We plugged our energy meter into a mains socket then plugged our kettle into it. We had already entered our electricity price into the meter so it could give us a direct readout of running cost. Having half-filled the kettle…
How much does it cost to use an electrical appliance?
Here at Infomania.co.uk we’re dedicated to digging out those bits of information that you’ve always wanted to know. One of the things that is really difficult to find out is how much energy domestic appliances actually use. You can usually…
Autopsy of a hairdryer
Here’s a hairdryer that got to the end of it’s useful life. As you can see they are really pretty simple. Basically all you’ve got is a heating element (behind the front grille) and a fan to blow air around…
Autopsy of a hard drive
Oops, I dropped my hard drive! Well to be truthful it had packed up so it wasn’t much of a loss. And it was only a 1Gb drive in the first place. As you can see below once the lid…
Autopsy of a cellphone
Here’s another in our line of technology autopsies – a GSM cellphone. This one came from a car boot sale but had no subscriber identity module (SIM) card so it wouldn’t work. The SIM card slotted into the back of…
So how does a TV antenna work?
Let’s take the example of a single-band UHF antenna. This looks a bit like a fish skeleton. The “bones” are arranged in pairs on opposite sides of a central “spine”. The bones near the front are shorter than those near…