dougie@its63b.ed.ac.uk (D Nisbet) (05/11/87)
Perhaps someone can help me with this puzzler which has been bothering me for a long time. It is generally a well known fact that if you drive a car using the accelerator a bit like an On/Off switch then you are very likely to waste fuel. The most economic driving style is gradual acceleration and gentle braking. Recently on T.V. I saw an advert which showed a Gas central heating system with a sound-over of someone driving a car uneconomically - the message being "You wouldn't drive your car like this; so why run your central heating in the same way?" I've never really understood this: Some forms of heating are more uneconomic than others - why? Fan heaters for instance are said to be very efficient but very expensive - I don't understand the contradiction. I use Fan Heaters on a Thermostat switch. Is it more economical for me to maintain the temperature of a room by having the heater on longer on a low heat setting, or for short bursts on a high heat setting? Any enlightenment would be nice - it might even reduce my electricity bill. -- Dougie Nisbet University of Edinburgh | <UUCP> ...seismo!mcvax!ukc!its63b!dougie Medical Statistics Unit | <JANET> dougie@uk.ac.ed.its63b Medical School Teviot Place Edinburgh