Ahh, but Blu-ray figured this out already. Digital output is all the same? Easy, just make the player operating system so inefficient and slow that people pay extra to play an inserted movie in less than a minute!

I'm a Netflix customer. I'm much happier about the greatly improved streaming options, and could care less about a 4-week delay of new releases. I've got several dozen unwatched movies on my list at any given time anyway. In my mind, Netflix pulled a fast one on Warner on behalf of the customer. Good move, Netflix.

I think you're thinking of area. When the resolution in two dimensions doubles, the area quadruples. 640x480 becomes 1280x960 - twice the resolution (measured in linear dots-per-inch in each dimension) but the area quadruples.

...simply enough money for the team to figure all this out themselves? As far as government grants go, that amount is the equivalent of "You boys go out and play, and be home by dinner!"

And nothing of value was posted.

...it was game over. I was a staunch believer in VHDL and its many features (generics, records, operator overloading, strong type checking). But once Verilog implemented proper signed arithmetic which didn't require tedious manual sign extension in the code, then I never looked back. SystemVerilog continues to push Verilog forward. gwait (179005) had the right idea - start with Verilog, and if you ever need to work with VHDL, you will have a much better idea of what aspects of the VHDL language you do and don't need to learn.

You're worried about nighttime light pollution from white roofs reflecting more sunlight? (I doubt moonlight would be significant enough to be a factor.)

*slaps forehead*

Only marketing weenies would play up such an oxymoron.

Another vote for Foxit.

I don't have the system up and running long enough yet to have good kWh measurements. I bought a Conserv ELF 3234 panel meter. It's a great value for the money, but the manual is absolutely terrible. The company is Indian and I suspect the manual author is not a native English speaker.

While I don't have monthly kWh values yet, I can share kW readings. With resistance heat running (I can force this with the thermostat's emergency heat setting, or by forcing a stage 2 heat call at low outdoor temperatures), the entire system consumes about 9kW. Depending on the outdoor temperature and the call from the thermostat, the system runs in four different modes:

Code:

M1 - Single cylinder primary compressor
M2 - Two cylinders primary compressor
M3 - Primary and booster compressors
M4 - Primary and booster compressors with 1st stage auxiliary heat

Heating Call at Thermostat

exterior temperature stage 1 stage 2
BIN A: ODT<-30 W1 W1
BIN B: -30<ODT<15 M3 M4
BIN C: 15<ODT<25 M2 M3
BIN D: 25<ODT<34 M2 M2+W1
BIN E: 34<ODT<41 M2 M2
BIN F: 41<ODT<62 M1 M2
BIN G: 62<ODT M1 M1

Sorry about the formatting, I can't get PRE tags to work here.

Normally the thermostat calls for stage 1 heating or cooling. If it senses the set point cannot be held with stage 1, it will step up to a stage 2 call. The Hallowell thermostat (just an off-the-shelf White Rodgers 'stat) has a feature which proactively ramps up the set point ahead of time. Since I have the temperature set lower at night to make sleeping comfortable, this ensures the morning ramp-up to 66F stays stays in a stage 1 call even when exterior temperatures are cold.

Using the ELF 3234, the power consumptions of the modes are about as follows:

M1 - 1350 watts
M2 - 1650 watts
M3 - 2900 watts
M4 - 8900 watts

- Chris

Side note to the OP, the phrase "geothermal" to most homeowners does mean ground-source heat pump technology, not the stuff they use in Greenland.

I have a modest 2000sqft home in northeastern PA (Poconos area, I'm 8 miles south of Camelback ski resort). I had two contractors out to quote ground-source DX (direct exchange) systems, and both quotes were in the mid-$20k range. Too rich for my blood.

I went with a Hallowell cold-weather heat pump for pleasantly less than half that. The Hallowell is mostly sold in Canada and upper New England, but it's been slowly working its way south. When I called them to ask about my application, the guy laughed and said "Man, you're in the tropics!"

It's only been running for a few weeks now, but I've been very impressed so far. It hit -3F two nights ago and the heat pump still ran entirely off the first compressors in stage 1 (stage 2 was still not needed). The air coming out of the vents was warm to the touch. In fact, the system has yet to resort to resistance heat down to -3F exterior temperatures. We keep our house set to 66F. I've been able to kick the heating oil furnace and storage tank to the curb. No more timing oil pre-buys against market prices, no more noisy power venters, no more oil storage tank taking up basement space, no more yearly burner tuneups and vent pipe cleanouts. I even get nice 18 SEER air conditioning to replace my builder-grade central air conditioning unit.

Pictures of the complete home renovation are at:

my house renovation

The entire system is on a dedicated subpanel, and I've put a subpanel meter on it to measure total kWh usage. This will allow me to directly measure operational cost each month.

Another factor that steered me away from ground-source is balancing the break-even time versus the system lifetime. If it takes me 20 years to break even on the ground-source and the system needs replaced not too long after, I haven't really gained anything. If the Hallowell takes me 7 years to break even and the system lasts 2-3 times longer than that, I've saved quite a bit of money. Break-even isn't everything; it has to be balanced against the expected lifetime of the system. Plus, I'd have to factor in the cost of repairing the yard after the loops were dug and installed. They claim that just a 3' circle of ground is disturbed to drill the loops, but one of the guys eventually admitted the machines rip up the yard pretty bad as they drive around the hole to drill the loops at different angles.

I found the guys at Hallowell to be very helpful to talk to. I don't work for them and I have nothing to gain. I simply speak as a satisfied customer. For new construction, rolling a ground-source system into the mortgage would be the way to go. For my existing construction with an established yard, simply setting the Hallowell on an outdoor pad was an excellent path forward for me.

- Chris