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Current Events => General Discussion => Topic started by: thundley4 on January 04, 2011, 12:41:18 PM

Title: Heat balls!
Post by: thundley4 on January 04, 2011, 12:41:18 PM
Quote
Just what every European household needs: heat balls. A German businessman has decided to start marketing the items as ’small heating devices’ for households requiring additional warmth.  Apparently, there’s a perceived need for that in Europe.

Anyway… very ingenious things, heat balls: they work by converting electricity into heat energy, with an impressive 95% efficiency, which makes them perfect for warming specific spots in the house.  They’re also absurdly simple to make: glass, tungsten, some argon to keep the device stable - it’s all very cheap to make, particularly since it’s all off-the-shelf technology.  Best of all: heat balls fit in a standard lamp socket, which means that you won’t need any kind of special equipment to use them!  They’re not perfect, though: the extremely small amount of energy wasted by a heat ball ends up generating photons, which means that you don’t want to look at a heat ball directly.  But even that can be mitigated by using exterior shades.  Really, on balance it’s a great little device: as Instapundit (H/T) notes, very green.

What’s that?  I’ve just described the incandescent light bulb?

Don’t be absurd: the European Union banned those, remember?  This is just a heat generator; that’s how it’s marketed, and that’s how it’s being sold.  If somebody plugs one in just to generate light, well, that’s hardly the seller’s fault, is it?
redstate (http://www.redstate.com/moe_lane/2011/01/04/heat-balls/)

Can someone do that here?
Title: Re: Heat balls!
Post by: vesta111 on January 04, 2011, 01:05:24 PM
redstate (http://www.redstate.com/moe_lane/2011/01/04/heat-balls/)

Can someone do that here?

I used to make the tungsten coils for those little devils, they are around still but hard to find.
Title: Re: Heat balls!
Post by: RightCoast on January 04, 2011, 05:41:36 PM
Quote
What’s that?  I’ve just described the incandescent light bulb?

Don’t be absurd: the European Union banned those, remember?  This is just a heat generator; that’s how it’s marketed, and that’s how it’s being sold.  If somebody plugs one in just to generate light, well, that’s hardly the seller’s fault, is it?
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