Hacker News Reader

Comment by WalterBright | Hacker News Reader

If it's not worth the money for people to pay to get this feature, it is not worth paying for it with taxes.

I've seen smart glass demoed at a home show 25 years ago. I thought it was way cool, until they quoted the price. It's no surprise it hasn't gotten any traction since. Oh, it also consumed electric power when in dark mode, as much as a light bulb. It's not a passive system.

Window blinds, louvers, eyebrows, shades, etc., all work fine and are cheap.

BTW, when I lived in Phoenix in the 1970s, people would tape aluminum foil or newspapers on the windows to cut the heat intake. The newspapers would block most of the solar heat, but would let the light through.

Here in Seattle I made some reflective panels I can just stick on the windows when we have a heat wave. Plenty of light still gets in.

View on HN

Would this product be aimed more at businesses and high-rises? Also this seems a bit more aesthetically pleasing than the alternatives and especially newspaper.

Just pointing out how cheap solutions can be.

I don't know. LED light bulbs used to be very expensive. A market study 15 years ago would have found close to zero demand for them. Now they are affordable, they cut electricity bills and people do buy them. Technologies need to go over a certain threshold for demand to show up. The government can help with this.

55" 4K TVs used to be very expensive as well. Now they are so cheap and thin and good I hug one in my basement just for the occasional workout video streamed from YouTube.

Technological progress is the secret to price reduction. No government interaction required or even wanted, it's usually much more likely to create problems...

> No government interaction required or even wanted, it's usually much more likely to create problems...

That's generally true, but there are exceptions. Solar panels are very cheap now because of decades of government subsidies. Battery electric vehicles are still more expensive than their regular counterparts, but certainly one day they'll be cheaper (they have many more fewer moving parts). But would they have caught on without government subsidies?

Actually solar panels are very cheap now because the technology used to produce them (the same tech used to produce CPUs and chips and such) has become incredibly cheap due to the widespread high-tech adoption.

Same amazing price reductions with li-ion batteries which are used in every mobile device. EVs? Who knows - but since the government is subsidizing gas prices, that market is already corrupted beyond salvation.

Governmental subsidies managed to skew demand and create market aberrations like the rainy Germany covered in solar panels while their nuclear sector was being closed.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com