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H110Hawk posted:Which is great if you live in the house in perpetuity. Don't poison the soil and then just hope no child ever goes and plays in the now-finely-ground-lead-paint-dirt. Or the kid helps you dig a vegetable garden (breathing the dust) and then eats the veggies. Yes, called them to see if I needed a permit for me or a contractor to paint over lead-based paint exterior along with scraping for residential. They said no. Guess it's just time for shovelling.
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Jan 5, 2023 23:23
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Abyss posted:Yes, called them to see if I needed a permit for me or a contractor to paint over lead-based paint exterior along with scraping for residential. They said no. Guess it's just time for shovelling. If that's the case - call em up! Ask what mitigation the contractor should have done! "Hey, I called on X date-and-time to inquire about painting over lead paint and was told no permit needed by <name>. My licensed contractor left a bunch of lead paint chips in my dirt, are they required to capture those?"
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Jan 5, 2023 23:25
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Sounds like a plan. Thanks.
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Jan 5, 2023 23:27
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Our Whirlpool gas oven has been driving us insane for years. It keeps having this issue where it'll ignite just fine, come up to temperature, but will fail to relight once hot to maintain temperature. You hear the gas valve open, the igniter clicks 4 times, then the valve shuts off. It'll do this 3 times before giving up entirely and you need to turn it off/on to get it to keep trying. This problem is solved by replacing the igniter. It uses one light this:  The problem is the new igniter will only solve the problem for 4-6 months max. I've tried a ton of them,$10 amazon knock offs, the $50 OEM part, all the same. After 4-6 months the issue starts up again and I need to replace the igniter. I resorted to buying 10 of the drat things on aliexpress to keep in stock, and at this point can change it out in 5 minutes, but this is absurd. What could I be missing here? The manifold looks completely clear. The igniters I replace look normal when I take them out, no excess soot, charring or anything like that. Could it be a gas flow issue down the line? e: Thought of something else, I almost want to say this may be environmental? When it starts acting up, it tends to correspond to a large swing in humidity or temperature. We also noticed if you crack the door at the right moment, there's a better chance of it relighting. Is there an air/fuel adjustment I can make? opengl fucked around with this message at 02:02 on Jan 6, 2023 |
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Jan 5, 2023 23:54
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H110Hawk posted:Which is great if you live in the house in perpetuity. Don't poison the soil and then just hope no child ever goes and plays in the now-finely-ground-lead-paint-dirt. Or the kid helps you dig a vegetable garden (breathing the dust) and then eats the veggies. I don't disagree that this is preferable and I think that the advice given to contact the city is solid, but by the same token, it seems like more harm could ultimately be done with a huge project to remove the soil (which could further spread contamination). Plus, the source hasn't been fully remediated... I think the shop vac option is also a good idea, along with pursuit of the contractor.
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Jan 6, 2023 02:00
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Comrade Gritty posted:Does anyone have any opinions on the best way to monitor and track down energy use in a house? It looks like electric prices have gone up significantly so in the past few years which is spurring me to try and take a look and figure out what I can do to bring the overall cost of our utilities down since we're currently paying about $800/mo for electric and propane (~500 for Electric, ~300 for Propane, both on "budget billing" so it spread the cost out). I installed a sense a few years ago, works fine. Most annoying thing is that they only allow their software to determine what constitutes a device. (There's a few plug in killawatt style meters they also use, but that isn't a long term solution). But once the initial toy phase of watching it identify stuff is over, it does what it should do. I've been happy having it.
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Jan 6, 2023 03:08
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Comrade Gritty posted:I'll look into the energy audit thing and see if that comes up with anything. quote:Sorry I mentioned budget billing just to indicate that the $500/mo electric isn't just this months expenses, since it's spreading the higher load in the summer over the winter months as well, not that I thought it saved me money. Eh - is your current plan through the utility, or with a third party? Here in NJ, the third party supplier plans are 99% scams, and it's relatively easy to get signed up to one (if you answer your door and give your bill to the person "working with" the power company). Maybe start by looking at your meter. Is it spinning rapidly? (or whatever the digital equivalent is). If so, start turning off breakers until it slows significantly, and figure out what's on the relevant circuit.
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Jan 6, 2023 03:27
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Democratic Pirate posted:Tried to go local and called the wholesaler about a Bosch 500. Lead time is 20-28 weeks. FWIW I ordered mine off of Amazon (I know, I know...) right after Christmas & it arrived Tuesday. Amazon's delivery window was 1/12-1/25
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Jan 6, 2023 05:09
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I've been looking at under sink filters for lead, anyone got a recommendation? Separate drinking faucet is what I'm thinking.
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Jan 6, 2023 05:13
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Comrade Gritty posted:
This usage, at first glance, seems crazy high to me with the appliances you've got listed there. For comparison, I have: - 2400sqft house - (1) Nat gas furnace, 1 AC - (1) electric dryer - (1) washer - (1) gas water heater - (2) combo fridge + freezers - (1) old dishwasher - (1) electric range with double oven, at least one of the ovens is used daily, the range generally as well. - (1) electric sump pump that runs frequently. Now, we only cool the house to 24C (~75/76f) and our house gets lots of shade so the AC doesn't actually run much, and our usage looks like this:  Generally between 6-700kWh/month. When looking at the electrical side of things, you have, based on your description, 1 extra furnace (propane, so it's not really a big electrical load), one extra AC (the huge conditioned space is certainly impacting your summer results on the electrical side, 3600+kWh  ), and an extra freezer, where I have an electric dryer. How old is your freezer? Like I get your summer months being massive because of the huge space you're conditioning, and I can't comment on propane usage, but the months where you're not running your AC unit seem insane to me. We have similar loads and usage patterns, though I'd guess your washing machine gets a lot more use than mine given that I'm guessing there's a lot of people in the house. For what it's worth, going from the office to working from home added about 100kWh. Pre-pandemic we averaged 5-600 kWh(ish). I wouldn't bat an eye if your non-ac months were like 1200kWh, but this seems crazy. Sure you're not forgetting like an electric car you're regularly charging??
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Jan 6, 2023 05:53
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Depending on your plan, you may pay different rates at different usage levels In Texas you could buy (very round numbers) a 250kwh plan at $0.10/kWh, but you pay $0.125/kWh for usage 250-300 and then $0.22/kWh for 301+ kWh. A 500kwh plan might be $0.11/kWh 0-500kwh, $0.14kwh 501-700kwh and $0.19/kWh 701+. It's highly variable. Flat rate plans exist but you might pay $0.14/kWh. I was in the same house for five years and reviewing my bills knew what my maximum usage was and bought my plan accordingly on powertochoose.org. this was before TXU got bought out and ruined though In California I think, everyone pays like, $0.15/kWh up to 400, then $0.20 up to 900 and then $0.25; over 900. Very round numbers in this example obviously Anyways TL;DR check your billing strategy you might have bought a billing strategy for a 1 bedroom apartment. Also, in Texas at least, your energy rate gets jacked to the moon if you don't re-up on your contract annually. I was paying $0.10/kWh but unless you called the power company after 12 months they would switch you to the $0.18/kWh plan automatically. Deregulated markets are awesome like that Also if there's construction nearby they can pull tens of dollars of power
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Jan 6, 2023 07:04
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Comrade Gritty posted:This is what PECO says I've used per month for the last year:  lmao dude now granted I'm only in a 2000 sq ft house, but my peak monthly consumption last summer was like 1300 kwh, and we keep our AC at like 74. This is in NC, too, so we get hot and humid and we stay that way for a few months. None of those appliances really look like major power hogs, at least not from an electricity standpoint. Not really familiar with propane, though, since everywhere I've lived has been NG. Otherwise we have near identical setups and likely similar usage of major appliances. Only differences is we have 1 oven and no generator. And our dryer uses electricity, not NG. Also only 1 fridge/freezer combo in the garage, not 2 separate units. Sooo.... what are you doing there? I get that your summer electrical usage is going to be super high with that much sqft to cool, but your winter electricity usage is WAY higher than our summer usage, which doesn't make any sense if your heat and water heater are both on propane. I feel like that much usage should have a pretty obvious culprit somewhere. Do you have a big IT closet or something? Space heaters? Incandescent lights running 24/7? edit: So for reference, our lowest consumption last spring ws like 455 kwh, and other heating months it hovers between that and 600 kwh. DaveSauce fucked around with this message at 13:16 on Jan 6, 2023 |
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Jan 6, 2023 13:08
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Comrade Gritty posted:This is what PECO says I've used per month for the last year: This is an insane amount of energy usage. How are you using 2k kWh in January and February when your heating is propane? Is there a mining rig or two not listed as "appliances?"
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Jan 6, 2023 14:11
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Yeah this seems to be "where the gently caress is my electricity going" territory, not "optimize my usage for maximum efficiency." Hooking up monitoring to each circuit will certainly tell you, but that's a min/max step. IMO there's something major going on here and it should be relatively easy to find without having to spend hundreds on specialized monitoring equipment.
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Jan 6, 2023 14:18
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Benagain posted:I've been looking at under sink filters for lead, anyone got a recommendation? Separate drinking faucet is what I'm thinking. I’ve got a Woder model that’s been solid since installation.
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Jan 6, 2023 15:19
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DaveSauce posted:Yeah this seems to be "where the gently caress is my electricity going" territory, not "optimize my usage for maximum efficiency." Yes. I'm using much less than this in a 4500 sq ft house in the same general area/temperature zone with oil heat BUT also with a steam humidifier and over 1000 sq gt of electric heated tile. And a ridiculous rack of computer equipment always running in the basement. The size of the house simply doesn't explain this.
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Jan 6, 2023 15:39
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Maybe someone is stealing his electricity? Grow room in the basement? I’m excited for the conclusion of the electricity mystery
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Jan 6, 2023 15:41
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Convert your grow room(s) from metal halides to LED OP
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Jan 6, 2023 15:55
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AC: 300 kWh Washer and Dryer: 120 kWh Heating: 225 kWh TV and Computers: 85 kWh Professional Level Grow Op: 1500 kWh Someone please help get our budget under control, my family can’t eat
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Jan 6, 2023 16:02
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Sweeper posted:Maybe someone is stealing his electricity? Grow room in the basement? I’m excited for the conclusion of the electricity mystery That was my first thought. Someone might be running an extension cord or seven from his house to power a Bitcoin mining operation or grow op. Maybe invite the power company out to investigate?
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Jan 6, 2023 16:14
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power meter is spinning so fast it's ready for take off and actually that's a thing: OP walk outside today and record the number off your power meter. Keep doing this daily at around the same time and make a log of your usage. There's a SMALL chance that the POCO has your account tied to someone else's meter. But in any case this should give you a more real time usage, rather than waiting to see what your POCO thinks you use in an entire month. Not the same as monitoring every circuit, but it's a starting point, and it doesn't cost you anything.
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Jan 6, 2023 16:22
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Are those actual reads or estimated reads? Your bill should have the meter read on it. Does it make sense? Are within (last read + last month usage) today?
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Jan 6, 2023 16:36
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Thanks a lot for the input everyone, I'll check out the meter and try and shut off circuits to see if that makes an impact on the meter. To answer some of the questions: - We signed up through PECO's website with a third party supplier when we moved in, and they're cheaper than PECOs current rate. - It would be pretty obvious if someone had an extension cord plugged into my house since we're on a 2ish acre lot and nobody is really close... but there is a shed at the very corner of the property which has power that someone could have plugged something into. I'll walk down there and check it out. - No bitcoin mining, no grow up, no electric car. Other things we have that I know of are: - There's 2 intel NUCs running 24/7 - An older supermicro server with some hard drives in it running as a NAS, looking at graphs it's CPU is 98% idle almost the entire day. - A unifi dream machine and some unifi switches and APs hanging off of it. - A big UPS for the above-- do these draw a ton of electricity beyond whatever you have plugged into them? I naively assumed they did not.. - 3 gaming computers, but 2 of them spends most of their time in stand by, and the third spends most of its time with a code editor and a web browser not a game. - A single heat lamp (like the kind you put in chicken coops) running for 12h/d in the shed to provide shelter and heat for the stray cats-- but this is only a few weeks old, didn't exist prior. - A trickle charger / battery tender for my ICE truck, but only rarely plugged in. - 2 fairly modern televisions that are generally always running (< 5 years old) - 8 Sonos speakers - An instant pot that gets regular use - a well pump - A fan my daughter keeps running 24/7? - some candle warmers and plugins? - feels like we're way into the weeds here though so unlikely to be any of these things. At least I know that we are using an outsized amount of electricity now, and that it's worthwhile to spend time to try and track down exactly what is causing it. I ordered one of those Kill-A-Watt things that's supposed to be here on Sunday to try plugging some of the computers or other stuff into to see if one of them is using a ton of electricity, I'm going to check around for any extension cords or what not plugged in that shouldn't be, and take daily readings off my meter to make sure it matches up with what's on the bill.
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Jan 6, 2023 16:55
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Guy Axlerod posted:Are those actual reads or estimated reads? Your bill should have the meter read on it. Does it make sense? Are within (last read + last month usage) today? It says Actual, so I'd guess they're actual reads 
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Jan 6, 2023 16:59
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Comrade Gritty posted:- A big UPS for the above-- do these draw a ton of electricity beyond whatever you have plugged into them? I naively assumed they did Efficiency depends on the load %. You can likely find the efficiency curve for your make/model if it's not some random junk. E.g. here's a desktop 500VA model from APC: https://www.apc.com/nl/en/products-efficiency-graph/BV500I-MSX/APC-Easy-UPS-500VA-Floor-Wall-Mount-230V-4x-Universal-outlets-AVR brugroffil fucked around with this message at 17:13 on Jan 6, 2023 |
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Jan 6, 2023 17:11
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Comrade Gritty posted:It says Actual, so I'd guess they're actual reads 4161 
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Jan 6, 2023 18:30
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Comrade Gritty posted:At least I know that we are using an outsized amount of electricity now, and that it's worthwhile to spend time to try and track down exactly what is causing it. I ordered one of those Kill-A-Watt things that's supposed to be here on Sunday to try plugging some of the computers or other stuff into to see if one of them is using a ton of electricity, I'm going to check around for any extension cords or what not plugged in that shouldn't be, and take daily readings off my meter to make sure it matches up with what's on the bill. Yeah that is a ton of electricity, especially if you're using propane for heat. There's something using a ton, some TV's or PC's on standby aren't using an extra 1000 kWh a month. It could be that old SuperMicro server... I don't know how old it was, but some of that really old equipment used a ton of power just idling. I remember some of the old HP Gen 4 servers would idle at over 200W I use a ton of electricity as well. Old desktops running pfsense and a Plex server that run 24/7. 4 Desktop Pc's, a bunch of TV's and I live in a hot climate and keep the thermostat at 71. Most of my power is HVAC though, even running all that stuff all day, with my wife and I both WFH, my baseline power usage is like 1000 kWh probably, and thats with an electric dryer. During the summer my 2 HVAC units pretty much run 21 hours a day. You have a pool that runs a pool pump? Well pump? Anything else that would use a serious amount of electricity? I figure you're using 1000 or so kWh more than I would expect. Here's my electric usage as a comparison. Your house is way bigger than mine, but we both have 2 HVAC systems
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Jan 6, 2023 18:32
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He said he has a well pump. I'm not a well water guy, but something with the switch could cause it to run all the time yeah?
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Jan 6, 2023 19:56
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NomNomNom posted:He said he has a well pump. I'm not a well water guy, but something with the switch could cause it to run all the time yeah? I have a well pump also. It spent all of November cycling every 2 minutes because of a bad check valve that I was having problems sourcing:  So I'm gonna say "nope, not it".
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Jan 6, 2023 20:39
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Hot drat. That July alone is more than half my entire year's electrical usage on a 1680sqft 3BR, and that's including an unusual September where we had two straight weeks of 100*F+ temperatures and I went hogwild on the AC. Kill-a-watt the servers to check them out. Check the TV just to see (but very unlikely). Look for unexpected power cords, extensions, etc, check that shed, so on and so forth. Also, get someone to come actually check your meter if you can and make sure you're not getting double-billed somehow or lined to two households? I have no idea if that's even possible, but you don't have a single month under a megawatt, which is crazy to me. Sundae fucked around with this message at 20:59 on Jan 6, 2023 |
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Jan 6, 2023 20:57
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Event the basic Emporia without individual circuit monitoring will help a lot, since you can watch a real time display of usage on your phone as you walk around the house turning things off/on.
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Jan 6, 2023 21:13
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opengl posted:Event the basic Emporia without individual circuit monitoring will help a lot, since you can watch a real time display of usage on your phone as you walk around the house turning things off/on. This is how I use my Sense as well.
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Jan 6, 2023 21:42
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Hadlock posted:In California I think, everyone pays like, $0.15/kWh up to 400, then $0.20 up to 900 and then $0.25; over 900. Very round numbers in this example obviously HAHAHAHA not even close! Around 10 years ago maybe, but not even close now. Current PGE E-1 plan tiers:  I can't even get below the mid $0.20s on the EV-1 TOU plan (currently $0.24 Off Peak). But to contribute to the actual discussion, holy hell that is a lot of power. We used 1,487 kWh last cycle (roughly same setup but in a smaller house, gas heating [so house size/winter climate really shouldn't matter appreciably], same number of electric vs. gas appliances, similar number of computers [minus an ancient supermicro], networking + UPS, trickle charger on an old truck, etc). No well pump I guess, but the big difference is we have 2 EVs, that were responsible for 640 of those kWh last cycle. So yeah, your usage is a huge standout. ROJO fucked around with this message at 22:16 on Jan 6, 2023 |
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Jan 6, 2023 22:05
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H110Hawk posted:If that's the case - call em up! Ask what mitigation the contractor should have done! "Hey, I called on X date-and-time to inquire about painting over lead paint and was told no permit needed by <name>. My licensed contractor left a bunch of lead paint chips in my dirt, are they required to capture those?" I'm in no way an expert on this, but from some projects I have been involved with over the last 10-12 years that needed remediation of leaded paint, and soils, at a minimum, the EPA requires that the contractor maintain proper control of any "debris" and dust that comes about from the process, including HEPA filters within the area being remediated, frequent spraying of surfaces that could allow the leaded material to aerosolize, etc. The projects I was involved with, they would shopvac up any debris from removal using a HEPA shopvac, followed by placing the vacuumed material in plastic bags which then get sealed and taken to a hazardous waste landfill (usually; it wouldn't surprise me at all if some jurisdictions are more lax on this). They *definitely* are not supposed to just dump the woodchips somewhere external, unless I'm misinterpreting what occurred. FWIW, when there was soil contamination, usually it would be excavated out and while that was occurring, someone would be standing by and constantly spraying the soil down to prevent any lead from going airborne. Abyss posted:It was not abatement, it was encapsulation with acrylic caulk & latex paint. Just as an FYI, encapsulation can be an EPA-approved method of abatement, as long as it follows the proper guidelines, i.e. very specific coatings with specific final dry film thicknesses. Latex paint and acrylic caulk on their own, do not necessarily meet the EPA's standard requirements for encapsulation.
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Jan 6, 2023 22:13
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ROJO posted:HAHAHAHA not even close! Around 10 years ago maybe, but not even close now. Current PGE E-1 plan tiers: That's crazy to me. My peak summer (most expensive) rate is like $0.147 /kWh, the rest of the year its less than 11 cents. I can never make the numbers for Solar work out, I'm guessing most people out there have solar with those sorts of rates.
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Jan 6, 2023 22:19
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skipdogg posted:That's crazy to me. My peak summer (most expensive) rate is like $0.147 /kWh, the rest of the year its less than 11 cents. About 45% of California homeowners have solar panels, per a quick google search. However, fewer than 1% of rental units (apartments, condos, and houses included) have solar. Rentals make up about half of all housed residents in CA. A law in 2018 made it so that you don't need your HOA's permission to put them on your standalone housing unit, but it doesn't apply to common-area shared roofs like would be the case in a condo complex. They can't outright ban you from doing it, but they can still require various roof assessments/surveys/installation requirements that make it so arduous that you don't bother, plus they can require that other units under your common roof agree to it first. Good loving luck getting that. So really, not as many as you'd think. We just pay a lot for electricity. 
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Jan 6, 2023 22:27
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skipdogg posted:That's crazy to me. My peak summer (most expensive) rate is like $0.147 /kWh, the rest of the year its less than 11 cents. The payoff period for solar is about 5-6 years out here (SoCal) for precisely that reason. A 6 kW system is anywhere from $20-25k pre-tax credit, but when you’re paying $0.55/kWh for peak usage it wears you down quick. I installed heat pumps in our new house at pretty great expense, and just to keep our house cold (66F) and not “absolutely loving freezing” costs me about $450 a month. That’s for roughly 850 kWh and about 35 therms of gas.
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Jan 6, 2023 22:28
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What the gently caress is your house made of that it costs $450 a month for a heat pump to warm it to 66F in SoCal Is it the glass house from Ex Machina I guess maybe California really is that expensive Tiny Timbs fucked around with this message at 01:22 on Jan 7, 2023 |
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Jan 7, 2023 01:19
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Jesus gently caress. I only used over a megawatt during the peak of summer. Crazy but I’m also in the Midwest and we get 55% of our power from nuclear.
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Jan 7, 2023 03:32
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illcendiary posted:The payoff period for solar is about 5-6 years out here (SoCal) for precisely that reason. A 6 kW system is anywhere from $20-25k pre-tax credit, but when you’re paying $0.55/kWh for peak usage it wears you down quick. We're in Monterey and we used 114 therms/563kWh in November and 133 therms/581kWh in December keeping the thermostat set to 55 during the day and 68-70F (it doesn't get to 68 in the house) in the evenings before bedtime around 10pm. We were at home for half of December so warmed the house a bit more during the day than we normally would. We paid $506 and $570 on E1 which is still probably the cheapest plan since we have traditional schedules. Of course it's a huge rental with old appliances, hard floors, and not a shred of insulation in the place. So far there are about 8 days in the summer I'm not freezing if I stop moving.
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Jan 7, 2023 05:20
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