Re: Why Buy a Converter?

On Sun, 27 Apr 2008 08:30:20 -0500 Jer <gdunn@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
| phil-news-nospam@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
 wrote:
|> On Sun, 27 Apr 2008 01:30:53 -0400 Bishoop <none@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
|> 
|> | "Lee" <lbray5032@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message 
|> | news:F3MQj.33895$tG6.12630@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
|> |> Rog' wrote:
|> |>> Is there any reason for those of us who rely on cable or satellite,
|> |>> and expect that we always will, to buy a subsidized converter for
|> |>> our analog-TV's?  Maybe just in case someone blows up our
|> |>> cable-headquarters and takes out the satellites?
|> |>
|> |> How about losing your power and you drag out your battery TV that
you 
|> |> plugged into the car to check on the storm?  I keep one just for
that 
|> |> reason as I live in Florida.
|> |>
|> |> L e e
|> | 
|> | Doesn't the converter box require AC power? 
|> 
|> The one I saw in Walmart requires DC.  I presume they provide an
adaptor to
|> convert the AC to DC.
|> 
|> Or you could wait until the government changes AC over to DC.
|> 
| 
| 
| Kewl!  I've been waiting for the op****tunity to use my new v2.0 jumper 
| cables from the car to power the house.  It may sound kinda kludgey, but

| I'm ready for an upgrade.

Those jumper cables may not be UL listed for the voltages involved :-)

There are a lot of things that could be better about the way electricity
is
delivered to homes (maybe changing to DC is one of them).  But it is
simply
not practical to make the change because so many things are not ready. 
One
such change I propose is increasing the voltage.  It would be more
efficient
in most cir***stances.  We know how to keep it safe, now.  And for a great
many things, it's not hard to make them "240 ready".  Virtually every
computer
already is, for example.  DC, OTOH, would be a lot harder, even though we
do
have the technology to step DC down from distribution voltages (2kV to
35kV)
to delivery voltages (100V to 600V).  Still, had Edison prevailed in
having
DC everywhere, while we might have had many difficulties through the
1900's,
we might well be better off now (for example an electronic ballast can run
a
fluorescent light using DC when designed for that purpose).

-- 
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