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What's a "standard household electric fire?"

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  • What's a "standard household electric fire?"

    Was reading the ESA's Mars Express site and I saw this rather strange comparision... do they mean an oven, or what?

  • #2
    hmm, microwaves are about 1000 watts.
    Ovens are actually a great deal more.
    Yeah, well I'm gonna build my own lunar space lander! With blackjack aaaaannd Hookers! Actually, forget the space lander, and the blackjack. Ahhhh forget the whole thing!

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    • #3
      That'd make sense, but it's still a rather odd sounding description for a microwave oven. I just looked it up and a normal electric oven is about 2-4 kW, and 1.5-2 kW for the burners.

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      • #4
        Maybe those electric fireplaces?

        AZ
        There's an Opera in my macbook.

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        • #5
          You're "European" so I assumed one of you would know.

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          • #6
            I only know those things from american movies I don't think they're very popular here, just as I don't think a fireplace TV channel would fly...

            AZ
            There's an Opera in my macbook.

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            • #7
              Hehe, I didn't clarify myself in that last comment... I didn't mean "I should have known someone from Europe would know the answer", I meant "You're from Europe (a rather broad term, I know ) so you should know, so why the uncertainty?"

              In all seriousness I assumed it was some odd term from the UK or something, like the way they call the storage compartment in the back of a vehicle the boot while we in the US call it the trunk. I had just never heard the term "electric fire" before.

              Hmm... I just googled "electric fire" and I bet you're right, probably means a fake fireplace. Never seen one myself, sounds rather cheesy.
              Last edited by Jon P. Inghram; 24 January 2004, 19:14.

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              • #8


                They are cheesy only if you try to toast cheese on them! On the other hand, they are kitsch.
                Brian (the devil incarnate)

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                • #9
                  Electric fires must be the lamest.....
                  If there's artificial intelligence, there's bound to be some artificial stupidity.

                  Jeremy Clarkson "806 brake horsepower..and that on that limp wrist faerie liquid the Americans call petrol, if you run it on the more explosive jungle juice we have in Europe you'd be getting 850 brake horsepower..."

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                  • #10
                    Originally posted by Jon P. Inghram


                    Hmm... I just googled "electric fire" and I bet you're right, probably means a fake fireplace. Never seen one myself, sounds rather cheesy.
                    They had some at the Local Lowes Home Improvement store near where I live....They are interesting, but not as nice as a gas or wood buring fireplace.
                    Why is it called tourist season, if we can't shoot at them?

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                    • #11
                      I find even gas fake fires cheesy, but electric fires are just unbelievably cheesy (is there a less colloquial word than "cheesy"? In german it's kitschig, as Brian obviously knows )

                      AZ
                      There's an Opera in my macbook.

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                      • #12
                        Old fashioned room heaters would have 1, 2 or 3 electric bars in them (with a reflector behind) , each one being 1KW. The fronts were largely open, and they were very dangerous affairs.

                        The last one of those I saw was so old it had a cotton-wrapped flex on it - scary!
                        FT.

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                        • #13
                          Originally posted by az
                          I find even gas fake fires cheesy, but electric fires are just unbelievably cheesy (is there a less colloquial word than "cheesy"? In german it's kitschig, as Brian obviously knows )

                          AZ
                          Kitsch is used in English. Oxford defines it as:
                          kitsch // n. (often attrib.)
                          garish, tasteless, or sentimental art (kitsch plastic models of the royal family).
                          kitschy adj. (kitschier, kitschiest).
                          kitschiness n.
                          [German]

                          One of the beauties of the English language is that when we cannot find the mot juste, we steal it from other languages without any qualms. The French will not and think we are too laisser faire in this respect.
                          Brian (the devil incarnate)

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                          • #14
                            What's the French for "va va voom"?
                            FT.

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                            • #15
                              ROFL
                              DM says: Crunch with Matrox Users@ClimatePrediction.net

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