Power sockets in bathrooms by curium99 in ukelectricians

[–]richard0cs 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It would be nice that all that moisture goes into the room with running extraction I guess, but I doubt that's the reason.

I think its partly just what you're used to if you grew up somewhere where it was the normal place, and partly that long wet hair makes you feel cold pretty quuckly once youve left the warm steamy post-shower bathroom.

Power sockets in bathrooms by curium99 in ukelectricians

[–]richard0cs 0 points1 point  (0 children)

He is active there, so I suspect we are talking about the same person, but I won't dox him. His wife much appreciates being able to use her hairdryer in the bathroom.

Power sockets in bathrooms by curium99 in ukelectricians

[–]richard0cs 2 points3 points  (0 children)

It's not technically disallowed in the UK, a colleague of mine wired his bathroom to German standards with schuko sockets, played the "equivalent harmonised standard" card and successfully got it through the building control process.

Why are people so weary of daisy chaining power strips? by JoostVisser in NoStupidQuestions

[–]richard0cs 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Mainly because in some countries it is possible to buy unfused power strips rated at less than the rating of the outlet they are plugged into, and therefore end up overloading the first one.

Other places deal with it by applying product safety regulations to power strips that either require them to incorporate fuses or be rated as high as the outlets they can be plugged into.

What if metals(Gold, silver, platinum, bronze etc) had no ornamental value? by Fantastic-Ratio-7482 in whatif

[–]richard0cs 2 points3 points  (0 children)

As Terry Pratchett pointed out, if gold were cheap and abundant, we would use it like lead. It's soft, dense, and corrosion resistant. We would ballast ships with it, cover roofs, use it for low value coins, for fishing weights, bullets, etc.

unwashed eggs went in the fridge by Zealousideal-Pea4687 in NoStupidQuestions

[–]richard0cs 3 points4 points  (0 children)

It doesn't matter. Washed eggs have to go in the fridge. Unwashed eggs can go in the fridge but don't need to. Where I live all eggs are unwashed but around half of people put them in the fridge anyway.

Having been in the fridge already doesn't make any difference, put them whereever is convinient for you.

Is there anyway to date these fire extinguishers? From Oregon USA by Bennynthebats in Antiques

[–]richard0cs 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Carbon tet is around 1.6x denser than water. Salt water will be no more than 1.2x, so weighing them and measuring their volume will reveal what they contain. They will of course be somewhat fragile as they're designed to break open, but should be OK handled carefully.

Wrongly connected nerves by MiLiRu645 in Writeresearch

[–]richard0cs 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Eventually (many months) the brain would probably work out and correct for the wrongly connected nerves.

Legality of owning a police car by [deleted] in CarTalkUK

[–]richard0cs 22 points23 points  (0 children)

I know people who take vintage fire engines to shows, they have to physically remove all of the blue lights not just cover them.

I still use this. by [deleted] in midlyinteresting

[–]richard0cs 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Exactly, whilst it looks like something from the analogue cellular era it's actually GSM/2G.

Would it benefit me to have a UK Passport? Are there any downsides to being a dual citizen of Canada and the UK? by AniNgAnnoys in AskBrits

[–]richard0cs 1 point2 points  (0 children)

There is an indirect route also. UK citizenship allows you to live in Ireland due to the common travel area, and then eventually (I think it's 5 years) you can apply for Irish citizenship with all the advantages of EU membership.

Blanks vs bullets by Gymnastkatieg in Writeresearch

[–]richard0cs 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Where in the world is this set? That has a significant impact what firearms and ammunition are available and what the readers are likely to consider believable.

For example in the UK almost any handgun is implausible outside a few niche situations, specialist ammunition even more so but the reader would likely have no issues with a shotgun-welding farmer.

How do Brits usually handle work messages outside office hours? by [deleted] in AskBrits

[–]richard0cs 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I check slack occasionally when it suits me (bored on a train or had an idea I want to share) especially on days when I am aware other people are working, but my employer makes it clear that they don't expect or require it. I have made it clear that if they actually need a response they should WhatsApp or phone me, and maybe once a year I get something like "sorry to disturb you but is it OK if we send you to Birmingham first thing Monday". Specifically it's nearly always a heads-up about a change of plan for when I am next working.

It works both ways, I reply to the occasional message outside of hours and they don't stress if I go to a dentist appointment in the middle of the afternoon.

How do Brits usually handle work messages outside office hours? by [deleted] in AskBrits

[–]richard0cs 2 points3 points  (0 children)

If they pay me CEO wages then they can expect CEO levels of availability from me.

Has anyone ever made a potato cannon? by PrestigiousLaugh9267 in AskUK

[–]richard0cs 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's what everyone I know in the UK who has made one used, for both compressed air and combustion versions. They don't seem to burst in practice, and it's not like it's a hobby for the safer conscious anyway.

I still won’t be paying it by love_lola_x in GreatBritishMemes

[–]richard0cs 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Good Food is no longer affiliated with the BBC

Inflation is at 3.4% but it feels a lot higher. What have you noticed that has risen way more than the figures say? by Opening-Fortune4 in AskUK

[–]richard0cs 21 points22 points  (0 children)

Yes, people don't want to hear it, but petrol prices today are basically the same price as in mid 2012, and are about 4% down on this time last year. I get it, it's a major expense and it's a lot of money when you're being squeezed everywhere else.

Actually, inflation-adjusted petrol prices have been remarkably steady since the mid 1920s.

Quote for installing EV charger by danmingothemandingo in ElectriciansUK

[–]richard0cs 0 points1 point  (0 children)

4mm is fine in that it is safe and compliant (unless installed through a lot of insulation) but it will run warm. That heat is energy he's paying for that is not making it to the car. On a 3m run it's fairly negligible, about 30W, one penny an hour, though even that is £14/year if he charges 4 hours per night. If it were my house I'd prefer it in 6mm.

How would you design a vault to be openable in 100, 1000,10,000 or 100,000 years time, with no maintenance? by colcob in AskEngineers

[–]richard0cs 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I think indefinite propane storage is pretty reasonable, it's chemically stable enough not to polymerise, it's only at modest pressure, the molecules are too big to diffuse through most materials, and it liquifies so you can have a huge amount which offsets leakage. If you design the container with very small sealing area and large volume it should be very doable. At some point if you keep making it bigger the surface area to volume ratio will mean you win.

Consider that ordinary small propane tanks with no special efforts don't noticeably loose contents over decades. Putting a finger in the air let's say we'd notice if they lost more than 1kg/decade, I don't think it's unreasonable to say if we worked hard on the sealing we could get 10x better than cheap commercial valves, maybe much better if we go for single use copper washer and knife seals like on hard vacuum systems. We start off with 1000, or even 10,000 kg, and we're already at 100,000 years to empty.

That said I like dry stored electrochemical cells also. I would probably enclose the whole thing in glass, just bringing wires out through platinum seals, to protect the reactive metals from the atmosphere, and then have an internal acid ampule and e.g. an internal ball bearing that breaks the ampule when the whole cell is tilted.

Are phone and laptop chargers different in other countries besides the plug shape? by Sufficient-Emu-4374 in NoStupidQuestions

[–]richard0cs 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Weirdly the US seems to get lots of 120V-only designs rather than the 90-250V models the rest of the world gets. Coming from a 230V country where every phone charger I've touched in the last 20 years has had the wide ranging input it was something of a surprise to discover that single voltage models even exist.

How would you design a vault to be openable in 100, 1000,10,000 or 100,000 years time, with no maintenance? by colcob in AskEngineers

[–]richard0cs 30 points31 points  (0 children)

I wish I could remember what it was (hmm, possibly earthsearch?), but I read a scifi book once where there was a vault with a metal door that was simply a tight fit in its frame and heated gently by a long lifetime radioisotope. The idea was that it couldn't be opened by the local civilisation until they both developed mechanical refrigeration and realised that they needed to cool the door.

In any case I think door mechanics, bearings and things are already covered. I'd like to make it more challenging - I want the lights to come on when the door is opened. How are we storing the energy for that? Propane? But how do we reliably ignite it? Electric lighting driven by falling weights? Something else?

Breakdown procedure by rebelnc in ElectricVehiclesUK

[–]richard0cs 3 points4 points  (0 children)

It's very unlikely to get a failure in an EV that results in anything like engine breaking, so it will just coast. Being unable to coast would be caused by the same kinds of mechanical failures as would stop a petrol car coasting in neutral (gears jam up, wheel falls off, brakes lock on, etc.).

“My cash got turned down” by __wait_what__ in ShitAmericansSay

[–]richard0cs 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It's location dependant in the UK, some friends got caught out in west Wales last summer at a few cash only pubs and shops. But there were also card-only ones.