WayneA.
USA
Asked
— Edited
Good Afternoon!
I was just wondering how cold it was where you are? At the Ez-Robot Office, it appears to be really cold! (Snow On The Ground?)
Good Afternoon!
I was just wondering how cold it was where you are? At the Ez-Robot Office, it appears to be really cold! (Snow On The Ground?)
How long does it take to warm your cars? Do you have issues with water freezing in your homes? Do any of you live in rural areas?
What does it mean when the snow blows on the road and it ice's? I do not think I have ever heard of that.
I had a question, what would be involved in putting an EZ-Robot product, with the camera facing outside. (So we could see the outside world from where your office is located?)
I used to have a Chevy Citation (don't laugh, it was free), but it started as a Canadian car, then lived in Vermont for a while before my sister gave it to me. It has a plug-in block heater so that it could start on cold Canadian winter mornings.
Alan
In the prairies this happens quite a bit. There's a lot of wind in the prairies and it blows the snow across the fields and over the roads. As the snow blows over the roads a small layer of ice starts to build up and fill in the small cavities on the surface, it's commonly known as black ice. It gets that name due because it matches the color of the asphalt and is very hard to see. It doesn't really matter what kind of tires you have on your vehicle the best way to slow down on black ice is to decelerate. Using your brakes on black ice can get you a one way trip into the ditch, which happens quite a bit up here lol.
I'm sure someone is going to ask what a block heater is :). It's a heating pad that attaches to the engine block and heats up the oil to make it less viscous and much easier to start up the vehicle. I always plug-in my vehicle on the cold winter nights.
looks like DJ's got the barbi going
Man, I don't think I've ever experienced that kind of heat, 41C is insane.
Figured I'd give you a picture of the blowing snow I was talking about
So you just drive on the road and hope for the best that you don't hit a slick spot? I guess it is hard for me to understand the fact that since it is already cold and there is snow on the ground, how can black ice form? Which would indicate that the snow needs to melt and then refreeze.
My bad, yes the snow melts and refreezes when we get chinook winds (warm winds in the winter). The temperature fluctuates quite a bit in Calgary.
Right now if you looked on the street in front of ezrobot office, there's snow packed to ice that's hard as cement. The city puts gravel to prevent sliding. The gravel mixes with the snow and ice under the pressure of cars, trucks and semis to make a mixture that's as strong as concrete.
It's pretty surreal actually. The world changes significantly here between the summer and winter. Your car in the winter barely starts and when it does, feels much different. You can hear the chassis creek from the cold. Everything is so brittle this time of year, because it's exposed to -20 to -30 degree temperatures 24 hours a day.
Even being inside the home or building is different. Because the temperatures aren't consistent between different rooms and areas of the home. It's difficult in the winter to maintain an equal temperature that satisfies everyone. Jeremie has a family and probably deals with that issue more than myself.
Another big one is the heater in cars. For me, by the time I get to work, the car is literally just starting to blow warm air. It takes a 10 minute drive for the engine coolant to reach a warm temperature.
Some days when it's real cold (like today) I will let my car run for 10 minutes before leaving my house. The funny thing is that the engine at idle doesn't produce enough heat to warm the coolant! So my car can idle all day and the coolant won't even warm up enough to heat the car. Even though the coolant runs through two turbo chargers and the engine block, still doesn't produce enough heat at idle.
The only way to get heat is to drive the car so the Rpms are high enough to flow the coolant quicker and produce enough engine block heat.
It's pretty remarkable to imagine that humans lived in this environment over a hundred years ago without these comforts to battle the elements.
However, I don't get great mileage in the winter (45mpg, which is still better than any other car, but I get 55 in the summer, even running the AC which uses a few amps. Just when the ICE is running it is way more efficient in the heat), and Maryland winters have very few days below freezing. It would be way worse in Calgary.
Alan
100 years ago humans were much tougher than we are today.....
Would it be possible to place a camera looking outside the office?