Title. We keep ours at 75F, parents do 77F, and in laws 68F. It made me curious what everyone else keeps theirs at?

You are viewing a single thread.
View all comments View context
7 points

older ones are often electrical, but not really electronic. they use a bimetal strip that bends due to changing temperatures, to complete a circuit at the point you set the slider. it’s actually a really fascinatingly simple bit of tech.

permalink
report
parent
reply
3 points

Mine growing up used a bit of mercury in a sealed vial mounted to that bimetallic strip.

permalink
report
parent
reply
1 point

any idea what the mercury was for? something about getting the heat in and out of the strip faster maybe?

permalink
report
parent
reply
3 points

The Mercury is in a glass tube with two wires and the tube is attached to the bimetallic strip in such a way that the motion of the Mercury due to gravity as the strip moves will close the circuit between the two wires. The Mercury is just being used a liquid conductor.

permalink
report
parent
reply
2 points

Yeah, sorry. It was the switch! Two wires on one side. When the capsule tilts from the strip/coil it makes the electrical connection.

permalink
report
parent
reply

Asklemmy

!asklemmy@lemmy.ml

Create post

A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions

Search asklemmy πŸ”

If your post meets the following criteria, it’s welcome here!

  1. Open-ended question
  2. Not offensive: at this point, we do not have the bandwidth to moderate overtly political discussions. Assume best intent and be excellent to each other.
  3. Not regarding using or support for Lemmy: context, see the list of support communities and tools for finding communities below
  4. Not ad nauseam inducing: please make sure it is a question that would be new to most members
  5. An actual topic of discussion

Looking for support?

Looking for a community?

Icon by @Double_A@discuss.tchncs.de

Community stats

  • 11K

    Monthly active users

  • 5.3K

    Posts

  • 296K

    Comments