Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site heurikon.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!floyd!harpo!seismo!uwvax!heurikon!jeff From: jeff@heurikon.UUCP Newsgroups: net.misc,net.physics Subject: Re: Why don't thermostats work? Message-ID: <204@heurikon.UUCP> Date: Fri, 10-Feb-84 01:00:50 EST Article-I.D.: heurikon.204 Posted: Fri Feb 10 01:00:50 1984 Date-Received: Sat, 11-Feb-84 10:17:16 EST References: <4312@amd70.UUCP> Organization: Heurikon Corp., Madison WI Lines: 19 To Phil, RE: Electric blankets. The thermostats on electric blankets regulate by sensing the room temperature, not *your* temperature. (Wow! what a straight line that is!) Anyway, a blanket thermostat has a little heater in it which adds heat to the thermostat whenever the blanket is adding heat to your bed. I guess the theory is that the rate of heat loss by the bed will be similar to the rate of heat loss by the thermostat. Mine seems to work pretty well, but I don't know how accurate they are. What should *really* be regulated is not the bed temperature, but your *feeling* about what the temperature is. During the night, as your metabolism changes, I'm sure most people would sense a different temperature even if the actual bed temperature didn't change. Now, somebody could probably revolutionize the electric blanket thermostat industry by designing some sort of sensor for *that*. -- /"""\ Jeffrey Mattox, Heurikon Corp, Madison, WI |O.O| {harpo, hao, philabs}!seismo!uwvax!heurikon!jeff (news & mail) \_=_/ ihnp4!heurikon!jeff (mail - fast)