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DaveSauce posted:OK so back to screened porch ceiling chat. We just paid a little over $3200 to stain a large deck, for what it's worth. $2k to stain ceiling seems steep.
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Aug 4, 2021 22:52
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Yeah my opinion is based on the small sample size of two gas dryers (previous apartment had a similar gas dryer that I don't remember being much better) and I guess I've been unlucky with gas dryers. Also in our house, we didn't want to have to deal with adding a gas hookup and prolonging the time we didn't have a dryer (PO took the washer and dryer and the dryer had been electric). As for the clothes-yellowing, that was a bullet point or something that came up when we were doing research to purchase our washer and dryer three years ago (husband was more open to the idea of a gas dryer), and I was initially going to go look it up again to jog my memory and find sources, but I'm fried from work and got lazy and just left it as Internet hearsay. 
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Aug 4, 2021 22:56
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Electricity prices here can get over 50 cents a kWh so it's all gas dryers baby
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Aug 4, 2021 23:00
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B-Nasty posted:If you have to run new gas piping of any distance, the small savings in cost to run a gas dryer over electric will not payback the gas line install in any reasonable timeframe. Yup, wasn’t expecting to save money by switching to a gas dryer, just wondering if there was some other huge advantage I didn’t know about that I would regret not switching for. We have oil heat and hot water and that’s a no-brainer to switch to gas. The gas company is also our electric company, and by indicating we’re switching to a gas furnace and stove the connection fee is close to free. Obviously a new furnace and plumbing will cost a lot, but it’s worth it to not have to deal with oil deliveries.
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Aug 4, 2021 23:11
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Johnny Truant posted:. All installed DIY, half of them run through the AC ductwork 
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Aug 4, 2021 23:22
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Erwin posted:Yup, wasn’t expecting to save money by switching to a gas dryer, just wondering if there was some other huge advantage I didn’t know about that I would regret not switching for. Since you listed b), I'll go ahead and mention that natural gas is considered a "transition fuel" to migrate from coal/oil to renewables (aka electricity in the case of your furnace). This is one reason we're switching our "furnace" from natural gas to an electric heat pump. It's encouraging to me that your utility is providing you an incentive for this migration!
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Aug 4, 2021 23:31
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For gas appliances you also have to deal with exhaust gas and CO detectors. If your dryer is in a spot where it would be a pain in the rear end to get exhaust out then that is also a factor.
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Aug 5, 2021 00:52
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cruft posted:Since you listed b), I'll go ahead and mention that natural gas is considered a "transition fuel" to migrate from coal/oil to renewables (aka electricity in the case of your furnace). This is one reason we're switching our "furnace" from natural gas to an electric heat pump. We already have the hot water base boards and pumps in place, so swapping to a gas furnace is less of a leap than moving to forced air and adding duct work to a hundred year old house. I can’t imagine electrically-heated hot water heat would be efficient. We already have mini split air conditioners and if they ever die we can replace them with heat-capable units and use them until it gets below their optimal outdoor temperature.
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Aug 5, 2021 03:04
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Arsenic Lupin posted:I knew a guy in 1985 who was building a new house and put AppleTalk cables throughout the house. I don't know if he left strings in place as well, but I hope so. Doesn't matter about the strings because you can just use the old phone cord to pull the new Cat6 or whatever through and reterminate. FCKGW posted:Electricity prices here can get over 50 cents a kWh so it's all gas dryers baby Gas driers are very rare in my country but electricity is currently 30¢ and goes up every year whereas gas is 8¢ and this year went up for the first time in 5+ years. So it would be interesting to see whether gas driers eventually take over from heat pumps.
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Aug 5, 2021 03:28
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I don’t get the hate on gas dryers because your power company is probably burning it at night when solar panels don’t work. So its not a 100% conversion into electricity on their end, then add transmission losses, and then straight inefficient electric resistance heating in the dryer and pay the markup on the conversion and delivery of it in electricity. Whereas the gas dryer burns gas and puts the heat directly into clothes. They are generally far cheaper to run vs a standard electric resistance anything. Heat pump might beat it but enjoy your 4 hour cycle. We are a long long way from being fossil fuel free in the US.
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Aug 5, 2021 03:33
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Erwin posted:We already have the hot water base boards and pumps in place, so swapping to a gas furnace is less of a leap than moving to forced air and adding duct work to a hundred year old house. I can’t imagine electrically-heated hot water heat would be efficient. A heat pump usually has over 100% efficiency (for most US models that don't use boreholes or dug down loops it depends on outside temperature). So they are more efficient than gas, but they could still be more expensive, depends on the relative prices of gas and electricity as well as the temperature at the time. We have a 130m deep borehole for ours so it works year round. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7J52mDjZzto
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Aug 5, 2021 04:31
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It's worth pointing out that gas heating/drying is only cheaper than electric (right now), because the US/Canada is swimming in natural gas and we don't give a poo poo about the externalities of burning it. The former is likely to remain true for some time, but the latter is likely to change relatively soon. Some areas are already refusing to issue permits for new natural gas installs, and it won't take more progressive areas long to realize that the current pricing structure is not incentivizing the right things, and sweet, sweet tax revenue is just waiting to be claimed by taxing the living hell out of fossil fuels used in residential.
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Aug 5, 2021 13:35
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Xposting from my other threadquote:Also, would anybody have an idea what this poo poo is? I found it in the bowl this morning as some had flaked off and dissolved. I know they had blue toilet stuff in the tank when we moved in but this is much brighter and flakes up like paint. Is it some sort of corrosion?
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Aug 5, 2021 14:45
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Shooting from hip that looks like copper chloride.
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Aug 5, 2021 15:04
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H110Hawk posted:Shooting from hip that looks like copper chloride. My first thought was also copper in the +2 oxidation state, but that's only based on a high school chemistry class. e: It's very pretty! cruft fucked around with this message at 15:17 on Aug 5, 2021 |
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Aug 5, 2021 15:15
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high concentrations of chlorine will turn copper things blue
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Aug 5, 2021 15:20
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Any evidence the walls were ever that color? You'd take the top off the tank to paint the wall behind the toilet and it'd be easy to set something on the edge of the tank and knock it in and spill.
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Aug 5, 2021 15:23
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Considering there were drop in bleach cleaners in there it’s probably copper chloride then. Should it be a health concern of any sort?
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Aug 5, 2021 15:33
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Ball Tazeman posted:Considering there were drop in bleach cleaners in there it’s probably copper chloride then. Should it be a health concern of any sort? Nope. Don't drink your toilet water. It's a longevity concern but until it starts leaking it doesn't matter. It will likely start as a dribble. I wouldn't pay it any mind.
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Aug 5, 2021 15:54
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H110Hawk posted:Nope. Don't drink your toilet water. It's a longevity concern but until it starts leaking it doesn't matter. It will likely start as a dribble. I wouldn't pay it any mind. My cat did just jump in the toilet the other day but were trying our hardest not to let that happen again… My dad gave us their old (but nicer) toilet for the basement “bathroom” so maybe we will just switch them out.
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Aug 5, 2021 16:01
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Ball Tazeman posted:My cat did just jump in the toilet the other day but were trying our hardest not to let that happen again… As I recall you have a long list of things you want to do, this should be mid to bottom. Your cat is fine.
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Aug 5, 2021 16:09
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Ok, so the floor drain in my basement bubbles up a bit - never overflowing, water level just rises a bit, then bubbles and goes back down - when I do laundry. Washer drains into a utility sink that's right above the floor drain. In the kitchen, directly above the laundry room, the non-garbage disposal sink backfills a bit when I run the garbage disposal. Other than these two things, all the drains in the house work normally, no slowness or anything. I'm like 90% sure this means I have a clogged vent pipe. Does that sound right?
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Aug 5, 2021 16:17
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Elder Postsman posted:Ok, so the floor drain in my basement bubbles up a bit - never overflowing, water level just rises a bit, then bubbles and goes back down - when I do laundry. Washer drains into a utility sink that's right above the floor drain. In the kitchen, directly above the laundry room, the non-garbage disposal sink backfills a bit when I run the garbage disposal. Other than these two things, all the drains in the house work normally, no slowness or anything. I have the exact same problem in the kitchen sink and I just figured it was time to pull the snake out again.
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Aug 5, 2021 16:40
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cruft posted:I have the exact same problem in the kitchen sink and I just figured it was time to pull the snake out again. 
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Aug 5, 2021 16:53
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B-Nasty posted:It's worth pointing out that gas heating/drying is only cheaper than electric (right now), because the US/Canada is swimming in natural gas and we don't give a poo poo about the externalities of burning it. The former is likely to remain true for some time, but the latter is likely to change relatively soon. Some areas are already refusing to issue permits for new natural gas installs, and it won't take more progressive areas long to realize that the current pricing structure is not incentivizing the right things, and sweet, sweet tax revenue is just waiting to be claimed by taxing the living hell out of fossil fuels used in residential. My electric is through an REC at .11c a kwh. Propane is $1.17 a gallon from the ag coop. Last time I did the calculation propane would need to be $6-7 for the cost to equal using straight electric resistance. Combustible gas doesn’t have to come from fossil fuel. Bioreactors are a thing, as is landfill gas, manure pit gas, wood gas etc. I have heard the peak oil argument my entire life and it hasn’t come to fruition. That isn’t to say I believe it won’t ever, but to make the argument that all electric is somehow better because of it is deeply flawed. All electric isn’t a new thing either, homebuilders in the 1950s started pushing that. The storms in Texas are a good example of why I won’t as well - we don’t have the grid capacity and heat pumps don’t really work all that great below freezing unless they are way way oversized for the other 95% of the time. The best thing that I think you can do is to have options. I personally have a dual stage heat pump on top of a propane furnace along with a large wood stove. I have an outdoor wood/coal boiler I could potentially install as well. And I have trees/coal on the property. Lots of work involved there, so it probably won’t happen. Also the point about burning it is kinda moot. What difference does it make if the power company burns it in a converted coal plant to make steam to drive a generator at 60% efficiency or you burn it directly at home where at 96% efficiency the heat is needed? I don’t think they do any sort of treatment on the exhaust at the power plant. That was their big argument for getting away from coal, gas is cheaper and burns cleaner so no big after treatment. But its still dumping loads of carbon into the atmosphere. I have yet to see a feasible truly green replacement for the way things are now.
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Aug 5, 2021 16:56
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Ball Tazeman posted:My cat did just jump in the toilet the other day but were trying our hardest not to let that happen again… When my cat was a kitten she once jumped into the toilet as I literally was sitting down upon said toilet to pee. By some miracle I managed to not pee on her while jumping 3 feet in the air. I thought "well, at least she learned her lesson." Last week I heard a loud splash and went to investigate, only to find a cat dripping toilet water all over the floors. They never get smarter.
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Aug 5, 2021 17:03
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Hutla posted:They never get smarter. I’m learning this very quickly
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Aug 5, 2021 17:11
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rdb posted:My electric is through an REC at .11c a kwh. Propane is $1.17 a gallon from the ag coop. Last time I did the calculation propane would need to be $6-7 for the cost to equal using straight electric resistance. Combustible gas doesn’t have to come from fossil fuel. Bioreactors are a thing, as is landfill gas, manure pit gas, wood gas etc. I have heard the peak oil argument my entire life and it hasn’t come to fruition. That isn’t to say I believe it won’t ever, but to make the argument that all electric is somehow better because of it is deeply flawed. All electric isn’t a new thing either, homebuilders in the 1950s started pushing that. The storms in Texas are a good example of why I won’t as well - we don’t have the grid capacity and heat pumps don’t really work all that great below freezing unless they are way way oversized for the other 95% of the time. The best thing that I think you can do is to have options. I personally have a dual stage heat pump on top of a propane furnace along with a large wood stove. I have an outdoor wood/coal boiler I could potentially install as well. And I have trees/coal on the property. Lots of work involved there, so it probably won’t happen. The general argument is that regulation will drive the change. It's easier to swap out point source emissions, so if your power is generating from coal and switches to natural gas it's a net gain for all mwh generated. It's a massive change on a scale far broader than this forum is going to tackle, but if people want to be green for greens sake, or bet that natural gas prices will rise in the lifetime of their unit, so be it. 96% efficiency does not account for the byproduct gasses, only how hot those exhaust gasses when they leave the unit. I don't think that nat gas will be more expensive than electricity near me any time soon, but I do try to be judicious in my heating use because it burns gas. I tick the box for "all green" on my electric bill because I can afford to, and it makes us feel better about keeping the house cold all day long. (Plus generation is only around 1/3 of my bill, the rest are grid costs, so the cost spread is only a few bucks a month.) I know this doesn't solve the problem, but it makes it a bit better. 3pm-9pm I'm definitely on peaker plants in the summer, but they buy net green generation elsewhere in the national grid for me.
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Aug 5, 2021 17:33
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rdb posted:My electric is through an REC at .11c a kwh. Propane is $1.17 a gallon from the ag coop. Last time I did the calculation propane would need to be $6-7 for the cost to equal using straight electric resistance. Combustible gas doesn’t have to come from fossil fuel. Bioreactors are a thing, as is landfill gas, manure pit gas, wood gas etc. I have heard the peak oil argument my entire life and it hasn’t come to fruition. That isn’t to say I believe it won’t ever, but to make the argument that all electric is somehow better because of it is deeply flawed. All electric isn’t a new thing either, homebuilders in the 1950s started pushing that. The storms in Texas are a good example of why I won’t as well - we don’t have the grid capacity and heat pumps don’t really work all that great below freezing unless they are way way oversized for the other 95% of the time. The best thing that I think you can do is to have options. I personally have a dual stage heat pump on top of a propane furnace along with a large wood stove. I have an outdoor wood/coal boiler I could potentially install as well. And I have trees/coal on the property. Lots of work involved there, so it probably won’t happen. Nobody is talking about straight resistance heating. You'd be looking at heat pumps for most of it, which even crappy non-inverter units are well above a COP of 3 down to freezing temps, and still above 2 down to the teens. With your numbers, any heat pump achieving a COP above 2.4 is cheaper than your very-cheap (not the norm) propane in a 95% furnace. My run of the mill Amana unit can do that to 5F. You can always point to situations where emergencies affect one system or another. Remember the propane shortages a few years back? Providers were absolutely gouging at rates of $5/g+ around here. I agree with having backup options, but don't design your primary heating system for the <1% case. Electricity generation is getting cleaner through multiple methods: carbon capture of gas plant emissions, and of course, renewables. We have a long way to go, granted, but this is rapidly shifting. In 5 years, US electrical generation has cut the amount of coal used by half, and likewise, increased renewables by half. Regardless of what heating method is best for any area, I was only commenting on what seems to be an obvious policy path. You have a cheap fossil fuel whos price does not capture its externalities. Any government that wants to combat climate change is going to realize the discrepancy and the tax revenue that can be captured from leveling the playing field a bit.
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Aug 5, 2021 17:55
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B-Nasty posted:You can always point to situations where emergencies affect one system or another. https://www.latimes.com/world/la-xpm-2011-feb-05-la-na-gas-shortage-20110205-story.html This (and my roof full of solar panels) is another reason I'm moving from natural gas to electricity.
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Aug 5, 2021 18:13
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Elder Postsman posted:Ok, so the floor drain in my basement bubbles up a bit - never overflowing, water level just rises a bit, then bubbles and goes back down - when I do laundry. Washer drains into a utility sink that's right above the floor drain. In the kitchen, directly above the laundry room, the non-garbage disposal sink backfills a bit when I run the garbage disposal. Other than these two things, all the drains in the house work normally, no slowness or anything. cruft posted:I have the exact same problem in the kitchen sink and I just figured it was time to pull the snake out again. I had something similar in my basement. Floor drain right above laundry sink, which the washer drained into. Laundry sink drained into a large verticle pipe right behind it. Floor drain was slow, until I had some work done and some crud got into the drain, then it was fully backed up. I wasn't able to snake it myself, so called a pro. In my case, the floor drain was poorly installed so it didn't have much slope, so stuff could easily get caught up in there, but he snaked it and it was fine, so it looks like every $10 years we'll need a pro to come and snake it (or we buy a heavy duty snake). So anyway, see if you can figure out what's in common between your clogged drains, and that laundry sink, if you can identify a common point in the drain system that's just those things and nothing else, it might just be a clog that needs to be blasted out.
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Aug 5, 2021 20:18
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FISHMANPET posted:So anyway, see if you can figure out what's in common between your clogged drains, and that laundry sink, if you can identify a common point in the drain system that's just those things and nothing else, it might just be a clog that needs to be blasted out. Posting made me finally pull the snake out. Oops, that sink has metal guard doodads on it.  I guess I'm gonna have to take the trap off.
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Aug 5, 2021 20:31
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man you kids and your floor drains. My municipality (and expanding ) has had everyone seal their floor drains at point of sale. I really should just take the expandostopper out of mine by the laundry area. They can't drain to sanitary swears anymore nor can sump pumps, they can't even be old and leaky and leak into the sanitary lines with a dye test.
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Aug 5, 2021 21:22
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the previous owners of my house are moving back into town and are still friendly with our neighbors so Ill be seeing them at block parties and stuff thread grant me the strength to not start every conversation like ‘SO WHY DIDN’T YOU FIX THE CHIMNEY?’ or ‘HEY MAYBE YOU COULDVE MADE THE OUTLETS FLUSH WITH THE WALL’ at least they’re not the flippers or the neglectful little old lady that preceded them
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Aug 6, 2021 01:17
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No, I want you to do and say those things.
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Aug 6, 2021 01:55
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SANITARY SWEARS
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Aug 6, 2021 01:57
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Found more seed and droppings from mice behind our dresser so I guess it’s time to call a pest control service. Cats really not old enough to be a viable mouser yet and I’m pretty over it.
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Aug 6, 2021 02:02
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Ball Tazeman posted:Found more seed and droppings from mice behind our dresser so I guess it’s time to call a pest control service. Cats really not old enough to be a viable mouser yet and I’m pretty over it. Some cats just never are. Yes, get pest control. It's not about just managing this infestation, it's about someone who knows how they got in there in the first place to prevent the next one.
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Aug 6, 2021 02:08
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That is 100% the key. We fought mice for a couple of months in one room until I figured out where they were coming in and sealed it up. Now it's been fine for a couple of years.
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Aug 6, 2021 02:10
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Thirding; I called a pest service about the mouse infestation in my (failing with dementia) mother’s house. Since their recommended treatment was putting traps everywhere we see feces and find where they’re coming in, my sisters & I did it ourselves. They were coming in through a basement hopper window with a panel for the dryer vent - the remaining glass had broken. A month after sealing it, the last one was gone.
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Aug 6, 2021 02:51
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