What do people think about combination microwave/conventional ovens?
I have a microwave (of dubious vintage - it came with the flat), and while it's quite functional, I wonder if a combi one would be better (the oven on the stove seems to take a long time to heat up, and is never "full").
I have very limited counter space, so it would need to have no bigger a footprint than my current one.
I would say go for it. Do your research, though. I know you will. There appear to be some very good ones out there.
I had one when I was living in a small bedsit. It was definitely worth it. There's no way I could have fitted in a conventional oven and it massively increased the number of things I could cook.
We have one, and it is very useful - especially for smaller quantities. If you choose carefully you can get one which will also operate at the right temperature for proving dough.
Not a new gadget. We have had it for a couple of years, but last night I was about to stomp on it.
It started out in the afternoon. We noticed that Alexa was acting funny, as if it was resetting itself. The little blue light was circling the rim, but finally it stopped.
Later I took my I phone to turn of the air conditioning system that the Nest Thermostat controls, but there was no connection. I had to manually shut off the air conditioning running my hand up the Nest dial to the shut off temperature.
However, I needed to get it reconnected to the phone. I tried several ways to reconnect. Just would not do it. Kept getting the message "to reconnect, you might have to do a factory reset. I did not want to do a factory reset because that would mean all my presets would be wiped out.
Just could not connect it.
Frustrated.
Finally, about 2200 I just gave up. Went to bed somewhat ticked at that little circle on the wall. If I had boats on could have crushed it.
Still, I had a friend in the pocket, a 70 year old that knows gadgets better than any prepubescent nerdy kid. Would not be able to contact him until after 1000 in the morning though.
I had to tend to some tests at the hospital (nothing to worry about--just annual proceedures for a man in my condition)
Came back home. Tried once again to re connect the thermostat through the phone. Should mention phone communicates through wifi or bluetooth with the thermostat.
Three trys. Still getting the same message: "You may have to do a factory reset to reconnect."
Caved in and tried it.
And it worked.
Moral of story. When all else fails, follow the instructions.
Tonight, I go to sleep feeling I accomplished something.
Though I still have to redo all my preferences on the gadget on the wall
Had to do another factory reset again this morning. I forgot to list the proper wiring of the HVAC unit and could not get the circulation fan to run. At least, it did not take four hours to correct the problem.
My daughter's new boyfriend is a programmer and apparently quite keen on the 'internet-of-things'. He's going to get a shock around here; I have no heating programmer at all and the internet-of-the-internet (that is - the world wide interweb, on a computer) can be a bit variable. His car is at least a decade younger than mine. It could take a while to adjust to one another!
Meanwhile, I am making a new gadget for my home. It is going to be one of these. I have to get a long way off the critical path to find relaxation!
For the last 50 years I have used an old steak knife to cut open boxes, which arrived few and far between. Now that I no longer drive I am getting a lot more things delivered. I purchased a box cutter. Wow! So much easier than sawing away with that old knife.
Quite a substantial "gadget" but attached to the outside of our home: I'm on day 2 of a solar and battery installation, 37 panels and 30 something kWh of battery storage. Should see us through all but the worst winter storms and cut our electricity bills to boot.
Quite a substantial "gadget" but attached to the outside of our home: I'm on day 2 of a solar and battery installation, 37 panels and 30 something kWh of battery storage. Should see us through all but the worst winter storms and cut our electricity bills to boot.
Good move. Keep us informed of your results.
New gadget in my house is a new washing machine. In July our old one got fried because of a power surge. The capacity is a little smaller than the last one, but we are not a large family anymore. Still, with every new machine, one has to learn new idiosyncrasies
Main result thus far is causing a lot of head-scratching at the offices of the supplier because they're having issues with firmware updates and thus everything is installed (the 4 guys who came over did a great job) but not working properly as yet.
Main result thus far is causing a lot of head-scratching at the offices of the supplier because they're having issues with firmware updates and thus everything is installed (the 4 guys who came over did a great job) but not working properly as yet.
Our friends who had solar panels plus batteries installed found it took a while to get everything commissioned. They got power for themselves soon enough but it was a couple of months before they could sell power back to the grid.
Now that they can, their grin grows ever wider!
Main result thus far is causing a lot of head-scratching at the offices of the supplier because they're having issues with firmware updates and thus everything is installed (the 4 guys who came over did a great job) but not working properly as yet.
Our friends who had solar panels plus batteries installed found it took a while to get everything commissioned. They got power for themselves soon enough but it was a couple of months before they could sell power back to the grid.
Now that they can, their grin grows ever wider!
That bit's usually about getting the MCS certificate in place. Unfortunately right now I'm not getting much more than a rounding error of power from the panels (~25W).
Elections coming up here in Aotearoa/New Zealand. A wired up.t least one party is has a policy of offering loans towards installing solar power technology, with plug in batteries for people renting so they can take the equipment when they move house. There are 2 houses in my street wired up.
Comments
I would say go for it. Do your research, though. I know you will. There appear to be some very good ones out there.
It started out in the afternoon. We noticed that Alexa was acting funny, as if it was resetting itself. The little blue light was circling the rim, but finally it stopped.
Later I took my I phone to turn of the air conditioning system that the Nest Thermostat controls, but there was no connection. I had to manually shut off the air conditioning running my hand up the Nest dial to the shut off temperature.
However, I needed to get it reconnected to the phone. I tried several ways to reconnect. Just would not do it. Kept getting the message "to reconnect, you might have to do a factory reset. I did not want to do a factory reset because that would mean all my presets would be wiped out.
Just could not connect it.
Frustrated.
Finally, about 2200 I just gave up. Went to bed somewhat ticked at that little circle on the wall. If I had boats on could have crushed it.
Still, I had a friend in the pocket, a 70 year old that knows gadgets better than any prepubescent nerdy kid. Would not be able to contact him until after 1000 in the morning though.
I had to tend to some tests at the hospital (nothing to worry about--just annual proceedures for a man in my condition)
Came back home. Tried once again to re connect the thermostat through the phone. Should mention phone communicates through wifi or bluetooth with the thermostat.
Three trys. Still getting the same message: "You may have to do a factory reset to reconnect."
Caved in and tried it.
And it worked.
Moral of story. When all else fails, follow the instructions.
Tonight, I go to sleep feeling I accomplished something.
Though I still have to redo all my preferences on the gadget on the wall
Contrary to how that might sound he was actually quite good at fixing things
Rather cheesily at church a few months ago I did use the expression and pointed to the bible.
Meanwhile, I am making a new gadget for my home. It is going to be one of these. I have to get a long way off the critical path to find relaxation!
Good move. Keep us informed of your results.
New gadget in my house is a new washing machine. In July our old one got fried because of a power surge. The capacity is a little smaller than the last one, but we are not a large family anymore. Still, with every new machine, one has to learn new idiosyncrasies
Our friends who had solar panels plus batteries installed found it took a while to get everything commissioned. They got power for themselves soon enough but it was a couple of months before they could sell power back to the grid.
Now that they can, their grin grows ever wider!
That bit's usually about getting the MCS certificate in place. Unfortunately right now I'm not getting much more than a rounding error of power from the panels (~25W).
Dropped to 0W after it got dark. Back up to 23W now.