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BoyBlunder posted:FWIW, my Whirlpool sensor mode doesn't dry worth a drat. I think this ended up being the problem, all the other modes work great. The clearance of the third rack is still somewhat annoying though.
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Jul 29, 2018 17:27
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z0331 posted:Spent a few hours yesterday and today yanking out English ivy on the side of our house. Some of those roots were so big I thought they were going to start defending themselves. I got a whole hillside of a ravine covered in this poo poo. After attempting a few years in a row to do it myself I’m just hiring a crew to do it. Some of the vines on the trees have to be cut off with a sawzall. Also it’s mixed with poison oak so gently caress that. The bitch of it is I share this ravine with a bunch of people who don’t give a poo poo so it’s like Helms Deep every season.
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Jul 29, 2018 18:01
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HEY NONG MAN posted:I got a whole hillside of a ravine covered in this poo poo. After attempting a few years in a row to do it myself I’m just hiring a crew to do it. Luckily ours is limited to suburban levels of density. We do have one tree out front with it, but I don’t think it’s nearly what you’re describing. But basically the PO apparently just decided they didn’t feel like planting anything interesting or taking care of maintenance so just put down ivy everywhere.
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Jul 29, 2018 18:15
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SpartanIvy posted:Time to post what glorious home ownership activities you've done so far this weekend. I had a huge party yesterday featuring axe throwing and woke up to a decent hangover and a baby bird on my porch after falling out of its nest. Luckily I’m a filthy millennial and get local produce delivered to the house every Sunday and the woman who comes here raises doves so she helped put it back in the nest. Can’t wait to be scooping a dead bird out of that nest sometime next month.
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Jul 29, 2018 22:35
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z0331 posted:Luckily ours is limited to suburban levels of density. We do have one tree out front with it, but I don’t think it’s nearly what you’re describing. I’m in the dang city!
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Jul 29, 2018 23:03
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The Dave posted:I’m a filthy millennial and get local produce delivered You can't be. Millennials don't know how to cook. Stop trolling.
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Jul 29, 2018 23:08
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Motronic posted:You can't be. Millennials don't know how to cook. Stop trolling. His "produce" is just avacados for him to spread on toast
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Jul 29, 2018 23:36
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Droo posted:His "produce" is just avacados for him to spread on toast That... that doesn’t sound awful. Really though we are signed up for hungryharvest.com and if they are in your area it’s been working really well for us. My wife’s a vegetarian and I eat a lot of veggies so we go through produce like crazy.
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Jul 30, 2018 00:16
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Motronic posted:You can't be. Millennials don't know how to cook. Stop trolling. How else does food get into the fridge to go bad before eating it?
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Jul 30, 2018 00:18
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Motronic posted:You can't be. Millennials don't know how to cook. Stop trolling. I thought that the stereotype is that they cook too often, which is why they're killing the restaurant and snack food industries
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Jul 30, 2018 00:40
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I think they are only killing bad franchise restaurants like red lobster chilis and Applebees.
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Jul 30, 2018 01:46
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HEY NONG MAN posted:I’m in the dang city! What city has ivy-covered ravines? We went to a nearby garden center yesterday and I told my wife it was just to see what sort of shade plants they have and we wouldn't get anything yet cause I still need to watch for ivy regrowth and welp  Won't plant them for a couple weeks, though.
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Jul 30, 2018 14:53
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It's been a while since I lived there, but Atlanta had areas getting swallowed whole by Kudzu. There was a derelict warehouse that basically disappeared beneath it on my commute, it was pretty cool.
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Jul 30, 2018 14:59
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Seattle is full of green belts overtaken by ivy and Japanese knot weed.
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Jul 30, 2018 16:53
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Anyone sistered floor joists before? I found a cracked joist in my crawlspace the other day and want to fix it. I also want to reinforce some other joists so I can put heavy stuff over them without worry. I could use any tips people have.
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Jul 30, 2018 19:27
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I just saw this on YouTube that covers three floor reinforcement methods: https://youtu.be/4DYzcyQaNuc Though it doesn't go into how to size the components but there are probably some reference tables somewhere.
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Jul 30, 2018 19:36
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Found evidence of termites in my woodpile that's kept up against the side of the house! Fingers crossed that there's nothing more serious than contaminated firewood.
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Jul 30, 2018 20:39
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I "inherited" entire woodpiles from the previous owner that are all riddled with ants and termites. Splitting the logs and letting them dry out away from the house seems to work fine.
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Jul 30, 2018 20:41
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Dazerbeams posted:Found evidence of termites in my woodpile that's kept up against the side of the house! Fingers crossed that there's nothing more serious than contaminated firewood. Get some Taurus SC from domyown and gently caress them up
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Jul 30, 2018 21:19
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HEY NONG MAN posted:Seattle is full of green belts overtaken by ivy and Japanese knot weed. Those are a pain but it's the blackberries that are the real fuckers. Welders gloves and two layers of long sleeve mean my arms are only a bit flayed. They also block so much light the hillside beneath them is mostly barren and erodes badly in the rainy season.
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Jul 30, 2018 23:04
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marchantia posted:Corner in question. You can see the window in the first picture for reference. It is likely a drainage issue but I'm unsure of good steps as everything is paved. Everything is graded away from the house slightly and the metal grate by the driveway directs water away to the far side of the garage. Could go in and make sure that is clean but that is farther down the hill then where most of the issues are. In addition to the other good advice, I would also point out the hose bib that is right there and appears to be directly opposite where the water damage is. A leak there (not even a current one, maybe it's already been fixed) might be your issue. It looks like you've got the joists exposed in the basement -- can you see the area around where the pipe goes outdoors?
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Jul 31, 2018 14:50
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Anyone know a good resource for learning about solar? My neighbor is putting in a 12 kW system and he's making it sound really really good, like almost too good to be true. Looking for a place to read up that isn't full of affiliate links or pushing an agenda.
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Jul 31, 2018 20:23
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skipdogg posted:Anyone know a good resource for learning about solar? My neighbor is putting in a 12 kW system and he's making it sound really really good, like almost too good to be true. Looking for a place to read up that isn't full of affiliate links or pushing an agenda. Unless your state has aggressive rebates solar is a lifestyle choice, not an economic one. http://www.dsireusa.org/
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Jul 31, 2018 20:31
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I'm in NY which is pretty good about solar rebates. We paid 27k and after rebates it will be 15k. Our 8kw system covers our electricity bill which averages $150 month. 12kw would have been pretty excessive.
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Jul 31, 2018 20:52
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Local electric company does net metering and has 60 to 70 cents per AC watt rebates available. I asked my neighbor for more information, I'll wait and see what the bills look like the next few months. Consensus does seem to be a best case scenario of breaking even. I'm not sure why he went 12kW or how he came up with that size. His house is huge though, 3700 sq ft and 8 people live there. His last bill was 350 bucks. My house is a little smaller and I only have 4 people living here. We're outside San Antonio in the CPS energy service area. Between local and federal rebates he made it sound really really attractive. There has to be a gotcha somewhere though. I'll probably just wait a year and sign up for the monthly flat rate program where you overpay in the winter to help offset the summer bills. skipdogg fucked around with this message at 20:57 on Jul 31, 2018 |
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Jul 31, 2018 20:53
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skipdogg posted:There has to be a gotcha somewhere though. The two biggest gotchyas I've heard about are: people capitalizing these systems over 20, 30 years and they are in no way going to be as efficient by then, although that is getting better (used to lose about 1% per year but post-2k panels are supposed more like .4% per year). The other one is the simple fact that in most places you have no guarantee of the net metering/retail buyback deal that makes many of these attractive to begin with sticking around through your cap period, which could significantly extend the payback. Some places that had retail net buyback have already gone to wholesale rate buyback.
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Jul 31, 2018 21:06
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Net metering is unsustainable, because the price you pay for a kilowatt hour from your utility company includes the costs of transmission (which includes the amortized costs of constructing transmission infrastructure). To be sustainable, the utility company should only pay generators the wholesale cost of generated power. It is also the case that having lots of people at the end nodes of transmission networks feeding power back into the system requires systemic upgrades and more flexibility in generation, which adds costs. Basically, if lots more people get solar and take advantage of net metering paying retail price per kilowatt to them, the utility is increasingly unable to recover the costs of its infrastructure. So, basically; it's an incentive that you should expect to last for a limited number of years, with the price the utility pays for your home-generated power to fall either gradually or precipitously, depending on the lobbying power the utility has with the state. And the cheaper solar gets, the more sustainable it becomes to lower that incentive and still attract people to get solar. This is a model where you do not want to be among the group of early adopters. Financially speaking, anyway. It may also reduce the resellability of your home, to attach a long-term commitment to some solar company that the buyers would have to agree to. For this reason, I'd recommend self-financing a solar installation vs. the arrangement a lot of solar installers like, where you pay them a monthly fee for decades. From an ethical or from a lifestyle perspective, solar can be great, assuming you're in a location where it's sensible. I'd consider it myself even though the numbers don't make tons of sense for me, if I wasn't probably under 5 years away from a whole roof replacement.
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Jul 31, 2018 21:16
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Leperflesh posted:Net metering is unsustainable, because the price you pay for a kilowatt hour from your utility company includes the costs of transmission (which includes the amortized costs of constructing transmission infrastructure). To be sustainable, the utility company should only pay generators the wholesale cost of generated power. It is also the case that having lots of people at the end nodes of transmission networks feeding power back into the system requires systemic upgrades and more flexibility in generation, which adds costs. Hey this is wrong! The first part anyway. Utilities push solar as a form of demand management and then upgrade their transmission and distribution lines as large capital projects instead, which allows them to still generate revenue while upgrading the infrastructure.
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Aug 1, 2018 01:15
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potatoducks posted:Experiences with dual zone AC anyone? We need to put in central air, and I'm looking at my options. Ended up getting a 5 ton AC unit and variable speed fan furnace installed for 13k. Couldn't do dual zone unfortunately because of how our ducts are set up, so we plan to compensate by keeping the fan running at all times as well as use an Ecobee with sensors on both floors. We also needed a horizontal condenser unit due to a required 3 foot offset in the sideyard so that added an extra 1.5k.
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Aug 1, 2018 04:45
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12kw solar system is still pretty big. We have an 8.5kwh system which is 33 panels. Our house is 4200 sq. ft. and our electric bills before solar where $600.
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Aug 1, 2018 04:56
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FCKGW posted:12kw solar system is still pretty big. We have an 8.5kwh system which is 33 panels. Our house is 4200 sq. ft. and our electric bills before solar where $600. How much did the solar system cost, and what are your electric bills now (I assume lower, but not zero)?
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Aug 1, 2018 05:14
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enraged_camel posted:How much did the solar system cost, and what are your electric bills now (I assume lower, but not zero)? Yes. I’d be interested in more details too
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Aug 1, 2018 05:55
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I am also interested in solar. My power bill is stupid cheap but it would still be cool. In my mental planning for reinforcing my floor joists I've come to the realization that I have no way to get additional lumber into my crawlspace as my hatch opening is very small and in a closet. So now I'm wondering if I can cut a doorway into the side of the wall that is shared with the garage. This is the deepest part of the crawlspace and would also open up to under the kitchen which would make some later work a lot easier too. I could also maybe use it for additional storage.
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Aug 1, 2018 15:34
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SpartanIvy posted:I am also interested in solar. My power bill is stupid cheap but it would still be cool. Vents aren't large enough?
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Aug 1, 2018 17:05
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Unfortunately not. The vents aren't just rectangles. They are made up of like 6 different triangles so even if I ripped out the mesh you couldn't fit anything bigger than a smallish pipe through. Complicating things even more is that those are on the brick facade, and there's another set of vents behind them that are offset somewhat. So I couldn't even make use of the entire vent width if I busted the whole thing out of the facade. E: this setup also makes it impossible to replace the wire mesh on some of the vents that have holes in them! SpartanIvy fucked around with this message at 17:35 on Aug 1, 2018 |
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Aug 1, 2018 17:32
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No Butt Stuff posted:Hey this is wrong! The first part anyway. Who pays for those large capital projects? Ultimately, the money comes from the customers, unless they're subsidized or paid for by taxpayers. http://www.emrf.net/uploads/3/4/4/6/34469793/emrf_net_metering_study_11-12-16.pdf quote:If the value of rooftop solar electricity is less than the retail rate and an appreciable number of consumers participate in net metering, the revenue required to maintain the fixed costs of the grid must be come from the shrinking revenue base of non-participating consumers. Unless the participating net metering customers are subject to a two-part tariff that covers their fixed costs, non-participating consumers will bear an unfair share of the fixed costs. An energy-only net metering tariff creates a positive feedback loop encouraging more net-metering participants, further exacerbating a cross subsidy that leads to economic inefficiency. The value is less than the retail rate because a PV customer feeding power back into the grid is only offsetting the utility's wholesale cost of power, which is usually lower than the retail price charged for that power. quote:We find that rooftop PV can have significant value but that its value is highly site specific. Regardless, as solar penetration increases, its value decreases, implying that a uniform net metering tariff will eventually result in a cross-subsidy unlikely to be economically efficient. https://www.brookings.edu/opinions/why-net-energy-metering-results-in-a-subsidy-the-elephant-in-the-room/ quote:Much of the talk about NEM focuses too often on the “value” of the energy that is sold back to the grid by a NEM customer. In reality, the amount of energy sold back to the grid is relatively small. The real issue is the failure of NEM customers to pay fully for the grid services that they use while connected to the grid 24/7 When you use this as an example - even if most PV customers with net metering don't "net" to $0 - the problem is more obvious. Imagine if everyone had rooftop solar, and averaged out to a $0 (or lower) bill. Who would be paying for all the transmission equipment, which they still need due to periods when they are drawing power from the grid rather than supplying power to the grid? Someone has to pay for it. Could be taxpayers, if you like - sharing the cost of infrastructure kind of makes sense, although there's a strong and prevalant argument that people who use a lot more power ought to pay a lot more of the cost of providing that power. I personally think the end result as rooftop solar expands is that simple net metering in which you are paid the retail power rate for what you put back on the grid is going to go away. It might be replaced with a complex system that accounts for each consumer's "grid costs" on a dynamic basis, or perhaps it will be the much simpler approach of only crediting back to power providers at the prevaling wholesale rate, just as the utility would pay a third party generator.
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Aug 1, 2018 17:59
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I never said it didn't come from customers, you just said the utility wouldn't be able to recover the costs to maintain it's infrastructure, which was incorrect.
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Aug 1, 2018 18:16
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No Butt Stuff posted:I never said it didn't come from customers, you just said the utility wouldn't be able to recover the costs to maintain it's infrastructure, which was incorrect. So what exactly is that supposed to mean? Obviously there are methods for a utility company to create revenue - no one is disputing that. You said: No Butt Stuff posted:Hey this is wrong! The first part anyway. ....in response to Leperfish saying net metering is unsustainable. You've said nothing to refute that at all so far. Or are you implying that net metering remains a thing while customers or taxpayers get bigger bills with different line items on them to make up for it? Because that's a pretty nonsensical solution that ends up with the same result.
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Aug 1, 2018 18:21
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Leperflesh posted:Basically, if lots more people get solar and take advantage of net metering paying retail price per kilowatt to them, the utility is increasingly unable to recover the costs of its infrastructure. But also I think I misread the post when I responded to it. He's absolutely correct about net metering.
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Aug 1, 2018 18:57
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And let's take this to it's (unrealistic but we may creep up on it) conclusion: everyone has solar sufficient to generate all of the power they use. They pay for utility access charges, so the grid is still up. But - whoops: who's storing or generating when the sun is down?
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Aug 1, 2018 19:35
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