Re: dead battery

default <default@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> writes:

On 19 Jan 2008 01:16:11 -0500, Allan Adler <ara@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
Does the terminology "buck-boost" converter mean something other than
using a D size instead of an AA?

Sorry. No. buck-boost converter is a power supply (electronic
circuit) that is capable of taking one voltage in and putting another
voltage out - usually with pretty good efficiency (90% of POWER makes
it out, 10% wasted as heat) Power is voltage times current.
Buck converters lower voltage and boost converters raise it. Buck
Boost does either as conditions demand - you might need 3 volts for
instance, a new battery may output 3.4 volts and a buck boost
converter may be able to output three volts when the input battery is
down to 1.2 volts. Uses more of the available power in the battery
when low, and conserves power when the input voltage is higher than
normal.

Thanks for the explanations about buck boost converters and about
batteries. I've started downloading information about buck boost
converters.

When I originally read your phrase "buck boost converter", I thought the
word "buck" referred to dollars and thought the phrase referred to a way
of amplifying the purchasing power of a dollar.

Gas is the only way to cook in my opinion if you care about food - but
I have to figure that in most cases it is better to take a fuel like
gas and burn it to produce heat than it is to take a fuel like coal
and burn it to produce heat, to boil water, to turn a turbine, to spin
a generator, to produce electricity, so you can send it hundreds of
miles through a lossy transmission system, so you can convert it back
to heat.

They charge me for a certain amount of gas whether I use it or not,
while for electricity they only charge me for what I use. So, it makes
sense to use at least some gas, from the standpoint of cost.

If you cook for yourself in a microwave, you can cook your meal in the
same dish you will eat it from. If you cook on a stove, you have to use
pots and pans and then you also have to wash them, instead of just washing
one dish. I use hot water to wash dishes, so they have to burn coal to
produce heat to heat the water I use to wash dishes, and the more dishes
and pots and pans I wash, the more coal I use. On the other hand, maybe
they will burn the same amount of coal no matter how many dishes I wash.

I don't really know how to compute these things. I have a similar problem
with economics: goods and services get translated into dollars or some
other currency, and then the different currencies have different relative
values which are always changing, so I don't know whether it is meaningful
to speak of making or saving money.
--
Ignorantly,
Allan Adler <ara@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
* Disclaimer: I am a guest and *not* a member of the MIT CSAIL. My actions and
* comments do not reflect in any way on MIT. Also, I am nowhere near Boston.
.

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