WEBVTT - TechStuff Classic: TechStuff Adjusts the Thermostat 0:00:04.120 --> 0:00:07.200 Get in touch with technology with tech Stuff from half 0:00:07.200 --> 0:00:13.720 stuff works dot com. Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. 0:00:13.720 --> 0:00:16.239 I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer and 0:00:16.280 --> 0:00:22.400 I love all things tech, including reruns about technology. Yep, 0:00:22.560 --> 0:00:26.240 it's Friday. It's time for a classic episode. This episode 0:00:26.239 --> 0:00:30.880 of tech Stuff originally published on November two thousand and eleven. 0:00:30.920 --> 0:00:33.880 I was such a young, fresh faced talent back then. 0:00:34.560 --> 0:00:37.440 Chris Pillette and I decided we were going to crank 0:00:37.560 --> 0:00:41.680 up the heat and talk about thermostat technology. So now 0:00:41.800 --> 0:00:46.199 we present to you tech Stuff, Adjust the thermostat. We're 0:00:46.240 --> 0:00:48.640 going to take the temperature today in our podcast. Yeah, 0:00:48.640 --> 0:00:50.880 we're gonna talk about the thermostat. Now, we've already talked 0:00:50.880 --> 0:00:54.240 about air conditioning we have on the show, so but 0:00:54.320 --> 0:00:57.040 we didn't didn't cover thermostats at all when we talked 0:00:57.040 --> 0:01:00.560 about air conditioning, not really. And the thermost that, of course, 0:01:00.640 --> 0:01:04.759 is that handy dandy little device that helps you maintain 0:01:05.000 --> 0:01:08.160 the right temperature. Because you know, there are air conditioner 0:01:08.200 --> 0:01:11.440 and heater or units out there that don't use thermostats. 0:01:11.520 --> 0:01:13.640 You manually have to turn it on or turn it off. 0:01:13.640 --> 0:01:17.080 So when you're like thinking galy g the house shore 0:01:17.160 --> 0:01:19.760 is cold. Now I don't need that air conditioner on anymore. 0:01:19.800 --> 0:01:22.840 You can go and switch it off. But most of 0:01:22.880 --> 0:01:26.080 them tend to have some sort of thermostat in there 0:01:26.160 --> 0:01:30.680 which helps maintain a comfortable temperature. You set the temperature 0:01:30.680 --> 0:01:34.560 you want, it starts whatever the process is that needs 0:01:34.600 --> 0:01:37.560 to get to that temperature, whether that's cooling the air 0:01:37.680 --> 0:01:40.520 down or heating it up, and then once it reaches 0:01:40.640 --> 0:01:43.920 that temperature, ideally it shuts off so that you don't 0:01:43.959 --> 0:01:48.800 continue on the pathway to reach the other side of uncomfortable. 0:01:50.200 --> 0:01:52.559 Well yeah, and uh it's also I think the second 0:01:52.640 --> 0:01:58.120 largest lead leading cause of divorce. I wanted their degrees colder. 0:02:00.280 --> 0:02:05.160 Are you done? Okay? Yeah? No. Uh. Thermostats are not 0:02:05.160 --> 0:02:08.880 not exclusive to houses, of course, or or buildings or 0:02:09.000 --> 0:02:13.320 or keeping people comfortable. They're also in many other devices 0:02:13.480 --> 0:02:18.160 for keeping those devices comfortable, like say a car for instance, 0:02:18.639 --> 0:02:22.160 um anything that that where you need to measure temperature 0:02:22.160 --> 0:02:26.480 and switch on a cooling or a heating um in 0:02:26.520 --> 0:02:28.400 your In your car, it might turn on the cooling 0:02:28.440 --> 0:02:32.960 fan when it senses the engine might be nearing overheating um. 0:02:33.000 --> 0:02:36.640 And if you look at a house thermostat. And you 0:02:36.720 --> 0:02:40.120 see one of those digital, high tech programmable models on 0:02:40.160 --> 0:02:42.680 the wall, you might get the idea that they are 0:02:43.160 --> 0:02:46.960 super duper sophisticated. But thermostats don't have to be that sophisticated, 0:02:47.000 --> 0:02:52.160 and in fact actually use physics to um determine or 0:02:52.200 --> 0:02:54.600 you know, just set off the switch inside that makes 0:02:54.600 --> 0:02:57.240 things hotter or cooler. Yeah, it's actually pretty cool in 0:02:57.280 --> 0:02:59.120 a way. You know, I don't mean that in a 0:02:59.200 --> 0:03:02.520 temperature way, but I see what you did there. These 0:03:02.560 --> 0:03:06.840 things are hot. Uh. Now, they, like Chris was saying, yeah, 0:03:06.960 --> 0:03:09.520 uses physics. If you're looking at Let's say, let's talk 0:03:09.560 --> 0:03:12.639 about one of the old thermostats. Okay, So so it's 0:03:12.639 --> 0:03:15.040 like that little beige box that's sitting on the wall, 0:03:15.040 --> 0:03:18.480 and it's got a little up got a dial, yeah, 0:03:18.639 --> 0:03:21.160 either a dial or a lever, and it has a 0:03:21.160 --> 0:03:23.880 little physical read out that you look at, and it's 0:03:23.880 --> 0:03:26.600 got a little red needle in that that read out, 0:03:26.639 --> 0:03:30.080 and by turning the dial or moving the lever to 0:03:30.120 --> 0:03:32.400 the left or to the right, you move the needle 0:03:32.480 --> 0:03:36.320 up and down this temperature range to set it to 0:03:36.360 --> 0:03:39.640 whatever you want. So let's say we're gonna say that 0:03:39.960 --> 0:03:42.960 the temperature inside the house right now is a is 0:03:42.960 --> 0:03:45.800 a chilly sixty five because because we're in the dead 0:03:45.840 --> 0:03:49.760 of winter in Georgia and so so we want to 0:03:49.920 --> 0:03:52.040 we want to boost that up to about seventy two. 0:03:52.160 --> 0:03:54.480 Let's say we want we wanted to be a little warmer, 0:03:54.600 --> 0:03:56.800 maybe a little warmer than we normally would, because it's 0:03:56.880 --> 0:03:58.520 kind of chilly, and we want to I want to 0:03:58.560 --> 0:04:01.560 have a nice little day and side, so we moved 0:04:01.640 --> 0:04:05.120 the the lever so that it moves up to seventy 0:04:05.200 --> 0:04:08.240 two and then magically the heater comes on until it 0:04:08.280 --> 0:04:10.680 hits around seventy two degrees and then shuts off. But 0:04:10.760 --> 0:04:15.480 what's going on inside, well, inside the thermostat is at 0:04:15.480 --> 0:04:20.520 the very heart of it is a mercury switch. Mercury. Yeah, 0:04:20.680 --> 0:04:23.520 don't drink it, no, No, mercury is pretty cool stuff. 0:04:23.600 --> 0:04:25.800 It's uh, you know, it's a it's a metal which 0:04:26.000 --> 0:04:29.360 at room temperature is liquid. Yea. As a matter of fact, 0:04:30.240 --> 0:04:32.880 my family, for some reason, when they broke an old 0:04:33.480 --> 0:04:38.440 mercury thermometer, decided to keep the mercury in a baby 0:04:38.440 --> 0:04:41.400 food jar, which oddly enough, we still have. Of course, 0:04:41.400 --> 0:04:45.520 it's sealed up, you know, touch mercury is highly toxic. Yes, yes, 0:04:45.560 --> 0:04:48.680 you do not want to have any contact with mercury. 0:04:48.720 --> 0:04:52.720 But um mad as a header. But sealing it up 0:04:52.760 --> 0:04:55.400 inside a jar, you know, I got to see, you know, 0:04:55.520 --> 0:04:57.520 move it, and it's it's really neat to watch it 0:04:58.120 --> 0:05:01.640 break apart into little metal falls and then reform. Yeah, 0:05:01.680 --> 0:05:05.480 it's like, yes, exactly, it's the one when the t 0:05:06.400 --> 0:05:09.680 in the documentary Terminator Too would come apart. You know, 0:05:09.680 --> 0:05:12.400 you would see it kind of turn these liquid shapes 0:05:12.480 --> 0:05:16.280 and then reform. Well that's essentially, you know, that's mercury. 0:05:16.360 --> 0:05:20.600 That's what mercury does. Although mercury rarely will take essentience 0:05:20.720 --> 0:05:24.479 and then chase after Sarah Connor, that part, Yeah, that 0:05:24.520 --> 0:05:28.200 part doesn't happen that frequently. Um. But but it is 0:05:28.240 --> 0:05:31.240 a liquid metal. And uh, and here's the thing about it. 0:05:31.560 --> 0:05:34.359 Here's where we get into some physics. We're gonna you know, 0:05:34.400 --> 0:05:37.839 we'll get into more in a little bit, but metals 0:05:37.960 --> 0:05:42.880 um actually pretty much everything will tend to expand when 0:05:43.080 --> 0:05:46.680 exposed to heat. Now, what's really happening is that you're 0:05:46.680 --> 0:05:49.800 adding energy into a system and the atoms in that 0:05:49.839 --> 0:05:52.719 system start to move around. And this is what in 0:05:52.760 --> 0:05:55.400 effect causes expansion. And of course if you add enough 0:05:55.440 --> 0:05:59.039 heat to something, depending on what it is, not everything 0:05:59.120 --> 0:06:01.760 will well they urize, but a lot of stuff vaporizes 0:06:01.760 --> 0:06:04.560 will turn into a gas form. Uh. That's really when 0:06:04.560 --> 0:06:06.960 the atoms are have so much energy and they're moving 0:06:06.960 --> 0:06:11.159 around so much, they're no longer cohesive as a liquid um. 0:06:11.240 --> 0:06:15.320 So mercury, it takes a lot of It takes way 0:06:15.360 --> 0:06:17.520 more heat than it would then we would generate to 0:06:17.839 --> 0:06:20.760 turn mercury into a gas. But all right, in its 0:06:20.800 --> 0:06:22.680 liquid form, what happens is you put it into an 0:06:22.760 --> 0:06:27.120 enclosed space, you add heat, it's going to the liquid 0:06:27.120 --> 0:06:30.000 inside that enclosed space is going to expand. The volume 0:06:30.040 --> 0:06:34.000 increases as the temperature increases. So if you were to 0:06:34.040 --> 0:06:39.559 put mercury, say in a glass bulb, that one side 0:06:39.600 --> 0:06:43.360 is elongated into a tube, very thin tube. As the 0:06:43.400 --> 0:06:49.360 heat increases, the mercury would appear to climb that tube. 0:06:49.360 --> 0:06:53.039 It's because the mercury itself is expanding, the volumes increasing 0:06:53.080 --> 0:06:56.480 as the temperature increases. And that's the basis of a thermometer. 0:06:57.080 --> 0:06:59.840 The old mercury thermometers, you would have this class to 0:07:00.000 --> 0:07:03.080 tube that was filled with mercury. You would have numbers 0:07:03.120 --> 0:07:06.279 that would correspond to whatever the temperature was, and then 0:07:06.520 --> 0:07:08.800 as the temperature rises, you'd see the little level of 0:07:08.880 --> 0:07:12.400 mercury increase inside that glass tube. You know, suddenly I 0:07:12.440 --> 0:07:16.120 want to ride my bicycle. That's a different kind of mercury. 0:07:16.160 --> 0:07:19.640 You want to ride your bike? Yes, that would be nice, 0:07:20.560 --> 0:07:25.200 fat bottom girls, you make the rock and wood, alright, alright, 0:07:25.280 --> 0:07:28.400 the same song does reference it anyway, that's true. That's true. 0:07:28.440 --> 0:07:32.679 So and a thermometer that you've got the mercury expanding 0:07:32.720 --> 0:07:34.720 to tell you what temperature it is. Yes, but there's 0:07:34.720 --> 0:07:38.200 a mercury switch, as you said, inside the thermostat right now. 0:07:38.200 --> 0:07:41.320 In this case, the mercury switch is it's a little different. 0:07:41.320 --> 0:07:44.800 It's not it's not acting as a thermometer. It's a 0:07:44.840 --> 0:07:49.040 glass vial and it has three wires in it. There's 0:07:49.080 --> 0:07:51.200 a wire that goes along the bottom of the glass vial, 0:07:51.240 --> 0:07:55.480 which is in constant contact with the liquid mercury, and 0:07:55.560 --> 0:07:59.040 then you have wires on the left and right side 0:07:59.040 --> 0:08:01.360 of the vial that are just out of contact with 0:08:01.400 --> 0:08:05.800 the mercury. But the vial itself can tilt to the 0:08:05.920 --> 0:08:08.360 left or to the right, and when it does tilt, 0:08:08.640 --> 0:08:11.920 the mercury then comes in contact with the wire that's 0:08:11.960 --> 0:08:14.600 on that particular side of the glass vial and then 0:08:15.440 --> 0:08:18.760 completes a circuit between the bottom wire and the wire 0:08:18.840 --> 0:08:23.280 that's on the respective side. So let's arguably say the 0:08:23.280 --> 0:08:25.760 the vial tilts to the left, the mercury now is 0:08:25.800 --> 0:08:28.000 in contact with both the wire along the bottom of 0:08:28.000 --> 0:08:29.520 the vial and on the left side of the VISal, 0:08:29.800 --> 0:08:33.360 and now you've got a circuit. So this gives us 0:08:33.360 --> 0:08:36.360 some opportunities here if we create a system that will 0:08:36.400 --> 0:08:39.120 tilt the vial one way or the other based upon 0:08:39.200 --> 0:08:42.679 certain parameters we haven't. We have a switch, and we 0:08:42.720 --> 0:08:44.400 have a switch that can either be off or it 0:08:44.400 --> 0:08:47.760 can be on on two different directions, which is great 0:08:47.800 --> 0:08:51.680 for heating and cooling. Yes, so now we think, okay, well, 0:08:51.679 --> 0:08:54.640 you've got the switch. Uh let's say that you you 0:08:54.679 --> 0:08:56.920 want to adjust the heat and you want to turn 0:08:57.000 --> 0:08:59.200 up the heat, and you you move that that uh, 0:08:59.720 --> 0:09:03.880 that lever over that's going to tilt that glass vial. Right. 0:09:03.960 --> 0:09:06.680 The mercury is gonna move over to the correct side, 0:09:07.280 --> 0:09:10.160 and that's going to initiate it's going to complete a 0:09:10.160 --> 0:09:13.319 circuit and then send electricity to the heater, which will 0:09:13.760 --> 0:09:16.920 get the heater going and the fan will start to 0:09:17.000 --> 0:09:20.280 turn and you'll start to have warm air pumped throughout 0:09:20.440 --> 0:09:23.720 the house or whatever it is that you're in. Right, Okay, 0:09:23.760 --> 0:09:29.720 So how does the thermostat know when to stop? Well, 0:09:29.920 --> 0:09:34.400 more physics. Now, you know we've we've talked about how 0:09:34.480 --> 0:09:37.080 mercury is used in thermometers. And you might say, oh, 0:09:37.240 --> 0:09:39.760 so it's sort of acting like a thermometer, right, because 0:09:39.760 --> 0:09:42.400 it can tell if it's hot or cold. No, in 0:09:42.440 --> 0:09:46.520 this case, mercury is just acting as a conductor. And 0:09:46.600 --> 0:09:49.920 because it's it's useful because it's liquid in this case, 0:09:50.360 --> 0:09:53.960 and it will make it will flash into the and 0:09:53.960 --> 0:09:58.840 and touch the two contacts together in the appropriate case 0:10:00.000 --> 0:10:02.000 get a little steamy. In this podcast, I think we 0:10:02.040 --> 0:10:04.560 need to take a quick break to thank our sponsor. 0:10:12.320 --> 0:10:17.040 Using a thermometer called bimetallic thermometer, and based on its name, 0:10:17.080 --> 0:10:20.400 you may be able to discern what's special about this 0:10:20.480 --> 0:10:24.160 kind of thermometer. Yes, it's got to to two metals 0:10:24.160 --> 0:10:27.640 and one actually it's not in one. They're laminated together, yes, 0:10:27.920 --> 0:10:30.320 to make a strip. So so yeah, on on one 0:10:30.400 --> 0:10:32.600 side of the strip you have one metal and on 0:10:32.640 --> 0:10:34.640 the other side of the strip is another metal. They're 0:10:34.720 --> 0:10:37.480 joined together. And here's why you want this. You see, 0:10:37.559 --> 0:10:42.320 different metals will expand at different rates in in reaction 0:10:42.360 --> 0:10:46.000 to a change in temperature. So one metal, when you 0:10:46.559 --> 0:10:50.080 when you apply heat to it, might expand rather rapidly, 0:10:50.160 --> 0:10:53.000 while a second medal, in relation to the first one, 0:10:53.040 --> 0:10:56.360 will go more slowly. And you put these two different 0:10:56.360 --> 0:11:00.360 pieces of metal together, and as one expands an at 0:11:00.360 --> 0:11:02.360 a rate that's faster than the other, it's going to 0:11:02.480 --> 0:11:07.040 change the shape of that sheet of metal. Now, in 0:11:07.080 --> 0:11:11.560 the case of these thermostats, these bimetallic thermometers tend to 0:11:11.679 --> 0:11:15.520 be arranged in a coil, and so you've got a 0:11:15.640 --> 0:11:19.640 coil of this material where on the outer edge and 0:11:19.760 --> 0:11:21.680 the inner edge it's two different metals. The inner edge 0:11:21.679 --> 0:11:25.880 is usually the one that expands faster um when when 0:11:26.480 --> 0:11:29.400 heat is applied. You've got it in this coiled shape. 0:11:29.840 --> 0:11:33.719 And uh, the way this works is that when it 0:11:34.000 --> 0:11:38.079 when the temperature rises, the the expansion on the inner 0:11:38.200 --> 0:11:42.200 layer of this coil will cause the coil to uncoil, 0:11:42.360 --> 0:11:46.079 start to unwind. When it unwinds enough, it actually presses 0:11:46.160 --> 0:11:49.760 up against the mercury switch and puts it back into 0:11:49.800 --> 0:11:54.320 its central configuration. Okay, I don't need to be on anymore. 0:11:54.440 --> 0:11:57.760 I'll turn off exactly. The mercury no longer is in 0:11:57.840 --> 0:12:00.600 contact with both wires, because once it is set back 0:12:00.640 --> 0:12:03.160 to its central location, only the bottom wire is connected, 0:12:03.160 --> 0:12:07.520 the circuit is broken and the heater stops working. Uh. 0:12:07.559 --> 0:12:10.320 And in general, usually there's a system in place where 0:12:10.840 --> 0:12:15.640 this will actually shut off before you reach that full temperature, 0:12:15.720 --> 0:12:19.080 because depending on where you are in the house, like 0:12:19.320 --> 0:12:21.280 you don't want the thermostat to be right next to 0:12:21.320 --> 0:12:24.720 the heating vent no, because it'll the temperature of the 0:12:24.720 --> 0:12:27.840 thermostat will change too quickly, right, so you would you 0:12:27.920 --> 0:12:30.280 might be in a situation where if the hot air 0:12:30.360 --> 0:12:33.000 were right next to the thermostat, the thermostatic goes, oh, okay, 0:12:33.000 --> 0:12:35.800 it's already seventy two degrees. Meanwhile you're in the living 0:12:35.880 --> 0:12:38.320 room going why is it so cold in here? Right? 0:12:38.520 --> 0:12:40.880 So you want the thermostat to be someplace where it 0:12:40.920 --> 0:12:43.559 will be exposed to the flow of air, but won't 0:12:43.559 --> 0:12:47.640 be right there at e vent So the thinking here 0:12:47.840 --> 0:12:50.679 is that, well, if we we may want the thermostat 0:12:50.720 --> 0:12:53.880 to shut off a couple of degrees cooler than what 0:12:53.960 --> 0:12:56.520 you said, it at because the room that's going to 0:12:56.640 --> 0:12:59.000 be closer to the actual event is going to be 0:12:59.040 --> 0:13:01.760 warmer than where over the thermostat is, and the heat 0:13:01.760 --> 0:13:05.000 will disperse throughout the house. So it's kind of a 0:13:05.679 --> 0:13:07.960 way of making sure you don't get too warm, because 0:13:07.960 --> 0:13:09.559 then you're gonna be saying, they're thinking, I said it 0:13:09.640 --> 0:13:11.400 to seventy two, and now it feels like it's like 0:13:11.520 --> 0:13:15.559 seventy six. What's going on? So um to do that, 0:13:15.600 --> 0:13:19.719 they have a resistor inside the thermostat, No, I'm not 0:13:19.760 --> 0:13:24.680 going so. Resistors will actually heat up as electricity goes 0:13:24.800 --> 0:13:28.679 through them, and the resistor itself acts as a heater 0:13:29.080 --> 0:13:31.640 for that coil that's inside the thermostat, so it will 0:13:31.679 --> 0:13:34.080 expand a little faster than it would if it were 0:13:34.160 --> 0:13:38.840 just measuring the ambient temperature of the air. Right, so uh, 0:13:38.920 --> 0:13:42.040 that will cause the heater to to shut down a 0:13:42.080 --> 0:13:45.440 little more quickly than it would if if it were 0:13:45.520 --> 0:13:50.640 just reacting to the ambient air temperature. So um, of course, 0:13:50.679 --> 0:13:54.280 if the house cools down, you know, after you've heated 0:13:54.320 --> 0:13:56.920 it up, then that coil is going to slowly start 0:13:56.960 --> 0:14:01.199 to contract, you know as as it's uh uh, as 0:14:01.240 --> 0:14:03.600 that temperature drops and if it contracts enough, then the 0:14:03.640 --> 0:14:06.439 mercury vial is going to tilt again, and that's going 0:14:06.480 --> 0:14:08.360 to start the system all over again. You get that 0:14:08.400 --> 0:14:12.200 completed circuit, sends the electricity to the heater, and you 0:14:12.240 --> 0:14:13.920 start up again. The same thing is true by the 0:14:13.920 --> 0:14:16.720 way of air conditioning, except you know, you're talking about 0:14:16.760 --> 0:14:20.080 contracting instead of expanding. That's the it's just tilting the 0:14:20.160 --> 0:14:24.120 mercury vile the other way, and as the temperature goes down, 0:14:25.000 --> 0:14:28.520 the coil contracts, and then the vial will eventually be 0:14:28.640 --> 0:14:33.040 set back to its central configuration. Uh. Now that this 0:14:33.080 --> 0:14:36.960 is your basic analog thermostat. That it's not the way 0:14:37.000 --> 0:14:39.680 all thermostats work. It's the way the older ones work. 0:14:39.760 --> 0:14:41.440 So if you ever in a building that has that 0:14:41.480 --> 0:14:43.680 and you hear that clicking noise, that's the sound of 0:14:43.720 --> 0:14:51.160 the vile actually turning and uh and and the circuit completing. Um, 0:14:51.200 --> 0:14:56.040 that's that's what you're hearing there. Some thermostats are using thermistors, 0:14:56.840 --> 0:15:00.720 which are sort of digital thermometers. It's a little different. 0:15:00.840 --> 0:15:04.760 That's that's not UM based on the mercury switch necessarily, 0:15:04.920 --> 0:15:08.080 although some are kind of a hybrid between the two. Yeah, 0:15:08.120 --> 0:15:11.200 I actually think that that that system is brilliant because 0:15:11.400 --> 0:15:14.240 it's relying on the laws of physics. You know what, 0:15:14.360 --> 0:15:17.400 you're not going to change for the thermostat, So it's 0:15:17.400 --> 0:15:19.440 not like neutrinos are suddenly going to go faster than 0:15:19.440 --> 0:15:23.560 the speed of light. Right, um. And that was a joke, people, 0:15:23.640 --> 0:15:26.320 I know, I'm reading up on the whole story. That 0:15:26.440 --> 0:15:29.480 was just a me playing playing a joke about the 0:15:29.520 --> 0:15:31.960 laws of physics not changing. Right. No, But it's a 0:15:32.200 --> 0:15:35.280 it's a brilliant system because it's so simple and it's 0:15:35.320 --> 0:15:39.600 design um and very frankly, I've I've found that the 0:15:39.680 --> 0:15:42.400 manual thermostats, while they don't necessarily save you as much 0:15:42.440 --> 0:15:45.800 energy as a programmable uh, some programmable thermostats are real 0:15:45.840 --> 0:15:49.080 painting the neck to you, especially if you don't realize 0:15:49.120 --> 0:15:52.800 what what setting it's on, or you take a week 0:15:52.800 --> 0:15:55.640 of vacation and you're at home and you're thinking it's 0:15:55.760 --> 0:15:59.040 so warm, and oh it's on the programmed one as 0:15:59.040 --> 0:16:01.720 opposed to a constant I almost always turned the program off, 0:16:01.760 --> 0:16:06.680 which is not terribly um efficient and and actually one 0:16:06.720 --> 0:16:09.520 could argue irresponsible of me because it means I'm wasting 0:16:09.560 --> 0:16:13.600 electricity and uh uh, that's probably no, that's I can't 0:16:13.600 --> 0:16:16.720 really argue with that, right. Well, um, well, the digital 0:16:16.720 --> 0:16:18.880 ones that use the thermistors. In case you're wondering how 0:16:18.920 --> 0:16:22.240 the thermistor works, it actually is um allowing uh. It 0:16:22.320 --> 0:16:25.480 changes the electrical resistance of the material inside as the 0:16:25.480 --> 0:16:29.320 temperature changes. That's how it determines, uh, if it's at 0:16:29.360 --> 0:16:31.640 the right temperature or not, or whether you know, the 0:16:31.640 --> 0:16:36.680 the heating or cooling device needs to be still going. Um. 0:16:36.760 --> 0:16:40.760 And of course the programmable thermostat still use still need 0:16:40.840 --> 0:16:44.600 to be able to identify what temperature it is because um, 0:16:44.640 --> 0:16:48.280 you know, it's it's simply adding a layer of electronics 0:16:48.320 --> 0:16:53.880 to the simplicity of the thermostat, because you know, you're 0:16:53.880 --> 0:16:55.640 just saying, okay, at six in the morning, I wanted 0:16:55.680 --> 0:16:58.240 at this temperature at you know, two in the afternoon, 0:16:58.240 --> 0:17:00.600 and I wanted at this temperature on the weekend, I 0:17:00.640 --> 0:17:03.240 wanted to be this. You know, Once you do that 0:17:03.360 --> 0:17:07.240 and it has uh the clock in it internally set correctly, 0:17:07.760 --> 0:17:11.240 assuming that your batteries don't die. Um, you know, it's 0:17:11.280 --> 0:17:14.320 it's just adding a layer of complexity. But the thermostat 0:17:14.400 --> 0:17:17.439 at its heart it's still using uh you know, basically 0:17:17.480 --> 0:17:20.480 measuring the temperature and using the switch to turn the 0:17:20.520 --> 0:17:24.080 heat or cooling system on or off. Yeah. Yeah, so yeah, 0:17:24.080 --> 0:17:27.879 there's certain components that are gonna be uh common across 0:17:27.880 --> 0:17:31.000 all thermostats. They may not take the exact same form, 0:17:31.080 --> 0:17:33.840 but they follow the same function. Yeah, even in a 0:17:33.880 --> 0:17:37.479 system where you have zoning. Yeah, zoning can be important 0:17:37.520 --> 0:17:39.320 if you're in a well, if you're in the build 0:17:39.359 --> 0:17:41.359 office built in an office building, clearly you're gonna need 0:17:41.480 --> 0:17:44.480 zones because the especially if it's say it's a high 0:17:44.600 --> 0:17:48.560 rise um or a skyscraper, that's the temperature is going 0:17:48.600 --> 0:17:51.359 to vary quite a bit from the very top to 0:17:51.400 --> 0:17:53.760 the very bottom. Especially if you imagine that there was 0:17:53.800 --> 0:17:56.560 no heating or cooling system in there at all, you 0:17:56.600 --> 0:17:58.880 would know, you know, well, it's gonna feel a lot 0:17:58.880 --> 0:18:01.080 different on floor number one than it is on floor 0:18:01.160 --> 0:18:05.600 number fifty. So so you've gotta have special zoning in there. 0:18:05.640 --> 0:18:08.080 But even some houses will have it, especially depending on 0:18:08.119 --> 0:18:10.600 the the layout of the house. You know, some houses 0:18:10.720 --> 0:18:14.280 are if they're like a flat style where it's it's 0:18:14.359 --> 0:18:17.639 multiple floors, it may be that the the bottom floor 0:18:17.680 --> 0:18:20.040 is always much cooler than the top floor, and you 0:18:20.119 --> 0:18:24.920 might want special zoning there so that the entire domicile 0:18:25.760 --> 0:18:31.800 remains and a comfortable temperature. Um. So yeah, I mean 0:18:31.880 --> 0:18:36.800 that's also fairly common. And we're also seeing some web 0:18:36.880 --> 0:18:40.840 connected thermostats these days where you can even you know, 0:18:40.920 --> 0:18:46.640 manage your home's climate remotely the Internet of Things, Yeah, 0:18:46.680 --> 0:18:51.200 which is interesting and frustrating in the sense that it's 0:18:51.200 --> 0:18:53.560 frustrating in the sense that there's not really a standard 0:18:53.560 --> 0:18:57.600 way to approach this yet. So it's all proprietary. Yeah, 0:18:57.640 --> 0:19:00.480 but you can, you can. There's several different companies that 0:19:00.600 --> 0:19:03.879 offer home automation systems and basically what you do is 0:19:03.920 --> 0:19:07.080 you set the UH different systems up and we're talking 0:19:07.160 --> 0:19:11.000 things like locking and unlocking the doors, turning lights off 0:19:11.000 --> 0:19:14.520 and on, um, the thermostat, and all sorts of other things, 0:19:14.560 --> 0:19:18.800 perhaps UM camera security system some you know, the different things, 0:19:18.840 --> 0:19:20.440 and you can have the system set up to where 0:19:20.480 --> 0:19:23.280 you can manage all these things through a computer or 0:19:23.320 --> 0:19:26.640 even your smartphone now um. And yeah, I mean it's 0:19:26.680 --> 0:19:29.560 it's it's pretty simple. It's just uh, you're right. I 0:19:29.560 --> 0:19:34.160 mean a lot of the times the hardware UH is proprietary. 0:19:34.200 --> 0:19:37.000 So let's say you have one company and their billing 0:19:37.000 --> 0:19:39.000 has gotten out of control, and I could I could 0:19:39.480 --> 0:19:42.600 get a cheaper system. Um, you're likely to have to 0:19:42.680 --> 0:19:46.040 have the new company come in and install their equipment, 0:19:46.680 --> 0:19:48.840 because it won't they can't go, oh, well, you know, 0:19:48.880 --> 0:19:52.120 I can, I can use so and So's equipment. You're 0:19:52.200 --> 0:19:55.760 probably not. Now that's not necessarily true, but it is 0:19:55.840 --> 0:19:59.000 in in some cases. There's also the possibility. There's also 0:19:59.000 --> 0:20:01.320 the possibility that whatever company you go with ends up 0:20:01.320 --> 0:20:04.480 going out of business. And if that happens, if your 0:20:04.560 --> 0:20:08.320 commands are sent through corporate servers before they get to 0:20:08.400 --> 0:20:11.119 your house to make whatever the changes are, if that 0:20:11.119 --> 0:20:12.920 company goes out of business, then you're out of luck. 0:20:13.720 --> 0:20:17.720 I mean, most of these systems still have the way 0:20:17.760 --> 0:20:20.239 you know, you can still program it manually, so that 0:20:20.320 --> 0:20:22.919 it's not like all functionality is gonna disappear. It's just 0:20:22.960 --> 0:20:26.600 that the extra stuff you pay for might not stick around. 0:20:26.920 --> 0:20:30.280 But that does bring us to an interesting development, something 0:20:30.320 --> 0:20:34.159 that has made the news recently. Uh, and it's it's 0:20:34.240 --> 0:20:36.800 kind of interesting that that's such a you would normally 0:20:36.840 --> 0:20:39.840 think thermostats those are fairly mundane. Yeah, I mean the 0:20:39.840 --> 0:20:42.639 sort of thing that usually makes waves in the tech world. 0:20:43.040 --> 0:20:46.560 I could guarantee you that that the thermostat you were 0:20:46.560 --> 0:20:49.760 describing earlier in the episode is something that just about 0:20:49.840 --> 0:20:53.320 everybody we're talking to on this podcast has seen in 0:20:53.480 --> 0:20:58.280 somebody's house at some point. Yeah, simply because um it's 0:20:58.320 --> 0:21:02.639 so reliable. Thermostats don't just break in a lot of instances. 0:21:02.720 --> 0:21:06.119 So I've seen, you know, the old mechanical thermostats last 0:21:06.280 --> 0:21:09.719 years and years and years and years. Um so, and 0:21:09.800 --> 0:21:11.960 I could just about guarantee that people have seen the 0:21:12.000 --> 0:21:16.679 type that you were talking about before, the pre digital variety. Okay, 0:21:16.720 --> 0:21:18.800 now I've been chilling out to this podcast tool and 0:21:18.800 --> 0:21:20.800 now it's too cold in here, all right, I gotta 0:21:20.960 --> 0:21:23.280 make another adjustment. In the meantime, let's take a quick 0:21:23.320 --> 0:21:33.480 break to thank our sponsor. So, you know, other than 0:21:33.560 --> 0:21:37.720 the programmable thermostat, there hasn't been I would say, a 0:21:37.840 --> 0:21:42.119 massive surge in thermostat technology. Yeah, the web connection is 0:21:42.119 --> 0:21:44.320 probably the closest thing that we can come to. But 0:21:44.400 --> 0:21:47.800 even then you're just adding some sort of connectivity to 0:21:48.080 --> 0:21:50.520 the device. In this case, we're talking about something that 0:21:50.520 --> 0:21:53.879 that goes a step beyond just connectivity. And we owe 0:21:54.280 --> 0:21:59.800 thanks to Mr Tony Fidel, who made a real name 0:21:59.800 --> 0:22:02.719 for him self developing being one of the developers on 0:22:03.359 --> 0:22:08.960 a truly iconic product, which is the iPod. And in fact, 0:22:09.000 --> 0:22:12.120 it's so iconic that we have podcasting. Uh. And yeah, 0:22:12.160 --> 0:22:14.560 there are people who refer to it as netcasting or 0:22:14.880 --> 0:22:18.720 or webcasting, but but truth you know, the podcasting is 0:22:18.720 --> 0:22:23.120 like the common that's different. Podcasting is is the common 0:22:23.240 --> 0:22:25.200 term for what what it is that Chris and I 0:22:25.240 --> 0:22:29.479 are doing right now. Um, and we you know, it 0:22:29.480 --> 0:22:32.440 owes everything to the Apple iPod. It was the MP 0:22:32.560 --> 0:22:34.920 three player that it was not the first MP three 0:22:34.920 --> 0:22:37.639 player to hit the market, but it was a huge 0:22:37.760 --> 0:22:41.440 success and it essentially defined in the market once once 0:22:41.440 --> 0:22:45.280 the iPod hit and people started to adopt it, all 0:22:45.359 --> 0:22:48.960 other MP three players at that point for moving forward 0:22:49.000 --> 0:22:53.520 were essentially guided by the iPod. Either they were trying 0:22:53.560 --> 0:22:55.800 to do what the iPod did but do it better, 0:22:55.960 --> 0:22:58.240 or to try and completely depart from the way the 0:22:58.240 --> 0:23:01.880 iPod did things in a way to differentiate the the 0:23:01.880 --> 0:23:07.960 product from the standard bearer. Really so well, I was 0:23:07.960 --> 0:23:09.840 gonna say one of the things that made the iPod 0:23:10.440 --> 0:23:13.960