If you were to design an optimal system it just wouldn't have the crypto boxes in the first place. You're starting from a solution and working your way back to a problem. That's a great way to land on a poor solution to the problem as it unnecessarily constraints your search space and installs false constraints. Crypto is not by any means unique in this regard but boy does it happen often. "Assuming I spent $20,000 on a box that converts all electricity fed into it directly into heat, and once in a while, in the process of guessing random numbers, facilitates some very questionable transactions and poops out a magic bean I can sell (only 3% of the time once in its useful life), how can I use it to heat a sauna?" -- is a pretty strange place to start an exploration on the best way to heat saunas. Yes if you start there, a heat exchanger or a heat pump is not a bad idea. But why on earth are we starting there, lol, and you really sure there isn't a better way? If a resistive heater on one side were useful that’s just how it would be done, with or without the false economic incentive.

A heat pump would likely not work for a sauna due to the temps required, do you know of a single instance of this being done successfully? I don't think it was a gimmick anyways - they were doing this for a long time non-publicly before it came out and when it did a lot of people said they no longer wanted to be customers.

arcticbull 3y ago
I don't know if there's currently a solution for spas that incorporates a heat pump - Purdue has a paper on it [1] - my point was more that incorporating a false economic signal allows maintaining the status quo instead of leading to improvement in efficiency. [1] > I don't think it was a gimmick anyways - they were doing this for a long time non-publicly before it came out and when it did a lot of people said they no longer wanted to be customers. Seems plausible. [1] https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2932&context=iracc https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2932...

8note 3y ago

If I were to design such a system, it would have a heat pump between the crypto boxes and the sauna insides. That way you've got some isolation between the possibly steamy air in the sauna and the chips, and you can run the chips cooler

arcticbull 3y ago
If you were to design an optimal system it just wouldn't have the crypto boxes in the first place. You're starting from a solution and working your way back to a problem. That's a great way to land on a poor solution to the problem as it unnecessarily constraints your search space and installs false constraints. Crypto is not by any means unique in this regard but boy does it happen often. "Assuming I spent $20,000 on a box that converts all electricity fed into it directly into heat, and once in a while, in the process of guessing random numbers, facilitates some very questionable transactions and poops out a magic bean I can sell (only 3% of the time once in its useful life), how can I use it to heat a sauna?" -- is a pretty strange place to start an exploration on the best way to heat saunas. Yes if you start there, a heat exchanger or a heat pump is not a bad idea. But why on earth are we starting there, lol, and you really sure there isn't a better way? If a resistive heater on one side were useful that’s just how it would be done, with or without the false economic incentive.