Science

Bad Law Writing and Keeping You Cool

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Beginning on January 1, 2010, manufacturers in the US were not allowed to make any new refrigeration or air conditioning equipment that was pre-charged with R-22. Originally, the EPA had written in that not only would no new equipment be allowed to be manufactured with R-22 in it, but no replacement parts would be allowed to be sold for the existing systems.

This gave everyone in my industry (HVAC) a huge gasp – there are literally tens (hundreds?) of millions of systems installed across the United States that have R-22 in them – everything from your household window air, to a central air conditioner, to the reach in coolers at a convenience store, to a beer tap cooler, to industrial chilling processors. The industry had to (at much time and expense) heavily lobby EPA to get this part of the law written out. It was a huge sigh of relief for everyone when this part of the laws was written out. What were we (I run an HVAC wholesaler) to do for warranty if an R-22 unit took a dump? Replace the whole thing instead of a tiny component?

The major manufacturers all knew of the impending January 1, 2010 deadline and had fully converted their manufacturing processes to making units that were pre-charged with the new environmentally friendly refrigerant, R-410a (R-410a is used primarily for air conditioning purposes and I will limit this discussion to that to keep it simpler). This includes all manufacturers of hotel units, window air conditioners, and central air conditioners (I am certainly leaving out some).

Since R-410a involves higher operating pressures than R-22 (significantly higher), technicians were forced to have training to use the new chemical, and buy all new tools to handle the higher pressures. Many were also forced to buy new torch sets. With the old R-22 you could soft solder the joints – with R-410a and the higher pressures that it brings, everyone that wasn’t brazing with 15% silver was forced to do that. Distributors such as myself had to invest a lot of time, energy and money into training our customers so they would use the correct lubricants (those changed from mineral to ester oil), techniques and methods to selling and installing the new R-410a units. Part of the training was to show our customers (hvac contractors) how to educate homeowners about the new refrigerant, and why their broken down air conditioner would require a complete system change out since the old components were not compatible with the new R-410a components.

BUT…

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Anti-Vaccination Hysterics Kill Seven Babies

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Great, anti-vaccination hysteria has killed seven infants in California. Whooping cough, once thought to be virtually wiped-out in the developed world, is making a comeback thanks to illegal immigration and greedy anti-vaccination activists.

As I noted in my previous post on the subject, too many people make emotional decisions based on graphic images. They see pictures of kids with autism or whatever the anti-vaccination hysteria du jour is but they don’t see countervailing images of the diseases that vaccinations prevent.

Just to provide some real education, here is a video of a 12-week-old infant with whooping cough. You can hear the distinctive strangling intake of breath at the end of a coughing fit which gives the disease its name.

As you listen to this, recall that in the normal course of the disease, this horrific coughing last for a month with two more months of less-harsh coughing. The disease kills by sheer exhaustion.

There is an adult whooping cough booster available. If you have contact with infants and/or a large illegal population (legal immigrants have to get vaccinations), I strongly recommend you get the booster.

And, if you know some anti-vaccination idiot, strap them down and make them listen to the video in a loop.

Science or Bust

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This is a great talk:
 


 

The Cure For Spills, Peaks, and Crazy Foreigners…

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Howard Bloom argues that America needs a space vision. Like solar power…FROM OUTER SPACE!

Space Solar
Space Solar

Bloom argues that space solar power is the solution to America’s energy needs. With space solar power, this nation would put satellites in orbit around the Earth. These satellites would collect the plentiful   solar power in space that’s just sitting there unused, ready to reduce your power bill, convert it into healthy radiation, and beam that radiation back to the Earth where it can be converted into power. Space solar power would have no problem with spills, weather, eminent domain, NIMBY, waste, Indian attack, pollution, or allergies. Other than the small technology, engineering, and financial hurdles, Bloom faces one massive hurdle in convincing the American people that this is the vision for them: the term solar power.

When the average red-blooded American hears the term solar power, they think of one thing:

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The weekend before Memorial Day in southern California

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I thought this photo might strike a chord with the Chicago crowd.

netcam2

This is Lake Arrowhead at 12:40 PM, May 24. I have been planning to retire there but, after seeing this, might give it more thought. I have had weekend homes there for 35 years and don’t believe I have seen snow past March. They had a lot of snow in February this year, over a foot, and it is very clean but this is getting ridiculous.

Lake Arrowhead is at about 5200 feet elevation at the lake surface. There is snow all over southern California today above 4500 feet, which is below the level of the passes to central California.

That darned Climate Change.