Quick question

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In theory it is possible to calculate how many aerials are taking energy from the broadcast signal.
Not 'how many aerials are taking energy' but, rather the total amount of energy being taken by all aerials (and many other things). How much energy is taken by each receiver depends upon the design of that receiver - at extremes, a 'crystal set' would take (relatively) a lot of energy, whereas a modern receiver with a very high impedance input would take extremely little energy. Also, if the receiver had an up-front tuned-circuit (or even just a 'tuned' aerial), it would probably 'consume energy' even if the receiver were switched off - so not a measure of 'viewers'!
In practise it is totally and utterly impossible.
Quite so - apart from the above issues, energy consumed by receiving aerials is such a small proportion of the total fate of broadcast energy that the exercise would be a total joke.

Kind Regards, John
 
In the 1970's some German TV stations did some surveys and talent show voting by asking people to turn on an appliance and the power stations reported the increase in consumption.

There was talk many years ago about a farmer who had a heavy gauge cable strung along the top of a fence to make a loop aerial which was then tuned to the BBC Long wave transmitter to obtain some power. It was said to have been discovered when engineers investigated reports of a lobe of low field strength. It could be true as it was possible to light a very small lamp from a tuned aerial on the school physics lab bench but no one I met knew where the farm was.
 
In the 1970's some German TV stations did some surveys and talent show voting by asking people to turn on an appliance and the power stations reported the increase in consumption.
That's obviously a lot more 'direct' (a 'wired connection'), albeit pretty imprecise (for a host of reasons)
There was talk many years ago about a farmer who had a heavy gauge cable strung along the top of a fence to make a loop aerial which was then tuned to the BBC Long wave transmitter to obtain some power.
There have always been stories about people extracting power by that method in the vicinity of very high-powered broadcast stations, and I'm not sure whether or not the law ever got to grips with that one!
It could be true as it was possible to light a very small lamp from a tuned aerial on the school physics lab bench ....
It certainly used to be possible to get a 5ft fluorescent tube to light up by holding one end and waving it around in the air in the vicinity of the Brookman's Park transmitter!

Kind Regards, John
 
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I'm not winding you up. I know what it means and you know what it means but loads of people have no idea what the 'kWh' on their bill actually means,
That doesn't matter.


and have no idea what a thousand watt hours are.
That doesn't matter.


It's just the unit that electric is measured in. It could be any old combination of letters as far as they're concerned.
Indeed.

So they get billed for a number of fnarglelumpettes.

A bulb's packaging says 50 fnargles and a bulb's packaging says 50 fnargles.

What's reasonable in thinking that 50 fnargles are not the same as 50 fnargles?
 
So they get billed for a number of fnarglelumpettes.
A bulb's packaging says 50 fnargles and a bulb's packaging says 50 fnargles.
What's reasonable in thinking that 50 fnargles are not the same as 50 fnargles?
That depends entirely on their understanding (if any) of what fnargles are, and how they relate to fnarglelumpettes.

So they get billed for a number of mL of alcohol.
A bottle's packaging says 500mL and a bottle's packaging says 500 mL.
What's reasonable in thinking that 500mL are not the same as 500mL?

... quite a lot, I would say, if one bottle contains a product specified as 1.2% alcohol and the other as 24% alcohol. If it seems reasonable to some people when the difference in specifications is 1.2% vs. 24%, why does it become unreasonable if the difference in specifications is 12V vs. 240V?

You seem to continue to assume, incorrectly, that everyone ("who does not require 24/7 care") knows things which you regards as obvious. Just like my old maths teacher!

Kind Regards, John
 
Lamps should be labelled as

Watts 50 of which

45 are heat
3 are visible light
1 is UV radiation
0.5 is wide spectrum electromagnetic radiation
etc. etc.
 
Lamps should be labelled as
Watts 50 of which ... 45 are heat ... 3 are visible light ... 1 is UV radiation ... 0.5 is wide spectrum electromagnetic radiation etc. etc.
Maybe for you, I and like-minded people, but I fear that would really get the average Joe Public 'well confused' :)

Kind Regards, John
 
In theory it is possible to calculate how many aerials are taking energy from the broadcast signal. In theory putting up a new receiving aerial would affect the field strength at that point and hence the ERP ( Effective Radiated Power ) at the transmitter would increase.
No it isn't. The radiated power of the transmitter aerial is all dissipated somewhere, whether there are receiving aerials present or not.
 
That depends entirely on their understanding (if any) of what fnargles are,
Are you positing the existence of people who genuinely are truly incapable of actually understanding that the "50" on a packet tells them how much electricity the lamp uses?


So they get billed for a number of mL of alcohol.
A bottle's packaging says 500mL and a bottle's packaging says 500 mL.
What's reasonable in thinking that 500mL are not the same as 500mL?
Not an analogous concept, and you know it.


... quite a lot, I would say, if one bottle contains a product specified as 1.2% alcohol and the other as 24% alcohol. If it seems reasonable to some people when the difference in specifications is 1.2% vs. 24%, why does it become unreasonable if the difference in specifications is 12V vs. 240V?
Because the thing which forms the basis on which they are billed, which they can see when they read their bills, is the same.


You seem to continue to assume, incorrectly, that everyone ("who does not require 24/7 care") knows things which you regards as obvious. Just like my old maths teacher!
I think you'll find I've been talking about understanding. Are you positing the existence of people who are genuinely unable to actually understand?

Not simply don't understand, truly unable to.
 
Are you positing the existence of people who are genuinely unable to actually understand?
Whether they are "unable to understand", I can't say - I imagine that some would be able and others not. However, the point is that there are people who do not understand (or even 'know') the things we are talking about, whether they would be "capable of understanding" or not.

Kind Regards, John
 
Are you positing the existence of people who genuinely are truly incapable of actually understanding that the "50" on a packet tells them how much electricity the lamp uses?
Actually, outside your perfect world, there are a LOT of people who do not understand that.

I will concede that I haven't met anyone who didn't "understand" that a "100 fnargles" bulb uses more fnargles than a "50 fnargles" bulb. But I can assure you, though it seems you'll not want to accept this, the vast majority of the population really, genuinely cannot relate the "50 fnargles" rating of the bulb to the kilofnarglehours on their bill.

As has been pointed out before, to the vast majority of people, "kWH" is just some meaningless random jumble of letters.
 
I beleive my central heating boiler is rated at 12kW, yet my gas is billed in M³. I have no idea how many M³ of gas my boiler uses per hour. This is exactly the same position the majority of non-electrical folk are in with regards the rating of a lightbulb compared the kilofnarglewatt hours their electricity is billed in.
 

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