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raej posted:The wife and I just bought our first house, but we've noticed something odd about some of the light fixtures in the living rooms and bar area. The bulbs are all spotlight bulbs in cans pointing down, but they'll turn on/off periodically. The sensor in the recessed fixture responsible for shutting it off when it overheats might be defective. This can be replaced separately.
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Sep 25, 2011 18:17
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grover posted:An ordinary glass of water isn't conductive enough to cause enough of a short circuit to trip a breaker under normal conditions, but can easily carry the few mA needed to trip a GFCI. The GFCI could be anywhere in the house; lazy electricians (or wanna-be electricians) feed the damnedest things fed from the damnedest places. I'd start with the ones you know about (kitchen, bathroom, garage, exterior, etc) and then start searching from there. At the risk of being obvious, it could be a GFCI or AFCI breaker, and even if it doesn't look tripped like a normal breaker does it might need to be reset.
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Oct 14, 2011 16:43
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Splizwarf posted:How do CFLs behave in dimmers? Regular CFLs and regular dimmers behave horribly together. The bulb won't dim, it will just go from full-bright to off, and you're probably shortening the bulb life enormously. Modern dimmers aren't like old rheostats, they're actually semiconductor devices that switch the power to the lamp on and off repeatedly and rapidly to keep the filament at the desired brightness level, and that's not at all good for the electronic ballast in the CFL. There are dimmable CFLs. They're more expensive than the regular ones. And even then, you need the right kind of dimmer, since the lamp uses so little power. And even then, you'll generally get an abrupt transition from ~20% brightness to 'off' or from 80% brightness to 'all the way on,' or you can get a lot of flicker at low brightness levels. Plus, as you dim an incandescent, the color spectrum shifts towards the red as the filament cools, dimmer a CF doesn't do that; the light gets dimmer but its color stays exactly the same. So, basically: not very well even if you buy the right sort of CFL bulb and stick it in the right sort of dimmer. Plus, dimming an incandescent dramatically extends bulb life (at a tradeoff in efficiency, which is already not good, but you're still reducing electricity use), it doesn't do anything good for CF bulb life. kid sinister posted:The depends on the CFL and the dimmer. Regular CFLs on the old type pot dimmers work like regular fluorescents on a dimmer: poorly. Note that old-type potentiometer dimmers are *very* old. I can't remember the last time I've seen one installed. Much less efficient and bulkier than triac dimmers, and they dissipate a *lot* of heat (Example: say you have a 100W bulb, 120V lamp. Hot filament resistance is ~140ohms, bulb's drawing about .85 amps. Now stick a rheostat in the way, set to 140 ohms. Now you've reduced the circuit amperage to about .42, circuit's consuming 50 watts of power, but only 25 watts is being dissipated by the lamp. The other 25 watts is being turned into heat by the rheostat. Far worse efficiency than even an incandescent bulb.) taqueso posted:
Even the good reviews say they dim to about 10 or 20% brightness and then go off. Or turn off if you adjust the brightness too quickly. Or flicker at low brightness. Phanatic fucked around with this message at 22:17 on Nov 10, 2011 |
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Nov 10, 2011 22:03
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Cosmik Debris posted:That's one advantage LEDs have over CFLs, insofar as you can dim them easily without sacrificing anything (and they actually use less power this way). You just use pulsewidth modulation to turn them off and on very quickly and since your brain can only process stuff at about 24 frames per second the faster they "blink" the more it looks like they're at full power and the slower they blink the more they look like they're dim, to a certain point where it then just looks like they are flickering. Your brain can perceive things at way, way faster than 24Hz. 18fps can look smooth if it's motion-blurred, and 50Hz can look choppy if the images are very sharp. Modern projectors actually flicker at 48 or 72Hz, because the 24Hz flicker from the film pulldown would be very perceptible. Lots of people can detect regular old fluorescent bulbs flickering at 60Hz. LED bulbs suffer from the same problems with dimming as CFL bulbs: you need a bulb designed to be dimmed, and you need a dimmer that matches up well with the bulb, otherwise you can get the same flickering, abrupt dim-to-off transitions, and damage to the bulb driver circuitry.
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Nov 10, 2011 22:41
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Cosmik Debris posted:that's not true, most modern dimmers are PWM It can be thought of as a form of PWM, but it's not just narrower or wider pulses of constant voltage that a PWM switched power supply delivers. What the dimmer's doing is cutting off the output to the lamp when the AC voltage crosses the 0V reference, and then only restoring it once the voltage climbs again to a certain magnitude; this is called phase-cut dimming (technically forward phase-cut, there's also reverse phase-cut where the lamp gets energized during the increasing portion of each half-wave, but for incandescent bulb loads it doesn't matter). That's fine with an incandescent, because the filament's not going to have time to cool off appreciably during the periods when it's not receiving any current from the dimmer, but LEDs can change state much faster than that, so if that's all your dimmer's doing and your bulb isn't designed with that in mind, you can get flicker. Not all LED bulbs are designed with this sort of dimmer in mind.
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Nov 11, 2011 02:35
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Solid Oak Acorn posted:This is the third thread I've tried, does anyone have any recommendations for a metal to metal adhesive? I really like this pen. EA9309.
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Nov 14, 2011 23:46
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I like turtles posted:
But if that's why it's tripping, it's doing what it's supposed to. You're going to replace it with a regular receptacle that's going to still get wet every time it rains because it's uncovered on an exterior wall, and...it won't trip now even though it's clearly being shorted. That's probably not the best solution.
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Nov 15, 2011 00:01
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you ate my cat posted:The blocks are those wavy semidecorative types, so I couldn't even drill and screw it if I wanted to. Does outdoor-strength double-sided tape exist? Putting plywood on either side of the window with foam in between and running some big lag bolts to hold them together is definitely a better idea, but yes, tape exists, it's called VHB tape. It's ridiculously strong: http://solutions.3m.com/wps/portal/3M/en_US/3M-Industrial/Adhesives/Product/Bonding-Tapes/VHB-Tape/
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Feb 9, 2012 19:26
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ThoiBoi posted:My parents have had a outstanding issue with gophers at their house. I can't testify about it personally, but the Rodenator has always looked loving awesome and I really think a goon with gopher trouble would be a trusted review: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CgztUzqaL3E
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Feb 28, 2012 05:03
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Cpt.Wacky posted:
Depends entirely on the state in question. It's a myth in regards to the two you posted; try doing that with a saguaro in Arizona, even if it's on your property, and you'll wind up in trouble with the law. Check your local laws. Not Snopes.
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May 2, 2012 19:13
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Also, that receptacle cover style isn't to-code anymore, because they're not weatherproof when a plug's inserted. if that's an outdoor receptacle you want one of these, or similar: http://www.amazon.com/MM510C-Weatherproof-Outdoor-Receptacle-Protector/dp/B001JEPX4Y
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May 30, 2012 16:12
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I rent. Condo has electric heat with an old-as-gently caress mercury-switch thermostat. I came home yesterday and the place was 84 degrees; the heater is just running constantly and nothing I can do with the thermostat will shut it off, even just turning the switch to 'off' doesn't actually do anything. I have to flip the breaker to get the thing to turn off. I'm assuming this is probably just the heater signalling that it needs a new thermostat, I've told the landlord and he's sending a guy over. Anything I can do in the meantime to correct this or verify it's just the thermostat?
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Feb 18, 2013 18:35
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I rent. I'm on the third (top) floor of my condo building. I've lived here about 6 years now, and just recently the water from the kitchen faucet started coming out aerated: it comes out cloudy, full of tiny little bubbles which dissipate from the glass in a minute or two and leave clear water. I've lived in houses where this was standard. But this didn't use to be the case with my tapwater, does it indicate some sort of leak or other issue I should tell the landlord about?
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Dec 17, 2013 18:33
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Backov posted:Have you looked on the faucet to see if there's now an aerator on it? There's an aerator on it because I put it there after the old aerator rusted out and the faucet started spraying water instead of calmly dispensing it, but the aerator doesn't aerate water to *that* extent, it doesn't come out cloudy and then take a minute to clear. Or at least it didn't before a week ago.
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Dec 17, 2013 19:45
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Bad Munki posted:I know what you're talking about, it's the sort of thing you'll see if you run the water really really hot and fill a clear glass with it, right? Yes, but the water doesn't have to be really really hot for it to happen. Like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4M7AKxh_vg
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Dec 17, 2013 20:04
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Zhentar posted:Fuses pop when they dissipate too much heat (e.g. power). The power of a resistive circuit can be calculated using P = I2R. Note there's no voltage in that formula. Resistive power is also V*I. P = I^2*R = V*I.
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May 7, 2014 17:24
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I bought a house. Inspection was fine, no significant issues. The seller put on a 30-year roof in 2007, water heater's 2010, HVAC is 2013, 200-amp electric service is just a few years old. First time I looked at it was the day after we had inches of rain, and the basement was dry as a bone. There's a french drain and a sump pump down there but the sump wasn't running, there was no water anywhere, and there were no signs of dampness or water getting in anywhere. That said, it does have these planters up against the house:  So house was built in 1947. No sign of current moisture infiltration. But there probably was at some point in the past, because otherwise why put in a french drain and a sump pump? So bottom line: should I rip all these plants out so they're not holding moisture up against the foundation, or just leave well enough alone?
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Jul 10, 2014 14:39
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In my basement, the previous homeowners had a vent cut into the AC duct. It's not a return, it's definitely a vent, and it seems like a waste of a lot of cfm just to keep the already-cool basement even cooler. Is there potential reason *not* to seal that vent up?
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Aug 7, 2014 23:20
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Bought a house/moved in August. Since then, the basement sump pump's been working wonderfully. Until the other night. Bunch of snow on the ground from a previous storm, and it was rain/freezing/rain/sleeting. That night, the sump pump started water-hammering something fierce. It'd kick on, pump quietly for maybe 20 seconds, shut off, and *THUD*, the whole outflow pipe was shaking. Repeat 5 minutes later. The next day, it was fine, quietly pumping away as per normal. What would cause one night of water hammer? I'm guessing the outflow pipe was partly blocked by an ice plug, so when the pump shut off there was a lot more water in the pipe than usual. Or totally blocked, so the pump pumped until the pipe was full and then the whole mass was left to drain back inside? Phanatic fucked around with this message at 16:43 on Mar 13, 2015 |
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Mar 13, 2015 16:37
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How would you go about hanging a picture frame in the bedroom of a 7-year-old child with ADHD in a fashion such that she can't knock it onto her head while flailing around?
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Mar 31, 2015 19:51
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Mercury Ballistic posted:With Tesla selling home Li-Ion batteries, is the idea you charge at night with cheap electricity, and power your house in the day with the battery, thus lowering your cost, or does that not make sense? It *sort* of makes sense. http://rameznaam.com/2015/04/30/tesla-powerwall-battery-economics-almost-there/#UpdatedCost quote:Here are two (make that three) ways we can calculate the LCOE of the Tesla Powerwall.
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May 4, 2015 19:05
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Found a Home Depot gift card in my trunk, I think it was a freebie thrown in by the dealer when I bought my car. Turns out to have $100 on it. I'm reasonably well set for tools, etc. But figured this'd be an interesting question: What would you buy with it?
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Jun 4, 2015 16:48
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XmasGiftFromWife posted:Sup What? Since when?
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Jun 14, 2015 00:02
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Why would your water slide involve pressures of 100psi? The incoming water pressure is not what your reservoir's going to be at, unless your reservoir is sealed and pressurized, and it can't be if it's accepting overflow from the slide.
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Jun 25, 2015 16:25
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ReagaNOMNOMicks posted:My waterslide doesn't, but my water intake does. The water pump itself handles around 1.5 bars, cause I need to pump the water high enough. Right, but your water intake is dumping into a tank of water. Your household water pressure, in your pipes, is probably 50-70psi, but the water in your toilet tank sure isn't. If the vessel where the float valve is is at 100 psi, then how is the overflow from the slide making it in there? Do you have a second pump pumping that water back into the tank?
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Jun 25, 2015 17:11
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Edit: Nevermind.
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Jun 26, 2015 03:46
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Your last tetanus shot was when?
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Jun 26, 2015 17:20
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Oct 28, 2015 20:56
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Okay, this is a bit specific. I have a Whirlpool fridge, model ET20TK. I've started getting puddles of water showing up on the shelves in the refrigerator compartment and under the bottom drawers. Some googling indicates this is fairly common, and that the drain line that leads down to the condensate pan under the unit is blocked by ice or a chunk of crud. Pull the condensate pan, yep, it's completely dry, nothing's draining into it. My problem is that the manual is useless for telling me the location of this drain line, and a visual inspection of the inside of the unit shows nothing that looks like any kind of drain, there is nothing I can find in the entire refrigerator compartment that drains anywhere. Any suggestions?
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Jan 10, 2016 21:17
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neogeo0823 posted:Per the guy at the hobby shop, I hooked it up to a single AA battery, whereby it slowly began to glow red hot, but didn't get hot enough to ignite the fuel. I then tried hooking it to a D cell battery, hoping the extra current would help, and while it did get red hot faster, it also failed to ignite the fuel. A D cell isn't going to give you any more current than an AA, it's the same voltage. A D cell just has more energy stored in it. quote:Then, I though "why not increase the voltage, as well?" and hooked it to a 9V battery, and it instantly burned itself out. I'm pretty sure I can go higher current, and maybe slightly higher voltage than the D cell to get it hotter, If 9V is too much, and 1.5V is too little, you could give 3V a try by sticking two batteries in series. Isobutane is just butane (there's no propane in there), and the autoignition temperature is 460C. Glow plugs for real grown-up diesel engines hit way hotter than that, but you're going to need a hefty power source to drive them, since they're expecting either a good several amps at 12 or 24 volts in order to hit 800C+ in about 20 seconds.
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Feb 25, 2016 22:38
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n.. posted:This is just plain wrong. Current is not voltage, and a D-cell will absolutely provide more current than an AA. Of course current isn't voltage. Cell voltage is dependent upon the battery chemistry, not upon the physical size of the cell. An alkaline AA battery is 1.5 volts, an alkaline D battery is 1.5 volts. Into the same resistance load, each battery will provide the same current. Captain Cool posted:D cells have lower internal resistance, so they can sustain higher power better than an AA. Except for that, yeah, but the difference is miniscule. Checking Energizer's data sheets, both their Ds and their AAs have the same nominal internal resistance. The difference is that a D has 18000 mAh capacity and the AA has 3000. The D can sustain higher power for longer because it stores more energy, not because it's delivering a higher current or or has a lower internal resistance. Phanatic fucked around with this message at 16:55 on Feb 26, 2016 |
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Feb 26, 2016 16:49
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FogHelmut posted:I have a section of yard covered in english ivy. I want to demolish the poo poo out of it. The thing is that it grows over/through the chain link fence separating my yard and the neighbor's yard. It's groundcover on a slope, so I don't want to kill their ivy. Goats. Goats will go through that like mad but won't eat past the fence. Probably someone in your area willing to rent out a goat or two to take care of that. You can even check Amazon (really). http://www.amazon.com/Hire-a-Goat-Grazer/dp/B00UBYDXXQ/
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Mar 18, 2016 19:24
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kid sinister posted:Yeah, you're using essentially a .22 blank to shoot a nail into concrete. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-N_UuImPL4E
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Jun 30, 2016 21:15
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The Dave posted:What's the legal path of least resistance for getting a three prong there, assuming the box isn't grounded? Get a GFCI receptacle. It will come with a little sticker that says "NO GROUND." Put that sticker on the receptacle. This will require a new faceplate.
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Sep 30, 2016 13:03
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My house is from 1947, with plaster and lathe walls. I have a section of wall in my kitchen, about 2' wide, that I'd like to install some mounts to hang pots and pans from. However, the only stud in that space is off-center in it, only about 6" from the corner. Absent some kind of wall hook that can be drilled into a stud but has a cantilever extending across the wall that I can hang a pan from, will molly bolts work? Would that support enough weight to use to hang pans? Just aluminum stuff, no cast iron or anything like that.
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Mar 5, 2017 01:08
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Jerk McJerkface posted:
Or just put a dab of opaque epoxy over half of the LEDs. Maybe they'll overheat and fail but oh well you were going to replace it anyway.
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Mar 9, 2017 18:10
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TooMuchAbstraction posted:As it turns out gas and electric are pretty close in terms of efficiency (scroll down to the summary table). Gas is a bit more efficient if your electricity comes from burning fossil fuels (if your electricity is renewable, then electricity is significantly better than gas), but they're in the same ballpark. Electricity is easier to deploy -- no need to run gas lines -- but doesn't have the instant on/off that gas does (mostly only relevant for the stovetop). I think the question is less about overall thermal efficiency than it is about cost-efficiency. For example, to heat your house in the winter with electric heaters is pretty much close to 100% efficient: every joule of electrical energy flowing into the heater is actually turning into heat in your house. But that's going to be way more expensive than gas heat, because the heat you get from burning gas is a lot cheaper than the heat you get by forcing electrons to heat up a resistor. Average cost for 3.6 megajoules of electricity in my state is 13.6 cents. Average price for natural gas in my state is $1.14/100 cubic feet. 100 cubic feet = 100,000 BTUs = 105 megajoules, so 3.6 megajoules worth of natural gas costs about 4 cents. Both the electric tankless heater and the gas tankless heater are probably roughly as efficient in actually turning the energy input into hot water, but on the output side hot water from the electric system is going to be about 3x as expensive as hot water from the gas system. I think that's what he meant by efficiency.
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May 18, 2017 19:13
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Astonishing Wang posted:Are you staying there's a federal law that doesn't allow you to cut down a tree with a bird in it? Several Federal laws, depending on the species. Endangered Species Act and the Migratory Bird Act would be the two big ones.
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Jul 7, 2017 21:42
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kid sinister posted:What if they're little bastards and all they do is poo poo on my car? Shoot, shovel, and shut up.
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Jul 8, 2017 02:06
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Edit: Nevermind.
Phanatic fucked around with this message at 14:46 on Oct 4, 2017 |
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Oct 3, 2017 00:50
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