Tuesday, October 31, 2006
Fall back
Daylight savings time is now over and all my clocks have been reset. I wonder what will happen next year when we get those extra 4 weeks of daylight. I would expect that most computer systems would be updated with the new rules, but what about all those other things that automatically adjust for DST (VCRs, thermostats, ... ) Will we need to update the firmware for all of those? How?
As with the time change, I checked all the smoke detectors and of course the batteries had run dry already. Since I didn't know how old the detectors were I decided to replace them. This is pretty straightforward - drill a couple of new holes for the new mount and screw them in. I decided to go for the battery operated ones. I'm not sure if the power supplied ones with battery backups are that good an idea. Batteries tend to lose the charge over time. What if you had a fire when the power was out (perhaps from an unattended candle) and the battery was dry? It seems like too much to test whereas a regular testing rhythm of every time change makes it less likely that something is missed.
As with the time change, I checked all the smoke detectors and of course the batteries had run dry already. Since I didn't know how old the detectors were I decided to replace them. This is pretty straightforward - drill a couple of new holes for the new mount and screw them in. I decided to go for the battery operated ones. I'm not sure if the power supplied ones with battery backups are that good an idea. Batteries tend to lose the charge over time. What if you had a fire when the power was out (perhaps from an unattended candle) and the battery was dry? It seems like too much to test whereas a regular testing rhythm of every time change makes it less likely that something is missed.
Labels: clocks, daylight savings time, smoke detectors
# posted by Wing-Leung Chan @ 3:07 p.m. 
