Difference between revisions of "2753: Air Handler"

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If such a unit contains both heating and refrigeration elements to it, it would be neither practical nor desirable to have a single temperature reference, below which the heating is triggered and above which the cooling is activated, as the sharp transition between the two could trigger a rapid switch backwards and forward between the two modes after any gross difference has been ameliorated and the instantaneous amount of difference from the ideal is much smaller (in either direction) than the change that a burst of alternating effects can propagate into the room. Instead, a lower limit and an upper limit can prompt each respective correction, with a range of degrees between which is deemed acceptable, though the measurement may drift a bit as doors are opened, people enter the room or just that convection finally sends volumes of previously severely heated or cooled air past the sensor. The engineering choices involved in making a usable device may be pre-set or left user-configurable. The same principle can be applied to humidifier/dehumidifier functions, to create a comfortable condition not too dry nor damp for comfort, etc.
 
If such a unit contains both heating and refrigeration elements to it, it would be neither practical nor desirable to have a single temperature reference, below which the heating is triggered and above which the cooling is activated, as the sharp transition between the two could trigger a rapid switch backwards and forward between the two modes after any gross difference has been ameliorated and the instantaneous amount of difference from the ideal is much smaller (in either direction) than the change that a burst of alternating effects can propagate into the room. Instead, a lower limit and an upper limit can prompt each respective correction, with a range of degrees between which is deemed acceptable, though the measurement may drift a bit as doors are opened, people enter the room or just that convection finally sends volumes of previously severely heated or cooled air past the sensor. The engineering choices involved in making a usable device may be pre-set or left user-configurable. The same principle can be applied to humidifier/dehumidifier functions, to create a comfortable condition not too dry nor damp for comfort, etc.
  
It is not particularly usual to directly monitor the number of bees in an air-stream (usually, insect-screens are the main way to filter out any pesky creatures that might find themselves likely to be caught up in that way), and one might imagine that the upper limit ''should'' be zero, for use indoors in standard living/working spaces, but it might be technically feasible to accurately count bees (with or without distinguishing from wasps and other flying insects) and be able to allow ''some''. But, unlike temperature or humidity, it would be rare (outside of a location used for agriculture) to have a non-zero ''minimum'' desirable bee-load. Even more so to be directly equipped to upwardly correct the current value. For any minimum value that is not zero, this machine would be equipped to deal with it by, presumably, releasing bees (it seems to have at least one trapped inside it ready to be released, judging by the buzzing sound), and by generating smoke, dust, and odors, something one would typically not desire.
+
It is not particularly usual to directly monitor the number of bees in an air-stream (usually, insect-screens are the main way to filter out any pesky creatures that might find themselves likely to be caught up in that way), and one might imagine that the upper limit ''should'' be zero, for use indoors in standard living/working spaces, but it might be technically feasible to accurately count bees (with or without distinguishing from wasps and other flying insects) and be able to allow ''some''. But, unlike temperature or humidity, it would be rare (outside of a location used for agriculture) to have a non-zero ''minimum'' desirable quantity of bees. Even more so to then be directly equipped to upwardly correct the current value. For any minimum value that is not zero, this machine would be equipped to deal with it by, presumably, releasing bees (it seems to have at least one trapped inside it ready to be released, judging by the buzzing sound), or by generating smoke, dust and odors something one would typically not miss if lacking.
  
A the title text elaborates, the machine analyses and adjusts the 'freshness' of the air. A smart system in charge of odor-control (by spraying smell-suppressing chemicals and/or more dominant scents) could be made less wasteful by only trying to 'freshen' the air when it detects enough necessity. But, of course, this machine also has an opposing limit. And, when the air is considered ''too'' fresh, it has a way of ''adding'' staleness/stinkiness, to meet expectations.
+
As the title text elaborates, the machine analyses and adjusts the 'freshness' of the air. A smart system in charge of odor-control (by spraying smell-suppressing chemicals and/or more desirable and dominant scents) could be made less wasteful by only trying to 'freshen' the air when it detects enough necessity. But, of course, this machine also has an opposing limit. And, when the air is considered ''too'' fresh, it has a way of ''adding'' staleness/stinkiness, to meet expectations.
  
 
==Transcript==
 
==Transcript==

Revision as of 16:25, 23 March 2023

Air Handler
It maintains odor levels in a normal familiar range, so if you open the windows and the air gets too fresh, it filters it through some dirty laundry samples to compensate.
Title text: It maintains odor levels in a normal familiar range, so if you open the windows and the air gets too fresh, it filters it through some dirty laundry samples to compensate.

Explanation

Ambox notice.png This explanation may be incomplete or incorrect: Created by an UNUSUAL AMOUNT OF BEES - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.
If you can address this issue, please edit the page! Thanks.
Black Hat is demonstrating some form of air-conditioning unit that covers a wide-variety of air qualities, as opposed to a heater that just warms air, a filter that just removes dust or a dehumidifier with the main purpose of removing moisture from the air.

If such a unit contains both heating and refrigeration elements to it, it would be neither practical nor desirable to have a single temperature reference, below which the heating is triggered and above which the cooling is activated, as the sharp transition between the two could trigger a rapid switch backwards and forward between the two modes after any gross difference has been ameliorated and the instantaneous amount of difference from the ideal is much smaller (in either direction) than the change that a burst of alternating effects can propagate into the room. Instead, a lower limit and an upper limit can prompt each respective correction, with a range of degrees between which is deemed acceptable, though the measurement may drift a bit as doors are opened, people enter the room or just that convection finally sends volumes of previously severely heated or cooled air past the sensor. The engineering choices involved in making a usable device may be pre-set or left user-configurable. The same principle can be applied to humidifier/dehumidifier functions, to create a comfortable condition not too dry nor damp for comfort, etc.

It is not particularly usual to directly monitor the number of bees in an air-stream (usually, insect-screens are the main way to filter out any pesky creatures that might find themselves likely to be caught up in that way), and one might imagine that the upper limit should be zero, for use indoors in standard living/working spaces, but it might be technically feasible to accurately count bees (with or without distinguishing from wasps and other flying insects) and be able to allow some. But, unlike temperature or humidity, it would be rare (outside of a location used for agriculture) to have a non-zero minimum desirable quantity of bees. Even more so to then be directly equipped to upwardly correct the current value. For any minimum value that is not zero, this machine would be equipped to deal with it by, presumably, releasing bees (it seems to have at least one trapped inside it ready to be released, judging by the buzzing sound), or by generating smoke, dust and odors – something one would typically not miss if lacking.

As the title text elaborates, the machine analyses and adjusts the 'freshness' of the air. A smart system in charge of odor-control (by spraying smell-suppressing chemicals and/or more desirable and dominant scents) could be made less wasteful by only trying to 'freshen' the air when it detects enough necessity. But, of course, this machine also has an opposing limit. And, when the air is considered too fresh, it has a way of adding staleness/stinkiness, to meet expectations.

Transcript

[Black Hat is standing to the right of an "air handler", talking to Cueball and Megan on the left side, probably presenting the sales pitch for the air handler in between them.]
Black Hat: Our device monitors your home's air and keeps every variable between a lower and upper limit.
[Zoom in on Black Hat]
Black Hat: Temperature, humidity, pressure, dust, smoke, odors, number of bees...
[Zoom out similar to Frame #1]
Megan: Wait.
Megan: What's the lower limit for "number of bees"?
Black Hat: A normal amount.
Air Handler: Bzzzzzz


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Discussion

I called the device an Air Handler in the transcript, but should we change that? E'); DROP TABLE users;-- (talk) 5:11, 23 March 2023 (UTC)

"It is not particularly usual to directly monitor the number of bees in an air-stream" - understatement of the week :o) 172.68.210.41 05:46, 23 March 2023 (UTC)

And statements like these are the reason why explainxkcd is so great :D Elektrizikekswerk (talk) 11:06, 23 March 2023 (UTC)

I think the transcript is complete, will be deleting unless someone proves otherwise in four hours. E'); DROP TABLE users;-- (talk) 11:50, 23 March 2023 (UTC)

Some of these parameters have an ideal range (temperature, humidity, pressure), but others should be minimized (dust, smoke, odors, number of bees). Well, not into the negative range, but I think you'll understand me! ~ Megan she/her talk/contribs 23:44, 23 March 2023 (UTC)

Well, if there are config files, you can just set the range to be from 0 to 0. Then again, this is Black Hat... 198.41.238.10 03:15, 24 March 2023 (UTC)
connect it to a computer with a (maybe USB-C or some other) cable and go and add "minBees = 0;

maxBees = 0;" to /scripts/ControlAir/config.conf 172.68.183.13 13:27, 28 March 2023 (UTC)

I think it'll need a USB-EE connector, actually... 172.70.162.158 02:07, 29 March 2023 (UTC)
I think that he made it so that "number of bees" had to be nonzero. Also, I think that the negative range could be available, and would be... weird. --Purah126 (talk) 12:38, 24 March 2023 (UTC)
I personally would like to see a device that generates negative bees... I'm deathly phobic. RandalSchwartz (talk) 18:24, 26 March 2023 (UTC)
I hope doesn't generate anti-bees. That would be slightly problematic since anti-bees react exothermically with most common materials, including air, water, and (to scare off some chemists) glass. ~ Megan she/her talk/contribs 18:47, 26 March 2023 (UTC)
MinBees = 0.5;
MaxBees = 1.5;172.71.242.191 08:03, 27 March 2023 (UTC)

This immediately got me wondering how it would deal with excess bees. It's not like you can filter them out as they pass through the device. It'd have to launch some kind of tiny flying robot to attack them or something. And then if there's too few bees, well… Let's just say I was pretty confident that the title text would use the word "drones" at least twice. -- Angel (talk) 09:15, 24 March 2023 (UTC)

1) Filtration through mosquito-net would be possible, and since these nets are frequently metallic, durability is a moot point.

2) Bee storage unit (perhaps those captured excess bees could be stored themselves to reduce bee wastage) could be a component. 1844161 (talk) 15:36, 14 April 2023 (UTC)

I could see a VR rig adding a (controlled) pulse of H2S when you enter a sewer. With hardware limits to prevent any dangerous concentrations of course. 172.71.158.7 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

"Amount of bees" doesn't seem to make sense unless the air handler can view the contents of the entire room. "Concentation of bees" makes more sense. ~ Megan she/her talk/contribs 18:52, 26 March 2023 (UTC)

A standard air-conditioner can only work with the air in its own air-channel (and maybe detect the state of the air that touches it, if it has external sensors) so I'd say that it's perfectly valid to do a count of bees that get spotted moving through/by it.
But then this is a Black Hat, doing this. Who knows quite what he's implmented... ;) 141.101.99.113 19:22, 26 March 2023 (UTC)
Is a "normal amount of bees" a floating point? imagine – darkness bright 07:35, 1 April 2023 (UTC)

My first thought on reading the panel is that the device might not actually do anything. For example if the lower limit for temperature is set to absolute zero and the upper limit as the temperature of the universe at the time of the big bang.172.71.254.135 04:39, 12 April 2023 (UTC)