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Cake day: August 8th, 2025

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  • An interesting question. I am sure the union’s strike terms are not stupidly written to forbid closing everything up safely. I’m sure that “train crash caused by strike” would hurt their negotiations significantly.

    I bet this was a headache for signalling and yard crew though, since their normal scheduled train movements would be replaced by moving everything into yards.

    I wonder how long after midnight it was before the last person actually walked off - I imagine it would take a few hours to get every train in the system safely put away in yards.

    I assume since they knew this was likely coming there was probably some planning on how to get everything safely put away.


  • OK stupid question(s): The LIRR runs 24 hours, and up until 12:01 AM, everyone is working (so has to do things as normal). What happens to the crews of trains which left prior to midnight? Would their crews be informed of the strike midway? And if so, would they need to just kick passengers off and return to the depot, or abandon the train at a station, or would they finish their current route and terminate at the end of line?

    Train movements have to be coordinated by dispatchers (not sure if they’re also on strike) - would they need to stay at work and coordinate trains returning to yards even though the strike had started?










  • I’m not sure that it would he equivalent - the AC has to fight a smaller temperature difference between outside and inside.

    Also, I am not sure how much it’d really save for the extra complexity. A lower maintenance way of improving overall efficiency could maybe be some way of capturing that heat to warm water a bit, so that could save your water heater some work by preheating it perhaps. That would keep all plumbing internal, and the fridge may even fight a smaller temperature difference, since tap water is usually cold. Though now if your water heater and “warm water” tank are full what do you do for the fridge?

    I do think that “better insulation for the house” or “just a more efficient fridge” probably trumps any of these changes in terms of energy saving for your investment in many cases.


  • GreenCrunch@piefed.blahaj.zoneto196@lemmy.blahaj.zone2nd rule
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    1 month ago

    The fridge would actually have to work harder though, to maintain a larger temperature difference between its hot and cold sides. So it’ll likely use more energy than the way fridges normally work.

    In winter, if it’s cold enough outside, refrigeration may not actually be needed. You could just pump coolant between inside the fridge and an external radiator to cool it.

    But, now you have a more complicated system that requires more permanent installation into the house, and also has an outdoor radiator that needs to be maintained so it doesn’t get clogged with leaves or damaged.


  • Haha! Fool! My Prius knowledge is finally useful! B mode is actually engine braking. Energy from the wheels is intentionally wasted to turn the engine (with valves timed to compress and release air, with no fuel). It’s there basically just for big downhills, to save your brake pads a bit. The Prius uses regenerative braking all the time with the brake pedal (unless the traction battery is full).

    By the way, cruise control does use engine braking under a specific circumstance - again with downhills, if you’ve filled up the battery, preventing further regeneration, and it needs to slow down, it will use engine braking even outside of B mode.