These outdoor heaters are stupid and a waste of electricity

7 months ago by jaykrown to c/justpost

They are in front of the elevators at an outdoor multi story parking garage around my area. That's all I wanted to share, thanks.

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brownsugga 67 points 7 months ago

Those particular ones might be a waste of energy, but outdoor heaters like that in general are great for in front of hotels, and in the vestibule for doormen at clubs or valets

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nate3d 40 points 7 months ago

I responded further down but the infrared equivalent to these are very useful and explicitly solve for the energy waste issue you describe. Infrared heaters can’t heat open air which means heat-energy is transferred right to solid surfaces. It is extremely efficient in areas with any amount of airflow as the heat isn’t able to be blown away as it’s radiating from the surfaces below the heater, not the heater or the air between.

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Remember_the_tooth 18 points 7 months ago

I bet we can take it even further. Switch it out for a phased array of infrared emitters that track and target people based on body temperature. Then it won't have to be on all the time and there's no way it could possibly go wrong.

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Thorry 13 points 7 months ago

Nah we can go way further, what we need is to switch from infrared to microwaves. By emitting microwaves at the right frequency, we can directly transfer energy in a super efficient way. We could tune it to make water molecules vibrate and turn that energy directly into heat. Since humans are basically bags of water, they'd be pretty warm without much energy required at all.

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SocialMediaRefugee 8 points 7 months ago

"All we found was a pile of ashes."

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Steve 2 points 7 months ago

Im wondering how large a phased array of infrared sources would be

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SocialMediaRefugee 1 point 7 months ago

Better yet, people just wear better clothes and retain body heat instead of sticking heaters outside.

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