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by destructionator 707 days ago
> It only takes a little electricity to power this process, which can raise the refrigerant’s temperature by many degrees Celsius.

And the same electricity can raise the temperature by even more degrees Fahrenheit!

2 comments

Heat in F chill in C, et voilà! free energy.
Unit arbitrage. I love it.
I'd buy that for a dollar!
Using a temperature system built around water to measure air temperature. I mean I can use it but the range of fahrenheit is more useful.

What we really need is a combination of the two. Something that measures air temperature and water content because 68F at 5% humidity is a lot different than the same temp at 40%>

> Several accounts of how he originally defined his scale exist, but the original paper suggests the lower defining point, 0 °F, was established as the freezing temperature of a solution of brine made from a mixture of water, ice, and ammonium chloride (a salt). The other limit established was his best estimate of the average human body temperature, originally set at 90 °F, then 96 °F (about 2.6 °F less than the modern value due to a later redefinition of the scale).

Nothing beats scientific accuracy and thoroughness, right? So it then actually ended up being tied to water as well:

> For much of the 20th century, the Fahrenheit scale was defined by two fixed points with a 180 °F separation: the temperature at which pure water freezes was defined as 32 °F and the boiling point of water was defined to be 212 °F

(from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fahrenheit)

So that's why one unit Celcius is roughly 2 units Fahrenheit!

For some reason I never noticed there are exactly 180 degrees between freezing and boiling points on the Fahrenheit scale. 100°C is a nice "round" number, and 180°F divides evenly into a lot of smaller numbers.

> What we really need is a combination of the two. Something that measures air temperature and water content because 68F at 5% humidity is a lot different than the same temp at 40%

The "feels like" apparent temperature accounts for things like humidity and windchill[1].

Many weather apps provide the "feels like" temp, including my app: https://uw.leftium.com

I was going to drop the "feels like" reading in my new weather app (I just didn't notice a major difference), but maybe I'll keep it...

[1]: https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Apparent_temperature

Wet bulb temperatures account for evaporation, but I don't know if weather stations report wet bulb or dry bulb.