What's a "standard household electric fire?"

[Jon P. Inghram]

"The solar panels will be capable of delivering 650 Watts which is more than enough to meet the mission's maximum requirement of 500 Watts, just half that of 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?

[gt40]

hmm, microwaves are about 1000 watts.
Ovens are actually a great deal more.

[Jon P. Inghram]

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.

[az]

Maybe those electric fireplaces?

AZ

[Jon P. Inghram]

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

[az]

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

[Jon P. Inghram]

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.

[Brian Ellis]

http://search.kelkoo.co.uk/b/a/ss_electric_fire.html

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

[Technoid]

Electric fires must be the lamest.....

[GT98]

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.

[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

[Fat Tone]

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!

[Brian Ellis]

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.

[Fat Tone]

What's the French for "va va voom"?

[GNEP]

ROFL