Reds on the beds: Putin's war sparks Chinese chip boom, starting with electric blankets

Here's an odd side effect of Russia's illegal invasion of Ukraine: a small boom in exports of Chinese electric blankets to Europe. Chinese analyst and consultancy outfit JW Insights (Ijiwei) reported the jump in sales from "70,000 to 80,000 compared to about 30,000 in previous years." Plenty of those blankets contain locally …

[Henry Wertz 1]

Silicon in an electric blanket?

Silicon in an electric blanket? I admit I have not seen the recent models, but the one I saw had a cord to plug it in, some heater coils in the blanket, and a knob to turn the juice up or down. I would like to think it had a thermo switch to cut the juice if it got too hot but I'm honestly not even sure if it had that.

[John Smith 19]

Re: Silicon in an electric blanket?

Yup.

You mean you didn't know about the processors inside circuit breakers?

A zero crossing power switch makes a much more efficient controller than variable resistor.

[Ken Moorhouse]

Re: and a knob to turn the juice up or down.

Only 50% of the population will have this facility though.

[Phil O'Sophical]

Re: and a knob to turn the juice up or down.

They can share.

[Missing Semicolon]

Re: Silicon in an electric blanket?

The knob is connected to a controller device. The one warming my knees at the moment is actually temperature controlled, so not just a triac, diac and capacitor.

[Ken Moorhouse]

blankets contain locally made chips to monitor and/or regulate temperatures

Gives a whole new meaning to the term "bedbugs".

[Ken Moorhouse]

Next thing you know...

There will be an app for automating the counting of notches on bedposts.

[wangi]

Re: Next thing you know...

notchr

[John Smith 19]

But fun fact about the UK electricity market.

Wholesale electricity prices track wholesale gas prices.

And IIRC that (global) price is quoted in $.

So Liz and Kwasi's little event didn't just jack up the price of UK mortages and government borrowing (by about 45% at current 10yr UK govt debt interest rates), it also jacked up the price of the gas that will be used when the sun don't shine, the wind don't blow and the dams are empty (the UK has had substanially less than its expected rainfall so far this year) to cover them, because storing electricity is f**king hard. BTW about 80% of all UK homes use gas furnaces (since this is no longer a UK site).

The United Kingdom.

So many bad energy decisions in one little island.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: But fun fact about the UK electricity market.

If only whinging could turn generators...

[John Smith 19]

If only whinging could turn generators...

I do believe we have one of Mad Lizzies supporters.

No AC, what actually turns most generators in the UK is a gas turbine.

And what turns that is "natural" gas.

Enormous bloody great huge quantities of it.

Bought (because HMG refused to pay the £75m/yr upgrade costs for the mostly empty gas field Centrica, one of 2 gas distributors world wide that is neither state owned nor a public private partnership, use to store gas, eliminating 75% of UK storage) at the spot price of gas, in $, which is then passed to the companies at that price. Good business for Centrica and f**k everybody else.

[Jellied Eel]

Re: If only whinging could turn generators...

Bought (because HMG refused to pay the £75m/yr upgrade costs for the mostly empty gas field Centrica

Previously state owned, aka 'British Gas'. Privatisation has been a nice lil earner, especially now. But personally I think HMG was right to refuse Centrica's offer to make us pay to improve it's cash reserves. Especially as Rough has changed hands a few times, once being owned by Enron.

A much better option would have been to impose a stricter regulatory environment that reduced clear, Enron style market abuses. Reducing storage increases prices, as well as risks from supply disruptions. ISTR Centrica also invested heavily in US gas wholesale market. It's obviously been of no benefit to UK consumers given the price increases.

Most amusing at the moment is the 'renewables' scumbags whining about potential price caps and 'windfall' taxes. The market was rigged so that the wholesale benchmark was set at the highest generating price to favour 'renewables'. Now gas prices have rocketed, it's set by gas generators. So obviously the 'renewables' scumbags are profiting massively as gas isn't one of their input costs. Except on their supply side, but then suppliers of '100% renewables' are happily gouging their customers anyway. Funny how the 'investments' in 'cheap renewables' aren't being reflected in our bills.

Problem is the useless politicians still don't seem to understand that 'renewables' are exactly why we're in this mess. Some of the reform proposals will obviously benefit HMG, ie with CfD's, if the 'market' price exceeds the CfD price, the government gets a cut of the profits. It would be far better if the market were reformed on a cost+ basis that incentivised actual reductions in energy prices.

[DS999]

Re: If only whinging could turn generators...

Once right wing nutters decided to ignore science that conflicts with their politics, we started hearing a lot of tortured logic blaming renewable energy for the failings of the fossil fuel markets.

Just like the Texas governor a couple years ago who tried to blame windmills for Texas' blackouts during the freeze, when it was frozen gas infrastructure responsible for over 80% of their loss in generating capacity, and disabled wind generation was only 10%.

So now somehow gas shortages in mainland Europe caused by a madman using energy as a weapon that have created issues even in the UK are the fault of renewable energy. Putin couldn't have inflicted any pain on Europe if they had used fully non fossil fuel sources (wind, solar, nuclear) unless he blocked the sun.

[John Brown (no body)]

Re: If only whinging could turn generators...

"Putin couldn't have inflicted any pain on Europe if they had used fully non fossil fuel sources (wind, solar, nuclear) unless he blocked the sun."

There's a documentary about that.

[John Smith 19]

"..far better..market were..on a cost+ basis that incentivised actual reductions in energy prices."

Unfortunatley if you're looking for the quikest to build + lowest hardware cost you get

a) Coal fired

b) Gas turbine.

Great if you want to accelerate the extinction of the human race. Not so good if you want to save it.:-(

The 2 key issue with renewables (not "alternatives" like geothermal, tidal and nuclear) is a) They can ramp down astonishingly fast (ever seen how fast clouds can turn "bright sunny" to "gloomy overcast" ? they can also stay down for long periods (months in the case of wind) b) They lack "dispatchability" IE you can't ramp production up or down on demand without massive electricity or other storage forms.

You're right the UK energy market does need reform. Stopping the price of eletricity exactly tracking the price of gas despite (supposedly) so much UK electricity coming from renewable sources (a clear clue that somethings seriously f**ked up somewhere) would be a start. Not to mention the massive Green-washing of DRAX that allows HMG to claim it has made massive emissions cuts when it's actually an accounting rule that just hangs emissions on the US.

There is also, IMHO a huge market for a right-sized nuclear reactor built with already qualified materials running on natural uranium that can do effective load following (IE delta P of 10% of full power/min) as some of the UK AGR's did (at the efficiency levels of SoA coal fired power stations in the 70's) and as some French PWR's do.

[EmilPer.]

electric blankets and blackouts

... I wonder how will the electric blankets work when there is no electricity

I bought a -10C sleeping bag.

[IGotOut]

Re: electric blankets and blackouts

Blimey, I'd want one warmer than -10!

[I ain't Spartacus]

Re: electric blankets and blackouts

At least if your freezer has broken down you can keep your fish fingers frozen in the sleeping bag, while you shiver under your existing duvet.

[Charlie Clark]

Re: electric blankets and blackouts

Magic? I've always thought electric blankets are generally a bad idea and an inevitable fire risk.

Wollen socks, and extra layer on the bed are a good idea. A bigger problem is stopping people let their house get too cold and not ventilating correctly.

[Michael Wojcik]

Re: electric blankets and blackouts

A bigger problem is stopping people let their house get too cold

Since the point of the article is that people are finding it prohibitively expensive to heat their homes, this "bigger problem" is essentially "people are too poor and need to be richer". A fine sentiment, but not in practice helpful.

an inevitable fire risk

What is an "inevitable" risk? One where the probability cannot be reduced to zero? That's true of any real risk associated with anything you use, for any purpose.

It's difficult to find information from an authoritative source quickly, but even the fearmongers throw around a "5000 fires a year" quote (sans citation, of course). Even if that's just in the US (again, context is generally not provided), that's statistically quite low. And more reputable sources suggest this is almost entirely due to blankets that are stored or used incorrectly.

I don't have an electric blanket (I often throw the covers off even when the bedroom is around 17°C), but this looks like a very small relative risk to me. Most electric-blanket users would probably get a better mortality credit by reducing their average number of automobile trips by one or two a week, say, or getting a bit more exercise.

[Mr. Flibble]

Re: electric blankets and blackouts

They could be dangerous, but we've just bought some 12v ones that use <50w, This sounds rubbish, but if you turn them on 20mins before you go to bed, they're more than toasty-eough for my perpetually-cold gf, and usually she turns it off once she gets into bed.

[Tubz]

No thanks, I'll just throw on another blanket and duvet and snuggle the wife or the Husky. 1. safer than a Chinese electric blanket, 2. cheaper, 3. I love my Husky.

[Anonymous Coward]

That's dangerous - equating your wife with a husky. I hope Mrs Tubz doesn't read ElReg.

Mind you, Mrs AC sometimes comments that I seem to lavish more attention on the cat and dog than I do on her :-(

[John Brown (no body)]

"Mind you, Mrs AC sometimes comments that I seem to lavish more attention on the cat and dog than I do on her :-("

The cat is understandable, they can be so much more demanding than a wife. The dog, not so much.

[Gene Cash]

Does it actually work for more than a month?

On this side of the pond, an electric blanket lasts about 2-3 months before it goes on the fritz. They're made by Sunbeam, Sunbeam, or Sunbeam, so there's no competition and it's still 1950s tech. Seriously. You open it, and it's a bimetallic strip, a screw attached to the knob to press on the strip, and an open-air uninsulated coil of metal jumpering things, so that if you drop it, the metal shorts against the bimetallic strip and explodes in a shower of sparks. I'm not kidding or exaggerating.

Cheap Chinese crap is a MAJOR step up.

[Irony Deficient]

They’re made by Sunbeam, Sunbeam, or Sunbeam,

so there’s no competition and it’s still 1950s tech. Seriously.

There is electric blanket competition on our side of the pond; I know because some years ago, SWMBO asked for one, I did some research, and bought one that wasn’t a Sunbeam product. What I didn’t take into account was her willingness to allow our then cat onto the bed when the cat was feeling poorly; the blanket’s electrical bits didn’t appreciate the cat’s only episode of incontinence.

Cheap Chinese crap is a MAJOR step up.

This site states the following about a Sunbeam electric blanket:

The wire inside the blankets is manufactured in USA and then sent to China where it is incorporated into the blankets and then sent back to the US as finished blankets.

which seems to be a long-winded way to express “made in China with US wire”.

[heyrick]

Re: They’re made by Sunbeam, Sunbeam, or Sunbeam,

The cat's incontinence?

My electric blanket has a plug and socket arrangement on the blanket itself. Apparently I can disconnect the blanket part and pass it through the washing machine.

I think I'll just use a not-sparkling-clean blanket because, well, washing an electric blanket just sounds like a bad idea...

[Irony Deficient]

The cat’s incontinence?

Yup — just that once. (The blanket wasn’t powered at the time, but the cat was curled up on it before the levée broke.)

My electric blanket has a plug and socket arrangement on the blanket itself. Apparently I can disconnect the blanket part and pass it through the washing machine.

I think I’ll just use a not-sparkling-clean blanket because, well, washing an electric blanket just sounds like a bad idea…

The same arrangement applied to our blanket, but Herself has a much more sensitive nose than I do, and once the blanket had been washed enough times to pass olfactory muster when dry, it could no longer be classified as functionally electric.

[HippyChippy]

Re: They’re made by Sunbeam, Sunbeam, or Sunbeam,

Yes I was somewhat concerned about mixing electricals and water when I was researching a new electric blanket.

Bought a Slumberland under-blanket with seperate side temp' controls for not many pennies, and have found it washes & dries very well. Fear not.