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How to Assemble an Electric Heating Element from Scratch

https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com/2025/10/how-to-build-an-electric-heating-element-from-scratch/
29•surprisetalk•2h ago

Comments

cenamus•2h ago
Some solution with a maximum power point tracking inverter would probably be a whole lot more efficient. But probably depends a lot on the exact resistances and panels involved.

But I guess that would go against the "low tech" spirit. And if panels aren't the limiting factor why not

amelius•1h ago
No short-circuit protection?

[Also, I don't like the quality of the images. How can I take their advice seriously if the images are barely viewable. It looks like someone actually made an effort to reduce the quality of the images. For artistic effect, probably. Don't do that.]

LooerCell•1h ago
About the quality of the images, it's on purpose:

> By dithering, we can make images ten times less resource-intensive, even though they are displayed much larger than on the old website.

This is needed because the website is solar-powered and self-hosted on low-tech hardware, read more here:

https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com/about/the-solar-website/

chuho•1h ago
Images aren't like that for artistic effect, but for lower energy consumption.

> We further apply default typefaces, dithered images, off-line reading options, and other tricks to lower energy use far below that of the average website.

https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com/about/the-solar-website/

amelius•1h ago
Ok, I didn't read that. But I still think it's _not_ a good idea to do that for a topic where personal safety is at stake. And besides, the quality is really too low anyway. I can barely recognize the thermocouples in those images.
teeray•1h ago
> It looks like someome actually made an effort to reduce the quality of the images. For artistic effect, probably.

They did, and it’s part of the footprint-reduction techniques used to host the site off solar full-time. https://github.com/lowtechmag/solar/wiki/Solar-Web-Design#im...

amelius•1h ago
I don't know, they are making electric heaters.

Might as well use your server to generate some of that heat ...

mysteria•45m ago
That's fine for the main article but I think there should be a way to get higher quality images should the reader request them. If power is a concern those can be hosted elsewhere.

I think it's acceptable for the drawings to be compressed this way but the photographs are very unclear.

AmosLightnin•20m ago
There is. Click the small pixely looking X at the end of the photo's caption.
alphazard•1h ago
Of course, most of us are more familiar with a different heater design.

https://www.google.com/search?q=how+to+build+a+computer

throwaway173738•22m ago
Why not use cast or wrought iron and fire bricks for a higher temperature rating? What you’d have then is basically a wood stove except with the wood replaced with electricity.
1970-01-01•17m ago
ElectroBOOM had the idea first and did it better.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MrnCDKB1hE0

Replacement.ai

https://replacement.ai
420•wh313•2h ago•213 comments

Abandoned land drives dangerous heat in Houston, Texas A&M study finds

https://stories.tamu.edu/news/2025/10/07/abandoned-land-drives-dangerous-heat-in-houston-texas-am...
68•PaulHoule•2h ago•56 comments

How Senior Engineers Lose Trust

https://tahahussain.substack.com/p/how-senior-engineers-lose-trust
12•napolux•26m ago•5 comments

Show HN: Duck-UI – Browser-Based SQL IDE for DuckDB

https://demo.duckui.com
110•caioricciuti•4h ago•34 comments

The Spherical Cows of Programming

https://programmingsimplicity.substack.com/p/the-spherical-cows-of-programming
9•whobre•57m ago•4 comments

How to Assemble an Electric Heating Element from Scratch

https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com/2025/10/how-to-build-an-electric-heating-element-from-scratch/
30•surprisetalk•2h ago•12 comments

Show HN: Pyversity – Fast Result Diversification for Retrieval and RAG

https://github.com/Pringled/pyversity
15•Tananon•2h ago•2 comments

The case for the return of fine-tuning

https://welovesota.com/article/the-case-for-the-return-of-fine-tuning
88•nanark•6h ago•37 comments

Xubuntu.org Might Be Compromised

https://old.reddit.com/r/Ubuntu/comments/1oa4549/xubuntuorg_might_be_compromised/
116•kekqqq•1h ago•30 comments

What Are RFCs? The Forgotten Blueprints of the Internet

https://ackreq.github.io/posts/what-are-rfcs/
15•ackreq•1h ago•3 comments

Improving PixelMelt's Kindle Web Deobfuscator

https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/10/improving-pixelmelts-kindle-web-deobfuscator/
51•ColinWright•4h ago•11 comments

Why an abundance of choice is not the same as freedom

https://aeon.co/essays/why-an-abundance-of-choice-is-not-the-same-as-freedom
37•herbertl•1h ago•11 comments

Websites Are for Humans

https://marcus-obst.de/blog/websites-are-for-humans
39•freediver•1h ago•16 comments

The Zipper Is Getting Its First Major Upgrade in 100 Years

https://www.wired.com/story/the-zipper-is-getting-its-first-major-upgrade-in-100-years/
29•bookofjoe•59m ago•26 comments

Lost Jack Kerouac story found among assassinated mafia boss' belongings

https://www.sfgate.com/sf-culture/article/lost-jack-kerouac-chapter-found-mafia-boss-estate-21098...
57•rmason•4d ago•26 comments

Comparing the power consumption of a 30 year old refrigerator to a brand new one

https://ounapuu.ee/posts/2025/10/14/fridge-power-consumption/
7•furkansahin•5d ago•4 comments

EQ: A video about all forms of equalizers

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLAt95PrwL4
223•robinhouston•1d ago•63 comments

A Tower on Billionaires' Row Is Full of Cracks. Who's to Blame?

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/19/nyregion/432-park-avenue-condo-tower.html
64•danso•3h ago•38 comments

OpenAI researcher announced GPT-5 math breakthrough that never happened

https://the-decoder.com/leading-openai-researcher-announced-a-gpt-5-math-breakthrough-that-never-...
232•Topfi•4h ago•146 comments

The macOS LC_COLLATE hunt: Or why does sort order differently on macOS and Linux

https://blog.zhimingwang.org/macos-lc_collate-hunt
11•g0xA52A2A•3h ago•0 comments

Titan submersible’s $62 SanDisk memory card found undamaged at wreckage site

https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/microsd-cards/tragic-oceangate-titan-submersibles-usd6...
398•WithinReason•2d ago•195 comments

With deadline looming 4 of 9 universities reject Trumps pact to remake higher ed

https://arstechnica.com/culture/2025/10/with-deadline-looming-4-of-9-universities-reject-trumps-c...
34•Bender•1h ago•5 comments

Feed me up, Scotty – custom RSS feed generation using CSS selectors

https://feed-me-up-scotty.vincenttunru.com/
6•diymaker•2h ago•3 comments

Chen-Ning Yang, Nobel laureate, dies at 103

https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202510/18/WS68f3170ea310f735438b5bf2.html
268•nhatcher•1d ago•68 comments

Jupyter Collaboration has a history slider

https://blog.jupyter.org/exploring-a-documents-timeline-in-jupyterlab-6084f96db263
44•fghorow•6d ago•10 comments

The Accountability Problem

https://www.jamesshore.com/v2/blog/2025/the-accountability-problem
110•FrancoisBosun•13h ago•45 comments

Root System Drawings

https://images.wur.nl/digital/collection/coll13/search
384•bookofjoe•1d ago•75 comments

How one of the longest dinosaur trackways in the world was uncovered in the UK

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/resources/idt-5f8c77b0-92bc-40f2-bf21-6793abbe5ffe
41•6LLvveMx2koXfwn•5d ago•8 comments

Pebble is officially back on iOS and Android

https://twitter.com/ericmigi/status/1979576965494710564
83•vlod•4h ago•9 comments

How to sequence your DNA for <$2k

https://maxlangenkamp.substack.com/p/how-to-sequence-your-dna-for-2k
225•yichab0d•20h ago•99 comments