Talk:TV pickup

A fact from TV pickup appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 15 November 2010 (check views). The text of the entry was as follows:

Did you know... that the British National Grid saw a record 2800 MW increase in demand due to the boiling of kettles and the opening of fridge doors after the 1990 FIFA World Cup Semi-Final between England and West Germany?

A record of the entry may be seen at Wikipedia:Recent additions/2010/November.

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Anglocentric[edit]

It goes without saying that England games do not have the same take up in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.131.162.189 (talk) 17:26, 15 November 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Opaque jug design[edit]

I changed the rather pretty but unusual kettle illustration with one that is closer to an opaque plastic jug design that is in quite common use in Britain. --TS 16:04, 25 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Global view[edit]

I know this is a term particularly used in the UK, but surely this phenomenon also happens in most major industrial countries? Obviously kettle use is a particularly British vice, but as the article says the greatest strain is caused by flushing toilets (and associated pumps), switching on lights and opening fridges. Surely this happens in other countries too? What do they call it? Gymnophoria (talk) 12:19, 29 May 2017 (UTC)[reply]

I've only heard about electric toilets in Japan... I've never seen one myself. And I only came to know about "TV pickup" from a list of British quirks, like having no mixer taps, just very cold and very hot separate taps.

Where I'm from people don't wait for commercials to go to the bathroom/fridge, you go when you feel like going... and only very rarely you spend more than a minute in the toilet, so no crazy energy consumption there either. I've only ever seen people reading in the toilet in american movies...186.61.181.228 (talk) 15:27, 20 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Kettle misconception[edit]

That article about kettle power consumption being misconceived as a factor in TV pickup is the only mention on the internet about kettles not being a contributing factor to the load surges... from an electrical engineering point of view, kettles would be the main factor to deal with. Kettles are very high power devices, generally more than a kW, and are not continuously draining energy, they are randomly switched on. Refrigerators on the other hand are continuously running and whether people open the door or not, most of them are going to draw their nominal power rating at given intervals, at most what people could do is reduce the next interval by a couple of minutes, but most of them where going to turn on during thee interval anyways and with the same power load and at most a few seconds less of running time. As for pumps that drain toilets, i don't know how toilets work in Britain, but most toilets aren't electric, and I've heard that british people are so afraid of electricity and water being in the same room that they don't even plugs or light switches in the bathroom, so the only pump that's going to turn on is the local sewage plant pump, and it's going to turn on quite a long time after people flush their toilets, and also on a regular schedule (like the refrigerator) because sewage plant operate continuously. 186.61.181.228 (talk) 15:37, 20 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

This may be true, but attributing the majority of power draw to specifically kettles needs to backed by data; otherwise, it just sounds like another popular myth. Toilet flushing may cause large pumps at water supply stations to activate, causing a larger power draw than all the kettles combined. Turning on lights or other activities may also contribute to this phenomenon. As an example, this article ^[1] claims 26M viewers watched the England vs W Germany match in 1990, but the size of the power surge can only be attributed to 1.2M tea kettles. It is equally plausible to claim that 25M people opened refrigerators, heated food in their microwaves, flushed their toilets, or turned on lights instead. Dave Rahardja 20:33, 30 September 2018 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Drahardja (talk • contribs)

References

^ https://www.drax.com/technology/7-of-the-biggest-tv-moments-in-uk-electricity-history/

Purposing this article for deletion[edit]

I think that this phenomenon in the UK, is nothing but a false myth or a superstition of the British people, so this article needs to be deleted. זור987 (talk) 08:56, 9 June 2023 (UTC)[reply]

"I don't believe it" is not a basis for proposing a well sourced article be deleted. --Escape Orbit ^(Talk) 10:14, 9 June 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Oppose, this is just one editor's obsession. Murgatroyd49 (talk) 10:15, 9 June 2023 (UTC)[reply]

[1] ttps://www.drax.com/technology/7-of-the-biggest-tv-moments-in-uk-electricity-history/

[1]