Ben Heck Saves Energy for Earth Day

[@realFoxBox]

I like how this episode is about saving energy, but at the beginning of the episode you throw away the empty thin mints box instead of recycling the cardboard. Bad Ben, bad!

[@NGinuity]

***** Just for perspective, I'd like to point out that recycling cardboard is an extremely energy and resource intensive process in itself. So on one hand, you have a reused product and several waste byproducts, on the other hand, you just have solid waste. I'm not saying that it doesn't have it's place, but I wouldn't chalk that up to anything more than tongue in cheek admonishment.. lol

[@s0nnyburnett]

***** I thought he might have been being facetious. Would have been funnier if he burned some tires and used the pelletier to charge the phone.

[@samramdebest]

I think you save more energy buying more energy efficient lights

[@Andytlp]

samramdebest led? Blue light fuck up your eyes so bad.

[@EnigmaNL]

tulp35000 LED lights haven't been blue in at least five years.

[@Andytlp]

EnigmaNL all leds emit blue light. Your led screen does too.

[@EnigmaNL]

tulp35000 So do incandescent light bulbs. What's your point? Warm white LEDs emit almost no blue light, even less than incandescent. You're probably thinking of cool white LEDs.

[@evilplaguedoctor5158]

tulp35000 LED's emit a specific frequency, so no, red LED's (for example) don't emit blue light, that's one reason they are so efficient. (you can also have frequencies in the infra red range if you so wish) white LED's are based off blue LED's, but.. ALL white light contains blue. (that's kinda how white is made, since white is not a colour)

[@Alfiewow]

You and Max need a sitcom.

[@hingeslevers]

Garneleaf Felix needs his own spin-off

[@EnUsUserScreenname]

hingeslevers #riseOfFelix

[@RetroRoadshow]

There needs to be an episode called The Secret Life of Felix

[@VexedFilms]

I thought you were gonna bake cookies with the heat from the light.

[@yungchop6332]

Yeah it said about 300 degrees

[@themaconeau]

Vexed Films Make mini cookies and job done ;)

[@PropaneTreeFiddy]

A quick note to hobbyists: Skip Fluke if you're doing stuff like this as a hobby instead of a profession. Fluke is top of the line, near-perfect quality...and is priced as such. If you're just the type of person who likes to do weekend projects from time to time, there is nothing wrong with spending a fraction of the money on wun-hung-lo products that aren't as amazing.

[@tHaH4x0r]

Ben did you know that heat transfer compound actually conducts heat very poorly? It just conducts heat better than air and thus is used to fill up small holes and airbubbles that would usually exist in a bond between two metals. Therefore you need to apply just enough and most certainly not too much, as this will influence the heatconduction negativly. Also, peltiers generate neither a current nor a voltage, the proper term is power. If you decrease the resistance the current increases but the voltage drops, this curve can be optimized for maximum power (maximum power point tracking, or MPPT, is used often in solar arrays). Also, putting voltage sources in parallel is usually not a good idea, a better way would be to put them in series, and use an efficient regulator to step the voltage down to something stable that you could use.

[@tetepeb]

Ben Heck drinking game: Drink every time Ben says "Peltier" ;) (yep i have no idea how it´s spelled)

[@BrudusMaximus]

tetepeb My mom married a guy with Peltier as his last name. They pronounce it "pel shay".

[@swsephy]

tetepeb It's written a couple of times in the episode. You got it right.

[@DamianReloaded]

Ben Heck certainly saved energy for Earth day. His own. ^_^

[@NicolasTsagarides]

Making a motorized arm to flip the switch seems ridiculous. Just use a high current relay.

[@hingeslevers]

Nicolas Tsagarides High current kind of misses the point of the video doesn't it?

[@NicolasTsagarides]

hingeslevers High current means it can open and close a circuit that is high current (a shitload of high-power lamps for example). A relay is actually using much less current than the circuit it manages.

[@Robonza]

Nicolas Tsagarides It is actually a good idea even though it was implemented badly. The reason why it is good is you don't need to do mains wiring (electricians only) and it can still be mechanically actuated by hand.

[@hingeslevers]

Ovidiu Lipsa Point taken, admitted n00b here. My reasoning is that Ben also thought of using a relay, but I figured he didn't because a relay might require more power to do the switching than his solution.

[@NicolasTsagarides]

hingeslevers There is no such universe. A relay consumes meaningless power according to the kind of power that is able to manage.

[@PoLoMoTo2]

"I wanted this to run on batteries, but it doesn't" - Ben Heck 2015

[@hingeslevers]

"That's tragic..." LOL brilliant delivery!

[@desromic]

If Felix and Jamie Hyneman were ever in a room together, a dark mist would form, drift over the ocean, and awaken Cthulhu.

[@imbadwrench]

You missed my annual Earth Day Tire Fire.

[@sunflash2]

I approve of Felix's strategy. They are to good to share.

[@fixins]

I made a remote-controlled light switch when I was a kid. I used a rocker-type light switch and actuated it with a servo motor with a guitar pick screwed to it. Stuck the servo motor in place with electrician's tape. Used the receiver and transmitter from an RC car. Took about an hour. All in.

[@NoorquackerInd]

Do you have an ITX motherboard or something mounted to the back of a board behind a monitor? I noticed it was gone at 18:51 and you're right by it leaning on the board it's on at 17:59

[@qw21er43ty65]

Awsome project Ben! For the first project I would harvest the energy in some sort of way, like the kit from wurth for the energy harvesting (from the australian electronic bible, by Dave, verse 664). For the second project I would use a triac or an SSR to switch on or off the lamp... oh and for the flickering could be a lack of current? Maybe a high value cap can help? Again in this project, if I would use the motor, I would use 2 limit switches and I would drive the motor with a PWM, and I would bind a switch as "on" and the other to "off" (the limit switch would interrupt the flow of electricity, so if I press for 5 seconds the button 1 on the remote, the motor will stop at the limit switch, and even if i press again the button, will not do anything, opposite with the button 2, it would work unti the motor will hit the limit switch ) Keep going on with awsome project! :) PS: I made an eco friendly project too, ultimated just 2 days ago :) if you wanna see it, this is the link :) kzbin.info/www/bejne/gJewnWCIicRgeac or you can see all the passage here :) electronicalex.wordpress.com/2015/04/25/progetto-della-luce-scale-attivata-al-passaggio-finalmente-terminato/

[@gaming-zombie1392]

Love doing projects...

[@thestud2]

right on, you went with my suggestion! Keep creating!

[@OddworldCrash]

That acting though, lol.

[@johndennis1196]

How did you learn to do the things you do?

[@jgj4430]

The Ben Heck Show The closing scene from Felix was VERY Funny!!!! Does his voice naturally sound like "The Dark Knight" when unemphasized? It's waaay better than the early "football punting" voice. :)

[@Forssa1]

The 3d printer probably used 10 times the amount of energy than he'll be saving.

[@Turtle_1976]

In the future, you could buy 1/2" copper pipe then split it and flatten it. I've done this before for heat sinks and it works great!

[@allluckyseven]

How did you get both of your thumbs hurt?

[@samramdebest]

just hire a guy to stand next to the switch say when he needs to switch the lights on or off.

[@sinfulldreamer]

samramdebest Don't forget, he needs to have an M.I.T education as a job requirement. :P

[@MAYERMAKES]

samramdebest or use a solid state relay instead of the motorized contraption

[@jkgames5226]

MAYER MAKES I was wondering why he didn't do the same thing. Very surprised more people haven't been saying this.

[@mijaresk2007]

Can you explain how works cable tv and how capture these signals with out convencional decoder ? thx.

[@waynesoule8459]

Ben, replace your light switch with a 3-way, then wire in a 110V relay controlled by the key fob. Or if you already have a string of 3-way/4-way switches, replace a 3-way with a 4-way and add the relay as if it is a 3-way.

[@GraemeMarsh99]

Hello i was wondering if you could do a project on the V tech Companion with the raspberry pi ??

[@WilliamTythas]

For the light switch, you made a lever... Why not make a screw drive and go from the bottom to push/pull the switch on and off?... First button for forward and another button on the remote signal reverse .. You could also regulate the speed of the drive by changing the pitch of the thread. .. I enjoy the show and the out takes.. thanks

[@raykiii]

How about switches on the upper and lower limits to the arm to stop the flow of electricity to the motor when the light is switched off and again when switched on? How hard would that be to incorporate into your circuit?

[@JoshuasRecordings]

Again, those look like nice laptops, why did you destroy them? Anyway neat project.

[@TheTechChef420]

the ending was great. thins mints are to good to share.

[@Abrams-kun]

"...it felt like almost exactly 300 Degrees." lol

[@ThEeDaRkOnE666]

Would the energy taken to design / print / manufacture / solder not actually take more energy than any benefit you would get from it?

[@rmorley78]

Ben, when is 40mA (ts: 16:38) for any low power device considered low power in stand by mode? I think you meant 40uA in stand by mode.

[@kwxj61b]

That light switch part, you should use a stepping motor.

[@StoneFlange]

I'm glad he finally showed a failed project. I was tired of all of his working and all of mine failing :( Also, you really need to change the intro from "exclusive mods" to "exclusive skits"

[@MrBlakBunny]

I was hoping at the end felix was going to go into a secret room, at the end, showing off a secret project he was working on throughout this episode :P

[@alexatkinson1023]

What about a 555 for timing the output pulse on the motor? Simplifies the on/off mechanism to a button click versus having to hold the button for a specific time.

[@WolfDen5309]

Or just use a servo, and use an ATTiny to monitor the state of the switch, i.e. If the switch is up, rotate down, etc.

[@zairoxs]

Dude, Felix is the best actor there, no lie

[@canozdtr]

Ben, for the remote light switch thing, you could of used a relay instead.

[@MatthewPotter]

Ending was awesome!

[@MeierUTube]

Anyone know the name of the music track that is playing in the background from about 14:30 to 16:00?

[@Strawberrymaker]

I dont understand why you didnt simply used a relay and a microcontroller in parallel to the connection of the switch.

[@linuxgnuru]

Why not use a servo instead of a normal motor?

[@CrossRoadsOfTime]

I was wondering that too, does seem like it would work better

[@shadfurman]

I always thought it would be fun to wire up my house with motion detectors and lights that would gradually brighten and dim as you walked by. Once out of a room all power would be shut off do only motion detectors in one room (perhaps adjacent rooms) would be consuming power. Front door would be wired to turn on motion detectors so someone coming in wouldn't be left in the dark because if someone was in a back room there wouldn't be any power to the front.

[@shadfurman]

You can't get something from nothing, the peltier reduces the efficiency of heat dissipation... Which is the point of heat sinks. Unless you include better heat dissipation (aka more surface area) you could damage whatever is meant to be cooled...

[@TimSavage-drummer]

Why not use a PIR sensor(s) and a relay/SSR to control the lights. Then they can switch on only when people are in the room. Can combine that with a ESP82xx to support remote control and to configure time out etc, the ESP also enough GPIO to be able to run the relay and PIR sensors.

[@MajorMandyKitten]

isn't there a way to use gears to change the final rotation speed? :P

[@aaroNiGHTS]

Would it be illegal to take off the cover on the light switch and wire a relay up to it?

[@ShadowEagle5219]

aaroNiGHTS It would be very dangerous. :|

[@EnUsUserScreenname]

aaroNiGHTS Neither illegal nor dangerous, if you aren't stupid and know what you're doing.

[@fearlabsaudio7815]

1 - Steel is a bad heat conductor, plus peltier devices or other ways of heat energy harvesting methods are fairly ineffective, unless you have a low power use or a lot of heat(like a nuclear reaction or geothermal energy). Charging phones is an order of magnitude or two too much for peltier heat energy harvesting. A massive heat spreader and maybe 20 peltier devices, might charge a phone slowly. A more efficient light is a better way to not waste energy. 2 - Seriously, the motor driven lightswitch is a silly, overcomplicated idea. Simply just for show, noone would ever do that in real life. A solid state relay would make about 1000 times more sense.

[@DavidGriffithsTweetUwrite]

Yes, let the mans hand burn in pain, while you think of something to do with the heat! Lol

[@donovanpl]

Re the switch, why not use a triac rather than the motor? I really was surprised at the approach taken with the motor.

[@MarkleZephire]

Great project, but I couldn't help wonder if replacing the light for a LED one would have been more efficient ;)

[@Neceros]

Copper dissipates heat very well, much better than steel.

[@b4ux1t3-tech]

Neceros Well, I think stealing heat is mean anyway. (Bad joke is bad. steel != steal)

[@Mb0ts]

there are 2 kinds of peltiers modules. thermoelectric coolers and thermoelectric generators. i just hope ben used generator because i have one and it would certainly create more energy.

[@zaprodk]

Mb0ts I think you have mixed stuff up. There is no difference, it's the same. Peltier devices does exsist in various configurations, sealed and no-sealed, also there is high-temp devices, but apart from that, they are the same.

[@Mb0ts]

***** some are labeled TEC and some TEG. C stands for cooler and G for generator. i dont think i have it mixed up.

[@zaprodk]

Mb0ts I know that. The differences are subtle, and for Ben's use it's no difference. Only you start making a heat conductor of steel, you are wasting your time :/

[@Mb0ts]

***** i have been working on project with seeback(peltier) module. i had both TEC and TEG cell. with difference in voltage about 50C, TEC only generated about 300mV where teg could generate 2 - 2.5v. difference isnt very subtle.

[@zaprodk]

Mb0ts OK. I've used TEC's for makeshift TEG's and i had no problems generating voltages enough to power a microcontroller and LED. I guess not all TEC's are created equal. Some can work as TEG's - some cannot.

[@jakeshelton9955]

Did anyone else notice that near the end his shirt changed between scenes?

[@himselfe]

I have to wonder why you didn't just use a servo for the light switch and have the remote toggle the servo position? That way you wouldn't have the whole flicking on and off as the motor goes too far.

[@BGBTech]

himselfe or, use a relay, and a few transistors and resistors and the key-fob receiver as a control circuit. the transistors would be used to turn the relay on/off, and the relay controls power to the light (wired in parallel to the switch).

[@pp-spidy]

it easier to reduce your energy consumption by changing the lamp to high power led ??

[@bland9876]

Why throw away that box in the beginning of the episode when you can recycle it thats green right?

[@wmoecke]

Seriously, going through all that trouble just to flip a switch when you could just go with an off the shelf remotely controlled light dimmer that costs a fraction of what it cost to 3D print this contraption? Not to mention that with all of these guards, gearmotor and whatnot screwed on top of the switch makes it impossible to flip it manually, when with the dimmer you wire it in series with the switch and hide it inside the wall behind the faceplate? Not to sound harsh, but this whole episode was an exercise in futility to me.

[@KKuurus]

Cheaper to by X10 switches and use a micro/computer to time set and detect the remote

[@DavidGriffithsTweetUwrite]

yay, way to turn that blowtorch off one handed! Lol

[@b4ux1t3-tech]

Wouldn't it have been better to use a servo? I know the circuit would have been more complicated, but I feel like it would give you a more consistent on/off state. I guess it would bleed energy, regardless of the state of the light switch, but I can't imagine the tiny amount of energy a servo uses when idle would be significant enough to outweigh its benefits.

[@BaratheonBC]

Why use a Rele, whan you can build 3d printed switch flipper.... is this overkill or its just me?

[@AdrianHiggins83]

Key fob + relays ?

[@CratylusCO]

Wouldn't a servo motor have worked better for the light switch?

[@mySikmotorsports]

Could have just bought a WEMO switch, or any other wireless switch for that matter. Lutron, GE, you name it.

[@allluckyseven]

You know, I think it would be really funny if Max asked stupid questions like what happens to the 30% of the "minute" polar bear that's still alive when its other 70% is dead. If it means that when you leave your lights turned on you're also creating a population of half-dead polar bears (or 70% dead, whatever). Instead of just saying "That's tragic."

[@schmatzler]

Joined the

[@shmickist]

but... how are we going to get thin mints... LOL

[@Thatsatoomanypetedavidsons]

Why not use a PIR to turn the lights on and off

[@patrick74161]

Well, Earth day is Coming Up. In Exactly 363 Days.

[@greengiant912]

My Philips Hue lights turn off automatically based on my location settings on my phone. You could of just got a smartphone enabled wall switch :). I think Belkin makes one.

[@bladezzful]

you can get light switches that can be remote triggered. i have one

[@cffellows]

Aluminum would be a much better heat conductor than steel

[@callmethebreeze1974]

simple solution ...motion sensor on filming lights. simple tie in and as much as he moves while filming he should have no issue keeping the on when needed. Plus if he added them to each light only the light(s) he needss on would be on at any given time.

[@beduiini]

Oh, Felix has turned bad! :D Great ending for the episode. :)

[@UndulatingBanana]

I spy Freescale boards! Love those things.

[@slammedniss]

Wouldn't a relay been a more simple solution?

[@VacFink]

Sad to see that heat wasted when it could be used to warm half eaten hot pockets

[@supersat]

Speaking of heat pipes... Didn't the original Dreamcast use some fancy liquid cooling system? ;)

[@element14presents]

Karl Koscher ...one fan

[@supersat]

The Ben Heck Show Check out www.gamesx.com/dreamcast/index2.htm. It looks like the original batches used heat pipes, which explains the weird position of the fan.

[@0xybelis]

The Ben Heck Show First boards did use heatpipes.

[@adamjones4951]

The Ben Heck Show just buy a led light and a movement sensor for the light only a couple of dollars also batteries are bad for the enviroment so that switch is even worse now

[@brichgruber]

if you really want to recycle electricity; figure out how to take the ground from your building's electrical system and transfer it to a charging system.

[@117chronicles]

Did max replace Alison or is he another helping hand cuz I like Alison

[@uncausedk4465]

can you make a functional portal gun

[@badmoose01]

You should have a Star Wars special for May 4th 2015

[@t1iskool]

Build a portable pc that has a built in projector and keyboard so when you go on holiday you can just plug In a power cord and a mouse and your ready to go

[@samramdebest]

you wasted more energy on welding the stuff together than what you can ever save off that phone charger lamp thing.

[@samramdebest]

doesn't the always on remote control use electricity all the time?

[@Sonicdude10]

samramdebest The base station uses 40 micro amps. That's a LOT less over 24 hours than the lights being on for say 5 minutes when not needed. Sure they are florescent but that many still use a good amount of wattage so yes, this does save more energy than it uses. That was the point.

[@zairoxs]

I killed 36.1 polar bears watching this show

[@WeAreMovieMakers]

Wouldn't aluminum work?

[@sgaleta]

why no relay???

[@LordPenguinVR]

9:36 they change the clamp.....

[@abdrahim3642]

Nice

[@pratherat]

This is as ridiculous as the thermostat video! What beef do you have against relays, Ben?

[@DavidGriffithsTweetUwrite]

Laugh Felix, Laugh Goddammitt!

[@HobkinBoi]

Of course, use energy to save energy! BTW, your light switch design is overcomplicated. Use a servo. Its just as effective, and is easily controlled.

[@HobkinBoi]

*controlled

[@Jeborbus]

You can just edit the comment, you know that?

[@HobkinBoi]

I was on the KZbin app, for some odd reason it would not let me edit it and i was too lazy to go back and properly edit it

[@Jeborbus]

Ahh, well now that you found the Google+ version of the post, you can edit it now.

[@kf7tkj]

Felix rocks!

[@MrUnbekannt20]

For the peltier thing. Would be nice to use the heat like this, but it would be too easy ... or if it would be this simple, i guess my computer produces the electricity for his fans himselfes ^^ And the light switch: in my room I use a Rspberry Pi and a relay to switch my light. therfore I can go to a website on my phone ore my computer and click a button ... probably you can make something like this, that the light goes on with your camera or something cool like this ... or just easy the rapsberry thing over wireless, so you could turn it also off, if you at home or the toilet :)