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Speaker 1: Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.

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Speaker 1: It's ready. Are you get in touch with technology with

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Speaker 1: tech Stuff from how stuff works dot com. Hello again, everyone,

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Speaker 1: and welcome to tech stuff. My name is Chris Polette,

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Speaker 1: and I am the tech editor here at how stuff

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Speaker 1: works dot Com. Sitting across from me as usual as

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Speaker 1: senior writer Jonathan Strickland. Hey there, all right, I'm I

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Speaker 1: feel amped up. Yeah, I feel I'm getting a real

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Speaker 1: charge on today's Let's not do this, We've done it

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Speaker 1: so many other times before. Let's just start off with

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Speaker 1: a little a listener mail. This listener mail comes from Eric,

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Speaker 1: who says, hey, guys, I really enjoyed the podcast and

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Speaker 1: was wondering if you had ever thought about talking about

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Speaker 1: smart meters. Right now in Dallas, it is all over

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Speaker 1: the news about how some people are getting ripped off

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Speaker 1: by these meters. How do they differ from the old

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Speaker 1: fashioned analog power meter, or, as I lovingly think of them,

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Speaker 1: the spinny power meters. They seem easier to read and

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Speaker 1: they talk back to the power company with no need

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Speaker 1: for a meter reader. With modern day technology, how can

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Speaker 1: this be a bad thing? I would love to hear

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Speaker 1: about this either on the blog or a podcast in

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Speaker 1: the near future. Thanks Eric, Well, Eric, we thought we

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Speaker 1: talked a bit about smart meters and the smart grid. Yes, indeed,

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Speaker 1: because as it turns out, right now, our power grid

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Speaker 1: in the United States is pretty stupid. Well, you know,

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Speaker 1: it is inanimate and all that. But what we're talking

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Speaker 1: about when we talk about the smart grid is, um,

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Speaker 1: a very centralized system of electricity. Now, of course, most

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Speaker 1: of the country is wired into a very um how

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Speaker 1: should I put this over burdened is putting it delicately? Yeah, Yeah,

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Speaker 1: the power grid right now, the way power power generation

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Speaker 1: and transmission works is you've got power generators throughout the

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Speaker 1: United States, UM, about nine two undered electric generating units,

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Speaker 1: and those are producing more than a million megawatts and

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Speaker 1: it's and they have more than three hundred thousand miles

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Speaker 1: of transmission lines. Yes, Jonathan is quoting some statistics from

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Speaker 1: the United States Department of Energy. Yes, so apparently you

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Speaker 1: read the same the same uh guide book. Yes, there's

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Speaker 1: a really uh I really like that guide book. Actually

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Speaker 1: it's very easy to understand, UM, and what it's crammed

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Speaker 1: full of some real really eye opening statistics. UM. Little

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Speaker 1: things like since UH peak demand growth has exceeded transmission

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Speaker 1: growth by nearly per year. So what that means is

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Speaker 1: that the demand for energy is growing at a much

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Speaker 1: faster rate than the rate that we're adding capacity in

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Speaker 1: the in the in the transmission lines. Now, that does

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Speaker 1: not mean that demand exceeds capacity yet, it just means

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Speaker 1: that the growth is completely out of whack. Yeah, and

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Speaker 1: the thing is with the current grid the way it is,

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Speaker 1: and the reason why you should be concerned and about

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Speaker 1: this is um everything is wired into the few UH

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Speaker 1: centralized power generating facilities. So the problem is once something

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Speaker 1: goes down, it takes down a lot of the grid

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Speaker 1: with it. We've we've seen that happen several times in

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Speaker 1: the past few years. It's in different parts because what

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Speaker 1: you've got like a when you think about you've got

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Speaker 1: a power generator that is sending power to essentially a

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Speaker 1: distribution center, which then sends it out to all the consumers.

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Speaker 1: And by consumers we mean people who are you know,

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Speaker 1: your house, your job, all the places you go to.

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Speaker 1: Those are all the consumers for the power companies. So yeah,

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Speaker 1: if you have a power generator go down, then that

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Speaker 1: affects everyone further down that chain. Now, the real problem

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Speaker 1: with the power grid as it stands now is it's

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Speaker 1: not terribly flexible and it's not intelligent in the sense

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Speaker 1: that it can't detect a problem on its own if

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Speaker 1: something if something goes wrong, people have to notice it

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Speaker 1: and report it in order for the power companies to react. Now, granted,

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Speaker 1: if it's a power generator that goes down, you can

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Speaker 1: pretty much bet the power company knows about it, because

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Speaker 1: they're gonna be people at that facility screaming and panicking

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Speaker 1: or at least making very frantic phone calls to other

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Speaker 1: power generators to try and do a load balance so

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Speaker 1: that consumers are not without power for too long while

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Speaker 1: they try and get the generator backup online. But we're

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Speaker 1: pretty reliant on electricity at this point. I don't think

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Speaker 1: that kind of thing goes uh unnoticed for very long. Right.

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Speaker 1: But if let's say that there is a major power

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Speaker 1: outage in part of your town due to a tree

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Speaker 1: falling across some power lines, the power company does not

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Speaker 1: know that you are no longer receiving power at that point.

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Speaker 1: They can't tell because there's no feedback system there. With

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Speaker 1: the basic power grid structure, a smart grid would have

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Speaker 1: a feedback system where every single consumer would have a

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Speaker 1: smart meter um that not only was easier to read

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Speaker 1: and could tell you how much you are consuming at

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Speaker 1: any particular time, but would send this information directly back

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Speaker 1: to the power company. Because right now, the power companies

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Speaker 1: have to for for the most of the country anyway,

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Speaker 1: the power companies have to rely on the old method

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Speaker 1: of sending a meter reader out to your house to

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Speaker 1: actually physically walk up to the meter, read what it says,

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Speaker 1: write it down, and then go back to the power company. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: spinny powers that Eric was referring to write. Yeah, they're

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Speaker 1: they're reading what it says on there and then making

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Speaker 1: note of it. And that's what your bill is based

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Speaker 1: off of these these uh, regular meter reads. But with

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Speaker 1: a smart meter, it's constantly feeding the information back to

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Speaker 1: the company. UM. Now, I did look into the controversy

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Speaker 1: they talked about the Dallas controversy. Yes, this is what

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Speaker 1: the company called Encore, right, And in this case, what's

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Speaker 1: happening is that they consumers in Dallas are claiming that

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Speaker 1: their their electricity bills are higher than they should be,

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Speaker 1: and that they suspect that these new smart meters that

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Speaker 1: have just recently been installed in their homes are in fact,

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Speaker 1: uh giving incorrect readings. They're not they're not calibrated properly,

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Speaker 1: and that if they had been using the old meters,

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Speaker 1: their bill would have been lower because either the old

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Speaker 1: meters were more accurate or something along those lines. Now,

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Speaker 1: the power company's response is that they want to run

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Speaker 1: tests to make sure that the meters are in fact,

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Speaker 1: uh not reading as they should be. But the other

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Speaker 1: factor in this equation is that Dallas had a particularly

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Speaker 1: cold winter and as as a result, a lot of

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Speaker 1: people were using more electricity in order to heat their homes.

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Speaker 1: So it may be that the bills were hired not

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Speaker 1: because the meter was incorrect, but because they legitimately used

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Speaker 1: more electricity. Well, obviously a lot of people are concerned

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Speaker 1: about it because from what I've read, only generally what

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Speaker 1: happens is only about four tests to check out uh

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Speaker 1: what are considered poorly functioning meters happen in uh And

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Speaker 1: you know, a given month, you know, I'll have to uncle,

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Speaker 1: I'll have to send somebody out to check on a

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Speaker 1: meter based on a person's complaint, and uh. But in

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Speaker 1: January and February of the months immediately preceding the one

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Speaker 1: in which we are recording this podcast. Uh, it's spiked

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Speaker 1: to four thousand per month, so it is you know,

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Speaker 1: now a thousand or what no, I mean a thousand percent.

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Speaker 1: And it got to the point where, uh, the the

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Speaker 1: city government actually stated that, uh, that they would no

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Speaker 1: longer they would waive the twenty five dollar fee that

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Speaker 1: it usually takes to have to send someone out and

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Speaker 1: run a test on the meter because so many people

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Speaker 1: had complained. They want to seem responsive, so uh so

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Speaker 1: that that fee has been waved from this point on,

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Speaker 1: and anyone who had someone come out and test the

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Speaker 1: meter recently is actually do a refund if they did

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Speaker 1: pay that twenty five dollar fee. Well, normally they get

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Speaker 1: one free reading from Encore, but the every public a

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Speaker 1: couple of years though every hold on UM every four years,

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Speaker 1: they get one free test. But the Dallas Public Utility

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Speaker 1: Commission told Encore it had to waive the fee or

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Speaker 1: refund the fee UM based on whether or not people

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Speaker 1: were having continued problems because say, uh, say you had

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Speaker 1: just had a complaint about your power meter, they sent

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Speaker 1: somebody out there, that's your free visit. But say the

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Speaker 1: new meter doesn't seem to be functioning any better, and

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Speaker 1: you have somebody else come out and test it. Well,

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Speaker 1: they're saying that, you know, based on the what's going

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Speaker 1: on right now, they want away if the twenty five

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Speaker 1: fee because they want to make sure that the smart

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Speaker 1: meters are working correctly, and they're responding to complaints. So

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Speaker 1: it's it's because people are complaining over and over again

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Speaker 1: that the smart meters are not doing what they're supposed

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Speaker 1: to do right now. Whether the smart meters are actually malfunctioning,

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Speaker 1: that's a totally different matter. It may just be like

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Speaker 1: we said that people are using more electricity than they

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Speaker 1: realize and that it's just that the power company has

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Speaker 1: an accurate measure on it. We just don't know the

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Speaker 1: whole story yet. But I have a theory. What's that

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Speaker 1: to um that there's just a theory. It's not based

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Speaker 1: on anything other than just what came to mind. UM.

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Speaker 1: I wonder if human error factors into it. Also, people

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Speaker 1: who come out to read the meter and they read it, uh,

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Speaker 1: you know, one way, and then suddenly the smart meter

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Speaker 1: is reading at at an accurate level and they're going,

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Speaker 1: wait a minute, or maybe they report differently too, I

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Speaker 1: wondered that it could even be that that power companies

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Speaker 1: only send meter readers out on a pretty rare basis,

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Speaker 1: and that they estimate how much a monthly fee is

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Speaker 1: based upon your previous usage, which means and which they

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Speaker 1: can adjust whenever they do a future reading, like they'll

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Speaker 1: they may do one reading every three months instead of

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Speaker 1: every month, and then so in the months in between readings,

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Speaker 1: they'll make an estimate and then uh, if the estimate

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Speaker 1: it was too high, then when the metiator reads the

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Speaker 1: the meter and it's it's lower than they had projected,

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Speaker 1: they can adjust the bill lowers to to factor that in,

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Speaker 1: or vice versa if the people use more energy than

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Speaker 1: was projected. UM. The smart meters, though, I wanted to

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Speaker 1: talk about why they are and generally why they're kind

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Speaker 1: of a cool idea. Well, of course, it's easy to

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Speaker 1: say it's nice that they don't have to send somebody

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Speaker 1: out to your house every time they need to do

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Speaker 1: a check up and see how much electricity it used. UM.

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Speaker 1: But one of the things that that I think is

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Speaker 1: really cool about that too is that it gives the

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Speaker 1: customers some insight into exactly how much electricity they're using,

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Speaker 1: which is not the case with the Spinney power meters, right. Yeah, UM,

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Speaker 1: most of us have no idea how much electricity we

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Speaker 1: are using at any given time. Uh doesn't mean we

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Speaker 1: we happen to know that if we're running a lot

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Speaker 1: of stuff, like if the air conditioning is going on

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Speaker 1: full blast and we've got the dishwasher going and the

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Speaker 1: dryer out and you know, the laundry room is going

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Speaker 1: at the same time, we know we're consuming a lot

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Speaker 1: of power, but but we don't have any way of

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Speaker 1: quantifying that. It just we just know, but we don't

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Speaker 1: know like details. So it was really kind of meaningless. Yeah. Actually, UM,

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Speaker 1: A couple of companies that we talked about quite a

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Speaker 1: lot have created initiatives to help people take advantage of that,

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Speaker 1: like Microsoft with its Home I just you know, saw

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Speaker 1: the name again. When I saw the name, it triggered

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Speaker 1: the fact that it's upon h O h M. I

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Speaker 1: knew it had to have been something like that. Uh.

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Speaker 1: And the and Google power Meter, which actually you can

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Speaker 1: sign up for the service and uh keep track of

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Speaker 1: what's going on with your house. Course it also um

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Speaker 1: probably will enable them to sell ads to you, I

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Speaker 1: don't know, and normal operation and you might be surprised

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Speaker 1: to find out how much electricity you're consuming. But as

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Speaker 1: we get more sophisticated with our technology, the technology also

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Speaker 1: tends to to consume more electricity. Now, things like energy

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Speaker 1: Star appliances and devices, those consume less electricity than their counterparts,

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Speaker 1: but they they're still pretty power hungry. So if you've

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Speaker 1: got things like a you know, a lot of like television's, computers,

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Speaker 1: video game consoles, air conditioner appliances, close clothes dryer, there

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Speaker 1: are no energy Star certified closed drying except for except

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Speaker 1: for the clothes, yes, exactly, hanging out in the backyard.

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Speaker 1: I'm so glad you jumped in there because my brain

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Speaker 1: bind out of me the thing where you think stuff

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Speaker 1: and the pins and I don't know because I don't

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Speaker 1: dry my clothes that way. I just wear them wet.

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Speaker 1: Uh they no, the the that's not that's not entirely

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Speaker 1: true now the uh so the other aspect of the

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Speaker 1: smart meters of course. So yeah, you know how much

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Speaker 1: electricity you are are using at any given time. Now,

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Speaker 1: why is that important? Well, it's because electricity does not

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Speaker 1: always cost the same amount throughout the day, that's right,

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Speaker 1: And it depends on on the time of year two.

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Speaker 1: Because pete usage times fluctuate based on a lot of

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Speaker 1: different factors is and and the reason that peak usage

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Speaker 1: rates go up from what I understand is because UH

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Speaker 1: sometimes when you have your local grid and the peak

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Speaker 1: usage goes over what the peak UHAT or peak generation

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Speaker 1: ability is of the local station, then they're going to

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Speaker 1: have to import energy from someone else, and that costs more.

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Speaker 1: So they're going to have to charge you more to

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Speaker 1: cover that cost. So you want to keep your peak

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Speaker 1: usage down. And so having the ability to learn from

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Speaker 1: your smart meter and and what your household energy usages

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Speaker 1: will give you an idea of what the best time

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Speaker 1: to you know, wash and dry closes for example. Right,

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Speaker 1: you might notice that when you look at the meter,

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Speaker 1: like a good meter would have a readoubt that you

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Speaker 1: could easily see as a consumer and that you could

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Speaker 1: easily interpret. So not only would you know how much

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Speaker 1: energy you were consuming, but you would know the price

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Speaker 1: of that energy at that time. And power companies usually

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Speaker 1: release the price of what the power is going to

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Speaker 1: be for the falling day, so you can see the

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Speaker 1: day before what the what it's going to fall out.

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Speaker 1: And then as far as the price, UH variation goes

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Speaker 1: and you can play in your day accordingly. And so

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Speaker 1: if you see that at nine pm the price hits

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Speaker 1: nice low, then you know, well that's when I'm gonna

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Speaker 1: run the washing machine or the dryer or whatever. Um.

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Speaker 1: And then if it's really really high at two pm,

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Speaker 1: you might think, well, I'm gonna try and avoid running

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Speaker 1: as much as i can. Uh. Now, the peak times

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Speaker 1: throughout the year tend to be things like the deep

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Speaker 1: winter and the height of summer, because that's usually when

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Speaker 1: we're either running the heat at full blast or the

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Speaker 1: air conditioner at full blast um. And those are very

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Speaker 1: power hungry applications. So with again, with the smart meter,

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Speaker 1: you can keep an eye on how much you're using

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Speaker 1: and when is the best time to use it. Um.

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Speaker 1: There's one other element of smart meters that is very

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Speaker 1: important and smart grid as well, which is that it

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Speaker 1: reports back as we said to the power company, Well,

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Speaker 1: it doesn't just report back the at you know, how

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Speaker 1: much energy you're using. If that connection is somehow damaged,

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Speaker 1: like like our our example of a tree falling on

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Speaker 1: some power lines, the power company will see that the

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Speaker 1: services interrupted. They don't have to wait for a phone call. Uh.

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Speaker 1: They'll see that the connection no longer works and they

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Speaker 1: can either try and route power around that problem so

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Speaker 1: that the consumers are only affected for a brief period,

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Speaker 1: or if that's not possible, they can just immediately send

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Speaker 1: out an engineer to go and fix the break and

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Speaker 1: the power line UH without having to wait first for

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Speaker 1: a phone call alert them to the issue. Which is

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Speaker 1: one of the most important parts about the smart red UH.

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Speaker 1: It's much information travels much faster because it's it's more

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Speaker 1: of a aware system in a way, instead of it

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Speaker 1: just being you know, you're sending the power out and

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Speaker 1: that's and you have to wait to hear anything. There's

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Speaker 1: a constant two way communication going on. Another advantage of

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Speaker 1: having a smart meter is if you are generating power

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Speaker 1: on your own, say if you have some solar panels

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Speaker 1: attached to your home, or if you've attached your Jack

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Speaker 1: restal terriers to a power generating treadmill. I don't even

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Speaker 1: want to know, I can power three neighborhoods. Well, I

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Speaker 1: imagine so with Jack Russells. But anyhow, Yes, if you

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Speaker 1: are generating power in some fashion and adding back to

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Speaker 1: the grid, then the smart meter will be able to

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Speaker 1: convey that information back as well, So you will, and

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Speaker 1: in most circumstances, as far as I know, the energy

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Speaker 1: company will pay you. Yeah. If you are a generate

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Speaker 1: more power than you use, you can essentially sell that

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Speaker 1: money back to the grid, so the energy back to

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Speaker 1: the grid. So yes, thank you. No, no, you wouldn't

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Speaker 1: sell the money. That'd be fun. I'll give you five

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Speaker 1: bucks for that ten dollar bill. Uh, you got a deal. Um.

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Speaker 1: Clearly this shows why I'm not a millionaire. UM. But

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Speaker 1: you can also you and depending on the on the

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Speaker 1: kind of meter you're running, it also may be able

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Speaker 1: to measure uh, natural gas or water usage as well.

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Speaker 1: And that's uh, you know that's sort of smart grid

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Speaker 1: useful because um, in some cases, since the smart grid

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Speaker 1: is decentralized rather than centralized like the current grid. UM,

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Speaker 1: then you know there might be something in your neighborhood

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Speaker 1: like a a small hydroelectric plant or you know, you know,

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Speaker 1: wind energy, or a hybrid vehicle that could actually act

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Speaker 1: as a tiny generator. I'm not joking either. You can

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Speaker 1: sell extra energy back. UM. This this leads me to

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Speaker 1: one other or two actually two other points, one of

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Speaker 1: which is when you're talking about decentralization, that's an important

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Speaker 1: aspect of security as well. With a centralized power system,

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Speaker 1: it also means that besides the fact that you have uh,

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Speaker 1: you know, kind of a weak power system, it means

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Speaker 1: that you also have a very tempting target. Yes, it

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Speaker 1: means that a terrorist, for example, might target a power

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Speaker 1: generator be knowing that that's going to affect a very

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Speaker 1: wide area. And of course losing your power means that

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Speaker 1: you also lose the ability to communicate in large part,

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Speaker 1: and that can make things even worse. You know, it

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Speaker 1: just causes more panic, which, as we all know terrorism,

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Speaker 1: that's kind of the point. Um. So decentralizing your power

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Speaker 1: generation means that you have you create, you create the

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Speaker 1: opportunity to well create the opportunity is a bad way

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Speaker 1: of putting it. You eliminate targets because now even if

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Speaker 1: you were to somehow take out one target, because you've decentralized,

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Speaker 1: the rest of the system can try and pick up

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Speaker 1: the slack until it can be fixed. So it makes

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Speaker 1: it makes those kind of attacks less effective. We are

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Speaker 1: not anywhere close to having a smart grid right now now,

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Speaker 1: and if you think about it, it's a really daunting

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Speaker 1: task to put into place because um on only does

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Speaker 1: it require rolling out a massive amount of infrastructure upgrades,

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Speaker 1: but you have to do it while the power is

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Speaker 1: still on. Yes, exactly, you have to pop don't want

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Speaker 1: their power to go out right. Yeah. Unlike let's say,

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Speaker 1: if you want to upgrade a normal piece of technology,

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Speaker 1: you could take it offline and work on it, fix it,

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Speaker 1: test it. If it works well, then you can try

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Speaker 1: and run it through a trial period and if that's going,

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Speaker 1: then you're back up and running. You can't do that

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Speaker 1: with the power grid because people still need power. You're

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Speaker 1: gonna have to keep the power grid running even as

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Speaker 1: you are upgrading it. Uh. It's a huge challenge and

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Speaker 1: um and and it's way more than just the smart meters.

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Speaker 1: Smart meters are kind of like that might be the

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Speaker 1: the gateway into the whole smart grid system, but that's

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Speaker 1: just giving a kind of a feedback loop between the

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Speaker 1: power grid and the consumer. There's gonna be a lot

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Speaker 1: more than needs to come into play before we can

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Speaker 1: really call it a smart grid. One of the one

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Speaker 1: of the UH projects that's involved with the Department of

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Speaker 1: an G and the whole smart grid initiative is the

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Speaker 1: visualizing Energy resources dynamically on Earth or very day system,

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Speaker 1: and that's at oak Ridge National Laboratory. Yes, I decided

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Speaker 1: to go with that that pronunciation. I'm sure they have

365
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Speaker 1: aluminium in the laboratory, but I'm sanium in the laboratory. Well,

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Speaker 1: the very day system is at least the Faraday system

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Speaker 1: is is it relies on things like since it's or

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Speaker 1: it will rely on things like sensors across the power grid. UM,

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Speaker 1: it'll take into account whether information, it will model the

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Speaker 1: grid based upon past demand. UM. It will kind of

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Speaker 1: be like a big picture, real time glimpse at what's

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Speaker 1: going on with the entire power grid at any given time.

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Speaker 1: And that's very useful for things like load balancing. Like

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Speaker 1: we mentioned, there might be one region that is under

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Speaker 1: a particular UM strain needing a lot of power. Well,

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Speaker 1: with the system, you would be able to see it

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Speaker 1: uh in advance and be able to make adjustments quickly

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Speaker 1: without being an emergency status because right now, when that

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Speaker 1: stuff happens, you generally have a lot of people in

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Speaker 1: power stations working feverishly to head off any kind of

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Speaker 1: power outage or at least to to minimize it as

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Speaker 1: much as they can. UM and it's it's really due

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Speaker 1: to these people who are are working really really hard

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Speaker 1: to keep our power going that we don't have bigger

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Speaker 1: outages than we've seen before. It's, you know, it's not

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Speaker 1: that our our system is particularly robust. It's that we've

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Speaker 1: got some engineers who are bending over backwards to make

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Speaker 1: sure the lights stay on. Yep, and um, it's just

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Speaker 1: one of those things where we're it's it's takes so

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Speaker 1: much work to get it in place. It's it's going

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Speaker 1: to be a slow process to keep going. But I mean,

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Speaker 1: for just for the advanced metering infrastructure, I just wanted

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Speaker 1: to use it. Yes, which is the roll out of

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Speaker 1: the smart meters. Uh. This sound like a brand new idea,

395
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Speaker 1: but it's not. It's been They've been installing these in

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Speaker 1: some places for years. Two thousand three, two thousand four,

397
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Speaker 1: two thousand five. I've seen you know, people saying that

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Speaker 1: they were working on the meters here in Georgia. They've

399
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Speaker 1: been working on it for a number of years and

400
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Speaker 1: are just starting to uh to bring them online this

401
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Speaker 1: year so recently. Yeah, it's it takes a while to

402
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Speaker 1: do all this stuff, and I can't imagine how the

403
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Speaker 1: bigger stuff the neighborhood power generator type equipment is how

404
00:22:30,640 --> 00:22:32,679
Speaker 1: you know where they're gonna put it, and all the

405
00:22:32,760 --> 00:22:35,399
Speaker 1: public outcry of I don't want that thing in my backyard.

406
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Speaker 1: It's gonna be a lot of work and it's gonna

407
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Speaker 1: take a lot of time. There's then, just like we

408
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Speaker 1: saw in Dallas, there's gonna be that natural, uh distrust

409
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Speaker 1: that people have of new systems whenever something new is

410
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Speaker 1: put in um, you know. And and it may be

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Speaker 1: that that in general, and electricity becomes more expensive and

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Speaker 1: it's gonna become more expensive anyway, just because consuming resources

413
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Speaker 1: and the resources become more gas over time. But uh,

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Speaker 1: it may mean that the electricity becomes a little more expensive.

415
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Speaker 1: But because of the nature of the smart meters, you're

416
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Speaker 1: able to to mitigate that to some extent by by

417
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Speaker 1: just running your your electronics at the opportune times. And

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Speaker 1: here's another interesting thing is if we do that enough,

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00:23:17,840 --> 00:23:21,040
Speaker 1: if enough people follow that kind of method, eventually you're

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Speaker 1: actually gonna see the whole peak and trough thing level

421
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Speaker 1: out a little bit. It will probably never truly become

422
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Speaker 1: like a straight line, so that electricity costs the same

423
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Speaker 1: amount no matter what time of day, you use it. Um,

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Speaker 1: you know that would happen if everyone were balancing out

425
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Speaker 1: the load, so that you know there was an equal

426
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Speaker 1: number of people running stuff at any particular time of day.

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Speaker 1: You probably never really see that, mainly because they're gonna

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Speaker 1: be certain times a day they're gonna be the hottest

429
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Speaker 1: or the coldest. That's gonna require a lot of electricity used.

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Speaker 1: And plus most of us aren't doing laundry at you know,

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Speaker 1: two am, that's my waffle eaten time eat waffles, two am.

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Speaker 1: Good to know. I will be sure not to phone

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Speaker 1: you in the middle of your waffling. We can blame

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Speaker 1: Rachel for putting the thought of waffles into my head

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00:24:12,080 --> 00:24:16,760
Speaker 1: because she mentioned the the glorious location known as waffle house,

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00:24:17,760 --> 00:24:22,080
Speaker 1: where where you can get your your beloved hash brown scattered,

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00:24:22,080 --> 00:24:26,800
Speaker 1: covered and smothered. Okay, then are we Are we done

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00:24:26,840 --> 00:24:30,360
Speaker 1: talking about Jonathan what? I'm sorry I went to where

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00:24:30,400 --> 00:24:35,880
Speaker 1: there's pie and waffles. Are we done talking about Smart? Yeah?

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00:24:35,920 --> 00:24:38,320
Speaker 1: I think so. I was done about ten minutes ago.

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00:24:38,320 --> 00:24:40,840
Speaker 1: Tell you the truth, I was just kind of vamping. Um,

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00:24:40,920 --> 00:24:43,040
Speaker 1: We'll tell you what. Let's let's move on to a

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00:24:43,080 --> 00:24:49,880
Speaker 1: little more. Oh, listener, mail listen, listener mail comes from

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Speaker 1: Jeff from Chicago, and he says, Hi, my name is

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00:24:53,040 --> 00:24:55,720
Speaker 1: Jeff from Chicago, although a lot of people said there

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00:24:55,760 --> 00:24:58,000
Speaker 1: from Chicago because not many people would know where lincoln

447
00:24:58,000 --> 00:25:00,960
Speaker 1: Wood is. I'm a long time listener and I recently

448
00:25:01,000 --> 00:25:04,720
Speaker 1: listened to the roller Coaster episode. Upon hearing catapult launcher Coaster,

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00:25:04,800 --> 00:25:06,960
Speaker 1: I would think of the massive catapult launcher of the

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00:25:07,000 --> 00:25:09,639
Speaker 1: aircraft carrier. Have you guys ever wanted to hook up

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00:25:09,640 --> 00:25:12,200
Speaker 1: a cart to the aircraft catapult sit and hold tight?

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00:25:12,560 --> 00:25:14,920
Speaker 1: It would be fun or sit in the aircraft that's

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Speaker 1: being launched. And the topic that I want you guys

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00:25:17,560 --> 00:25:19,639
Speaker 1: to cover as the history, how it works, and the

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00:25:19,640 --> 00:25:22,879
Speaker 1: future of it. I think the electromagnetic launcher is possible

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00:25:22,880 --> 00:25:25,119
Speaker 1: to launch an aircraft like the roller Coasters launched the

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00:25:25,119 --> 00:25:27,280
Speaker 1: train car thanks a lot. Well, of course, we're not

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00:25:27,320 --> 00:25:30,280
Speaker 1: gonna be able to to cover the whole uh catapult

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00:25:30,359 --> 00:25:33,640
Speaker 1: launch system of aircraft carriers right now, but that does

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00:25:33,680 --> 00:25:36,520
Speaker 1: sound like a good podcast in the future. I just

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00:25:36,560 --> 00:25:39,800
Speaker 1: wanted to say, though, Jeff um No, I have never

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00:25:40,119 --> 00:25:42,159
Speaker 1: had the desire to hook up a cart to the

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00:25:42,240 --> 00:25:46,880
Speaker 1: aircraft launch system on an aircraft carrier because I'm not crazy.

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00:25:47,760 --> 00:25:49,879
Speaker 1: I don't want to die. I don't want to be

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Speaker 1: launched directly into the Atlantic or possibly in the back

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Speaker 1: of a jet. Uh. None of those things sound particularly

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00:25:56,359 --> 00:26:00,840
Speaker 1: appealing to me. About the Pacific? Um No, not specific either.

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00:26:01,080 --> 00:26:06,040
Speaker 1: I you know, uh, you know. I can't think of

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00:26:06,080 --> 00:26:09,119
Speaker 1: any major body of water I want to be pushed

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00:26:09,200 --> 00:26:13,960
Speaker 1: into it that velocity, especially in a cart. I mean,

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00:26:14,280 --> 00:26:17,119
Speaker 1: I just think of sitting in a shopping cart and

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00:26:17,119 --> 00:26:21,240
Speaker 1: then screaming and crying until I die, which would be

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00:26:21,760 --> 00:26:27,080
Speaker 1: mercifully very shortly after the launch. But Jeff, hey, you

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00:26:27,119 --> 00:26:31,520
Speaker 1: know what you're crazy guy. Nice question. And Um as

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00:26:31,600 --> 00:26:35,600
Speaker 1: for being in an aircraft on it, oh, hell yeah, yes,

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00:26:36,240 --> 00:26:38,439
Speaker 1: oh yeah. If there's a if there's a plane around me,

477
00:26:38,680 --> 00:26:40,720
Speaker 1: sure then I'll do it. Does have to be on,

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00:26:42,160 --> 00:26:45,080
Speaker 1: preferably with someone who really knows what they're doing in

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00:26:45,080 --> 00:26:48,359
Speaker 1: the cockpit. All of those things have to be there. Um.

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00:26:48,400 --> 00:26:49,600
Speaker 1: But no, I'm not going to do it in a

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00:26:49,640 --> 00:26:52,639
Speaker 1: cart and a jet. Sure. Thanks for the email. If

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00:26:52,640 --> 00:26:55,480
Speaker 1: any of you wish to email us with bizarre requests

483
00:26:55,680 --> 00:26:58,400
Speaker 1: or find out exactly how crazy we are, you can

484
00:26:58,440 --> 00:27:00,959
Speaker 1: do so. Our email address is tech stuff at how

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00:27:01,040 --> 00:27:04,160
Speaker 1: stuff works dot com. Check out our blogs. You can

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00:27:04,200 --> 00:27:06,280
Speaker 1: see those at blogs dot how stuff works dot com.

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00:27:06,560 --> 00:27:09,720
Speaker 1: We of course have articles about power grids and electricity

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00:27:09,760 --> 00:27:12,560
Speaker 1: at how stuff works dot com. We don't have tech

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00:27:12,600 --> 00:27:16,280
Speaker 1: stuff Live anymore because we're on hiatus, which is nice.

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00:27:16,560 --> 00:27:20,320
Speaker 1: That means our Tuesdays are opening up again, but we're

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00:27:20,320 --> 00:27:22,320
Speaker 1: gonna come back with something else as soon as the

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00:27:22,400 --> 00:27:26,040
Speaker 1: studio is done being demolished. And uh well, that wraps

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00:27:26,119 --> 00:27:29,080
Speaker 1: this episode up. We will talk to you again really

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00:27:29,119 --> 00:27:34,320
Speaker 1: soon for more on this and thousands of other topics.

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00:27:34,520 --> 00:27:36,920
Speaker 1: Does it how stuff works dot com and be sure

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00:27:36,920 --> 00:27:39,040
Speaker 1: to check out the new tech stuff blog now on

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00:27:39,040 --> 00:27:45,879
Speaker 1: the how Stuff Works homepage. Brought to you by the

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Speaker 1: reinvented two thousand twelve camera. It's ready, are you