Throughput in Action
It was time for a new washing machine. We live off the electrical grid and our old Staber was old and tired. For those of you who have never heard of a Staber, which is probably most people, it is used in many off grid homes because it uses very little electricity and water. It also runs on a non- pressurized water system which is what we have at our home. Rainwater runs into a tank and can then gravity feed into the washing machine and when the tub is full the machine starts to wash the clothes. One of the benefits of the Staber is that when it breaks down, the owner can call the company and determine what is wrong, have the parts shipped to the house, and the owner then can fix their own machine. Of course this benefit can also be considered a negative if the owner doesn’t want to do the fixing. When the Staber started to act up I called the company only to find out that our machine was 16 years old and needed many parts. In fact it was going to cost about $500 so we investigated buying a new Staber and found out they were going for around $1300.
It didn’t take many laundromat visits to decide to buy a regular main stream, environmentally sensitive washing machine at a reasonable price. We picked out a Maytag which was great because we all know that the Maytag service person is the loneliest person since they never need fixing. This particular machine has a 10 year guarantee for only $425. Not Bad! The clerk gave us the run down and then mentioned that the 10 year guarantee is only good for the parts that don’t wear out but for an extra $100 the whole machine would be guarantee. Well, $525, Still Not Bad.
The Maytag was delivered and the two men were exceptional and carried the machine into the house and set it just where I wanted it. That day I started the installation process. Most modern washing machines require a pressurized system for it to turn on. Our water system is what is called an open non pressurized system that collects rainwater into a large tank and the old Staber’s tub would just fill up with the water using the force of gravity. The water pipes that lead to the Maytag had to be isolated and pressurized. Two valves, two switches, $80 later and after more trips to the laundromat, the Maytag was finally ready. Over 600 dollars plus spending gas and money doing laundry in town, I’m starting to wonder if it’s still, Not Bad. We fill the Maytag with clothes and with Mary watching I push the on button and nothing happens. I was definitely losing all my credibility. There were more trips into town, for laundry and for parts, and it was something we just didn’t want to talk about.
I began talking to people on the phone and finally came to the realization that it was our old inverter - charger. An inverter changes the direct current that our solar panels produce into alternating current which is regular household current. The problem was that this new modern technological machine can only run on a pure sine wave alternating current and our old Xantrex inverter delivers what is called a modified sine wave current. We now needed a new inverter that delivered a pure sine wave to run this machine. If there is any bright side at this point is was that our old Xantrex also had a charger which allows us to charge our batteries from a generator when the solar does not meet our electrical needs (usually during the winter months when the needs increase and sunlight is down) so we only needed the inverter, not an inverter-charger. After more research and more trips to town we order a new pure sine wave inverter for $825, what a deal. The total is, if anyone is keeping track, is $1430, only $130 more than a new Staber plus all the hours spent hooking this new modern technological efficient, environmentally sensitive advanced washing machine. The new Maytag ended up using more water and electricity than the Staber. I thought of all the clothes I could have washed in the time spent just using an old tub, but that’s progress. Well that’s the end of the story and our clothes get washed with a total of 4 switches and 2 valves.
It was a month later when Mary and I used the table saw only to find out it would start up and then stop running. I wiggled the wires and sure enough it started running again only to stop 10 seconds later. I repeated the wire wiggling and again it turned on once again. After changing the plug it still did the same thing. It turned out that the new inverter would not run the table saw and I had to use the old inverter. This required a huge switch with more gizmos. This time after another $70 is the real end of the story.
This is what throughput is all about. The more complicated the systems the more resources are gobbled up just to keep the system running. It’s kind of a slippery slope when traveling down the throughput path. It is hard to notice the slippery slope, especially when the unlimited energy travels into the house through wires. All I can say is ‘here’s to clean laundry’.
It didn’t take many laundromat visits to decide to buy a regular main stream, environmentally sensitive washing machine at a reasonable price. We picked out a Maytag which was great because we all know that the Maytag service person is the loneliest person since they never need fixing. This particular machine has a 10 year guarantee for only $425. Not Bad! The clerk gave us the run down and then mentioned that the 10 year guarantee is only good for the parts that don’t wear out but for an extra $100 the whole machine would be guarantee. Well, $525, Still Not Bad.
The Maytag was delivered and the two men were exceptional and carried the machine into the house and set it just where I wanted it. That day I started the installation process. Most modern washing machines require a pressurized system for it to turn on. Our water system is what is called an open non pressurized system that collects rainwater into a large tank and the old Staber’s tub would just fill up with the water using the force of gravity. The water pipes that lead to the Maytag had to be isolated and pressurized. Two valves, two switches, $80 later and after more trips to the laundromat, the Maytag was finally ready. Over 600 dollars plus spending gas and money doing laundry in town, I’m starting to wonder if it’s still, Not Bad. We fill the Maytag with clothes and with Mary watching I push the on button and nothing happens. I was definitely losing all my credibility. There were more trips into town, for laundry and for parts, and it was something we just didn’t want to talk about.
I began talking to people on the phone and finally came to the realization that it was our old inverter - charger. An inverter changes the direct current that our solar panels produce into alternating current which is regular household current. The problem was that this new modern technological machine can only run on a pure sine wave alternating current and our old Xantrex inverter delivers what is called a modified sine wave current. We now needed a new inverter that delivered a pure sine wave to run this machine. If there is any bright side at this point is was that our old Xantrex also had a charger which allows us to charge our batteries from a generator when the solar does not meet our electrical needs (usually during the winter months when the needs increase and sunlight is down) so we only needed the inverter, not an inverter-charger. After more research and more trips to town we order a new pure sine wave inverter for $825, what a deal. The total is, if anyone is keeping track, is $1430, only $130 more than a new Staber plus all the hours spent hooking this new modern technological efficient, environmentally sensitive advanced washing machine. The new Maytag ended up using more water and electricity than the Staber. I thought of all the clothes I could have washed in the time spent just using an old tub, but that’s progress. Well that’s the end of the story and our clothes get washed with a total of 4 switches and 2 valves.
It was a month later when Mary and I used the table saw only to find out it would start up and then stop running. I wiggled the wires and sure enough it started running again only to stop 10 seconds later. I repeated the wire wiggling and again it turned on once again. After changing the plug it still did the same thing. It turned out that the new inverter would not run the table saw and I had to use the old inverter. This required a huge switch with more gizmos. This time after another $70 is the real end of the story.
This is what throughput is all about. The more complicated the systems the more resources are gobbled up just to keep the system running. It’s kind of a slippery slope when traveling down the throughput path. It is hard to notice the slippery slope, especially when the unlimited energy travels into the house through wires. All I can say is ‘here’s to clean laundry’.
