Why I won’t touch the Kindle 2 with a ten foot pole.

Re:Why I won’t touch the Kindle 2 with a ten foot pole. by Harkins on Friday February 13, 2009 @09:31AM (#479863)

Actually, books should lower the cost of heating/cooling a house. They'll act to keep the temperature level in the house at a static level, though they would cost more if you often cycled your house between warm and cold.

It's like keeping jugs of water in the refrigerator: the system works by cooling the air, which falls out when you open the door. The space taken up by the water means there's less air to fall out.

In any case, your analysis of square footage is clever, I hadn't thought to consider that cost.

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Re:Why I won’t touch the Kindle 2 with a ten foot pole. by JoelSutherland on Friday February 13, 2009 @09:53AM (#479885)

They won't make it cheaper than if you had less house.

If the square footage would otherwise be empty my whole point falls apart.

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Re:Why I won’t touch the Kindle 2 with a ten foot pole. by gravitycop on Saturday February 14, 2009 @05:11AM (#481012)

They won't make it cheaper than if you had less house.

Actually, more mass (book mass, or any other kind) does make HVAC cheaper: http://static.monolithic.com/pres/rvalue

The California Handbook for Solar Energy is the only government publication we have been able to find which takes into account the thermal mass of the concrete when measuring heat loss. Simply stated, the concrete acts as a heat sink which slows the passage of heat back and forth through the wall or roof assembly.

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